Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - This wine is based on Campolieti Valpolicella Superiore, which is fermented and aged in stainless steel. After the raisined grapes destined for the Amarone are pressed, the remaining grape pomace is transferred to some tanks containing Campolieti Valpolicella and these wines become Campolieti Ripasso. These wines are aged for a year in small barrique barrels and larger Slavonian oak casks. 4 g/l residual sugar. Tasted blind.

Quite opaque black cherry color. Quite bold and somewhat sweet nose of ripe black cherries, chocolate-driven oak spice, succulent plummy fruit, some ripe and almost jammy blackcurrants, a little bit of vanilla, a hint of sweet figs and a touch of cocoa. Too much oak here. The wine is juicy, full-bodied and rather soft on the palate with flavors of sweet cocoa oak, vanilla, some ripe figgy fruit, a little bit of cherry marmalade and a touch of dark chocolate bitterness. Boderate acidity and very soft, almost nonexistent tannins. The finish is juicy with medium-long flavors of juicy dark berries, some oak spice, a little bit of cherry marmalade and a hint of vanilla. As the other flavors fade, a subtle touch of oaky milk chocolate lingers on.

Ugh. Horribly over-oaked monster Ripasso. Although there are some fruit notes, the excessive oak character turns them too sweet and jammy. Overall there seems to be pretty little of any complexity here as the heavy-handed oaking overwhelms most of the nuances and the wine just tastes of milk chocolate and vanilla. Although the wine shows moderate acidity, this is still pretty undrinkable if you don't happen to love oak. I really can't see why someone would want to hide their fruit flavors under this much wood. Overpriced at 12,99€.

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