The 2012 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Capitel Monte Olmi shows huge intensity over a robust mouthfeel. I love that eucalyptus balsamic note that comes up at the top, rounded off by softer notes of chocolate and tobacco. The blend is 30% Corvina, 30% Corvinone, 30% Rondinella and a 10% selection of Oseleta, Negrara, Dindarella, Croatina and Forselina. Aging takes place in large Slavonian oak casks. This is a powerful, full-bodied wine with a knockout 17% alcohol punch that makes no apologies for its strength. It comes forward with pride and boastfulness. This wine will hold for a decade or more. Drink date: 2019-2036. Score - 95. (Monica Larner, robertparker.com, Aug. 30, 2019)

For 400 years, the Tedeschi family has been crafting wines based on the Valpolicella blend. A recent foray into other signature grapes of the Venezie region has proven quite fruitful, as evidenced by this brisk, easy-drinking Pinot Grigio offering aromas of lemon zest, cantaloupe, and crushed stone.

Lush cherries and plums dominate on the nose of this Valpolicella, with hints of bay leaves and pepper. The juicy, medium-bodied palate shows chewy acidity and tight, chalky, crunchy tannins. Savory in the finish. Drink or hold. Score - 90. (jamessuckling.com, April 1, 2025)

The top-shelf wine from the Tedeschi family is their 2015 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva la Fabriseria. The wine is a careful assembly of 40% Corvina, 40% Corvinone, 15% Rondinella and 5% Oseleta, all aged in oak for 48 months. The appassimento process has produced a powerful and muscular wine (with 16.5% alcohol) that opens to thick layers of black fruit, prune, dried cherry, spice, mesquite smoke, iron and sweet rum cake. With only 2,500 bottles made, this full-bodied, blockbuster wine is a lesson in all the beautiful excesses that extreme Amarone has to offer. Drink date: 2024-2045. Score - 96. (Monica Larner, robertparker.com, Dec. 16, 2021)

A hailstorm devastated production in 2015, so 2016 becomes the first vintage of Maternigo Amarone Classico Riserva - and there won't be a 2017 or 2018. From the low-vigour Barila vineyard on the Maternigo estate to the east of the denomination, the grapes were picked just before perfect ripeness to retain freshness. The wine is the result of 100 days of grape drying, followed by a long 40-day fermentation and 90-day maceration, then 48 months in Slavonian oak and 12 months in bottle. Spicy, woody black cherry, blueberry jam and coffee scents are joined by deep, rich, earthy and almost-jammy flavours, with cocoa and damson. Round and extremely fresh with a persistent finish, this is by no means a shrinking violet yet has the balance to match its considerable concentration and heft. Drinking window: 2024-2037. Score - 97. (James Button, decanter.com, Sept. 10, 2023)