Dal Forno Romano, Veneto Recioto, 1988 (1.5L)

Name: Dal Forno Romano, Veneto Recioto, 1988 (1.5L)
Brand: Private
SKU: NYC-[PVT]-PVT-GFCELL-051926-DFRVR198815L-ROW831-BOX 132/305
Price: 999.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Dessert Wine from Veneto, Italy

by Dal Forno Romano

$999.00

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Recioto della Valpolicella is the original sweet wine of the Veneto, made from grapes dried for months until concentrated and raisined, and Romano Dal Forno makes it only in exceptional vintages with near-fanatical precision. This is the 1988, in large-format magnum, from a private collection, and it is fully mature. Nearly four decades have transformed the wine, trading primary sweetness for tertiary depth: dried fig, prune, leather, and bittersweet chocolate. A magnum of this age and rarity is a collector's piece. Drink it now, slowly. Provenance from a private cellar.

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Robert Parker

96 points

"The 1988 Recioto is a mindboggling effort from Dal Forno Romano. After the grapes were air-dried for six months on straw mats, this wine was aged three years in 100% new French oak casks. Although outrageously expensive, it represents the essence of this style of wine. It is off-dry rather than sweet, with a dark garnet color, and a nose of smoke, prunes, over-ripe plums, hickory wood, and chocolate. Extremely full-bodied and exceptionally rich, with some residual sugar, this wine has been blazingly well-defined by its sojourn in new oak casks. Remarkably, the wine has soaked up its eighteen months in new oak as there is not a hint of vanillin or pain grille notes in either its aromas or flavors. This legendary Recioto should drink well for 2-3 decades." —Robert M. Parker, Jr.

More about Dal Forno Romano

Romano Dal Forno does not make Valpolicella the way anyone else does, and that is precisely the point. Working outside the Classico heartland, in the Val d'Illasi east of Verona, he set out to prove that this "lesser" valley could produce some of the most concentrated, age-worthy reds in Italy. It did.

Romano started bottling his own wine in 1983, frustrated by the low prices his family's grapes fetched, and with encouragement from the great Giuseppe Quintarelli. Everything since has been about extremes. Vines are planted at densities of up to 12,800 per hectare and cropped hard. Grapes are dried in vast rooms where fans run around the clock, for about six weeks for the Valpolicella Superiore from the Monte Lodoletta vineyard and about three months for the Amarone. The blend is Corvina-led with Rondinella, Croatina and Oseleta; Romano famously banished Molinara. The wines then spend about two years in new French oak and years more in bottle before release. His sons Marco, Luca and Michele now work alongside him.

The range is tiny: Valpolicella Superiore, Amarone and, in rare vintages only, a sweet red passito, Vigna Serè (plus a rare dried-Garganega white called Nettare). Expect enormous, dark, polished wines that need time and air. These are bottles for a night that deserves one.

Wine Details

Grape Variety

Corvina , Molinara , Rondinella
Vintage

1988
Size

1.5L
Farming Practice

Traditional

Flatiron's Take

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Tasting Notes & Food Pairings

Perfect Pairings

Aged Parmigiano, dark chocolate, hazelnut desserts, or as a contemplative pour on its own.

Tasting Profile

A mature sweet red: dried fig, prune, leather, and bittersweet chocolate, with the original sugar mellowed into something complex and savory after decades in bottle.