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.