Current rules require producers to harvest at 11% potential alcohol before air drying to at least 14% potential but most go well beyond these levels. Harvest date is critical for sugar but also acidity, which is likewise concentrated (and modified) by appassimento. Grapes for Amarone are typically harvested about a month before those for Valpolicella and, despite Corvina’s naturally late ripening, harvest dates have been creeping earlier, sitting at about mid-September. However, a few producers like Collina dei Ciliegi and Damoli have instead been waiting to harvest until October, one advantage of which is that chillier temperatures allow for naturally slow appassimento without artificial cooling. These styles are generally very opulent, though complex.

Read more: The Amarone della Valpolicella Report 2023

Vinification cannot start until 1 December, effectively meaning grapes must get at least 75 days’ appassimento. In reality, few producers end appassimento at 75. At least 90 days is the low end for producers in our report (Massimago, Roccolo Callisto, Villa San Carlo, Zýmē); these wines are typically redder fruited and cleaner in their profile, sometimes with more pepperiness. Others (including Sabaini) reached nearly five months (around 150 days). When I visited the iconic Quintarelli in early February this year, many racks in their fruttaio were still laden with grapes, while Dal Forno’s were completely empty.

However, appassimento is not a simple, linear process; stopping early is not the obvious win it might seem. Few have researched appassimento as exhaustively as the Masi Technical Group; their annual seminars (now in their 34^th edition) are closely watched. Research undertaken in 1998 focused on the unique impact of appassimento on Valpolicella’s native varieties (particularly Corvina and Corvinone), which they hypothesised was due to their comparatively slow dehydration rate thanks to skin thickness, bunch shape etc. Their 2014 research underlined the importance of slower, extended appassimento: slow-dried Corvina bunches produced substantially more aromatic precursors than fast-dried versions and even slow-drying only produced a substantial increase in differential genetic expression (and hence precursors) after about 90 days, suggesting even curtailing a ‘slow’ appassimento could sacrifice some complexity.

Masi’s research has also put a spotlight on the role of botrytis, much more common in “slow” appassimento where humidity is typically higher. Many of the first ‘modern’ producers (Allegrini, Speri) banished botrytis by using looser bunches, spacing them out on the drying racks and constantly monitoring them during the humid autumns; this clean-fruited profile remains popular. However, as many producers, who see appassimento as an element of terroir, consciously return to nature-driven methods (like Massimago, with their ‘Japanese-inspired’, naturally ventilated fruttaio set in the vineyards), botrytis may be less carefully controlled and come to play a more central role again, tamping down fruit and bringing bitter almond and mushroom characters.

Though, as is so often the case in Italy, it’s hard to find a single, cohesive trend, it seems likely appassimento times will continue to compress; Master of Wine and Valpolicella Consorzio Vice President Andrea Lonardi agreed appassimento times are trending downward, with 90 days fast becoming the norm. However, they seem unlikely to dip much below 90, especially since the experimental Valpolicella Superiore category, which allows fresh, partially dried and fully dried grapes, gives producers an outlet for unorthodox styles. Because of appassimento’s unique contribution to Amarone’s complexity, producers might instead have to look to the vineyard to try to slow ripening enough to leave space for appassimento to work its magic without supersizing the wines.