Guerrieri Rizzardi Clos Roareti 2021

Description

Guerrieri Rizzardi Clos Roareti 2021 is the latest addition to the portfolio from the Guerrieri Rizzardi winery. I had resisted taking on another of their wines for some time as I already stock a few. These include the beautiful Soave Costeggiola and the fruity Delara Bardolino. Nonetheless, I could not resist this vintage of Clos Roareti, a 100% single vineyard Merlot produced in the Valpolicella area.

This wine is intended to pay homage to Bordeaux’s right-bank Merlot-dominant wines but with an Italian accent. Its richness and smooth texture do indeed bring to mind the great Bordeaux right-bank wines like St Emilion and Pomerol. Guerrieri Rizzardi Clos Roareti 2021 is a concentrated wine that smells and tastes of black fruits. These include blackberries, cherries, dark plums, and cassis with some notes of blackcurrant leaf, liquorice, and spices.

The wine is aged in oak for a year. However, only 25% is aged in new oak barrels, so the oak influence is in the structure and texture more than in the flavours of the wine. The tannins are there but soft and integrated in this well-balanced – and delicious wine.

Named Cru Rovereti and surrounded by ancient walls on the family’s Valpolicella estate, the vineyard from which this wine comes is known in the local dialect as Clos Roareti. Its deep, clay soil with limestone and rich in magnesium, zinc, and iron, is ideally suited to Merlot. Yields are kept low and the grapes healthy to ensure top-quality wine. In fact, this wine is only produced in years that the Merlot is at its best.