The house grapes · red

Corvina: the grape of Amarone and Valpolicella

Corvina is a red grape from Verona, in northeastern Italy, and the most planted in Valpolicella. It's the base of Valpolicella, Amarone and Bardolino, the latter on the shores of Lake Garda. On its own, it makes a ruby-colored red with a cherry aroma and a fresh sip, with tannin that doesn't weigh you down. Its most famous trick happens after the harvest: the bunches rest for months, drying, before they become Amarone, a powerful dry red.

517 labels in the search have Corvina91 made from Corvina alonefrom Argentina and Italy

Where it comes from

Corvina is Italian, from the Verona area, in the Veneto. In VIVC, the international grape catalog, its main name is Corvina Veronese, a red grape originating in Italy. Its parents don't appear in the passport, but the catalog records that it has parent-offspring links with other grapes. In Veronese dialect, it's Cruina, a name that even the Amarone rules write in parentheses.

Italy's official grape register describes a berry with a thick, very tough blue-violet skin, covered by a thin whitish layer (the bloom). And it makes a remark that explains a lot: the grape keeps well both on the vine and in the fruttaio, the airy shed where the bunches dry. It's this firm skin that holds up through months of drying without spoiling.

What it's like in the glass

In everyday Valpolicella, the consortium describes aromas of cherry, bitter almond and rose, and a fresh, dry sip, with pleasant tannin and a slight bitterness at the end. Ruby color, turning garnet (a more brick-toned red) with time. It's a lively red, the kind that whets your appetite. It's not a red that impresses with weight, but with freshness.

In Bardolino, near the lake, Corvina becomes a light, fresh red, with restrained alcohol and soft tannin, according to the local consortium. In Amarone, with the dried grapes, it's a different story: the wine comes out dry, high in alcohol and full-bodied, which the consortium describes with notes of coffee, flowers, fruit and spice. The same grape goes from a red to drink with snacks to a red for meditation.

A vine leaf, a bunch of red grapes and a glass of Corvina wine. — fig. 1From the bunch to the glass: cherry and bitter almond in Valpolicella; after months drying in the shed, it becomes Amarone.

What it pairs with

It depends on which Corvina is in your glass. Valpolicella and Bardolino go well with cold cuts, pizza, pasta with a light sauce, roast chicken and even a fattier fish; served slightly chilled, they handle the Brazilian summer. Ripasso takes on lasagna, roast meat and semi-cured cheese. Amarone calls for pot roast, lamb, stews and well-aged cheese, and the consortium points out that it's also good on its own, as a meditation wine, to sip slowly. Recioto, which is sweet, goes with chocolate, cake and cheese. It's a suggestion: if you liked it with something else, your taste is what counts.

Where it shines today

In Valpolicella, it rules: the consortium says Corvina makes up 56% of the denomination's grapes, followed by Rondinella and Corvinone. The Amarone rules call for 45% to 95% Corvina and/or Corvinone and 5% to 30% Rondinella, with up to 25% of other grapes. Almost half of the region's bottles are Valpolicella Ripasso, and about a quarter are Amarone and Recioto.

In Bardolino, on the eastern side of Lake Garda, the rules call for 35% to 95% Corvina, with up to 20% Corvinone in its place, and 5% to 40% Rondinella. The same place gives Chiaretto di Bardolino, the local rosé. Outside Verona, Corvina is rare: in Brazil, Embrapa's register recorded a fraction of a hectare in Rio Grande do Sul in 2012.

Its other names

VIVC lists 25 synonyms for Corvina Veronese, such as Corvina, Cruina, Corvina Nostrana, Corvina Comune and Crovina. Now, pay attention: Corvinone is not a nickname for it. In VIVC, Corvinone Veronese has its own passport, with a different number, meaning it's a different grape. That's why the Amarone rules write “Corvina and/or Corvinone”: the two can share the same slice of the wine, but they're different plants.

Grapes that rest before becoming wine

Amarone starts with the harvest, but the wine is only born months later. The bunches of Corvina and the other grapes rest in the fruttaio for 100 to 120 days, says the consortium, and in that time they lose water and concentrate sugar and flavor. The Amarone rules say that, as a rule, the dried grapes only become wine from December 1 on (the Veneto can move that earlier when the weather demands it), they must reach at least 14% potential alcohol, and the wine ages for at least two years.

The same dried grapes give Recioto, which the consortium calls Amarone's ancestor: fermentation is stopped to keep sugar, and the wine comes out sweet. And there's Ripasso, the middle ground: Valpolicella ferments again on the skins left over from Amarone and Recioto, and gains more alcohol and more body. Three wines, one grape, a shed full of bunches.

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Corvina is the grape that knows how to be light and how to be grand. Start with a Valpolicella and a pizza and, on a special day, sip an Amarone slowly, to feel what drying does to it.

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