Mezzadro Alla Fontana Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva 2011 was awarded a brilliant 96 points by Decanter in 2021. The wine was presented for the Decanter Award tasing, and will be officially launched during Vinitaly in April 2022.

The wine is the ultimate expression of the family’s oenological vision and the result of the historical collaboration with local winegrowers. The Farina family has maintained equitable and fruitful relationships with winegrowers owning some of the most prized vineyards in several communes of the Valpolicella Classica. Ever since Claudio and Elena Farina took over the winery in 2000, they built the know-how and winemaking team able to realize their vision of the super premium Amarone that would become a tribute to these winegrowers.

They would have to wait for the excellent 2011 vintage to produce the first wine. From Negrar to Sant’Ambrogio, to San Pietro in Cariano, Farina made a cuvée selection of the most distinctive and intense characteristics within the winegrowers’ finest parcels – historical collaborations with the Farina family that have always represented the noblest soils – basalts, gravels, limestones, with optimal exposures.

The bunches, harvested by hand, are dried and vinified separately in stainless steel and then in concrete vats before creating the final blend, which, for the 2011 Riserva, is Raven, Swallow, Molinara, and Croatian. Maturation begins for 24 months in rare French and American barriques, followed by 36 months in large Slavonian oak barrels before prolonged refinement in the bottle.

The structure and balance of the wine is sustained by the pivotal acidity that winemaker Andrea Zerman looks to obtain in all Farina wines. The result is a wine that is richly dense and full bodied while presenting remarkable freshness and finesse even after over a decade of maturation. Intriguing aromas and flavors flux and evolve over the course of hours after opening, a hallmark quality of great wines.

“Mezzadro alla Fontana – Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva 2011” – 3,000 bottles produced. Presented in preview to the most authoritative guides and critics, it also collected excellent reviews: Mundus Vini Summer Tasting Best of Show, Wine Hunter Award 2021 Gold, James Suckling 92 points.

Elena Farina, co-owner and responsible for administration and hospitality, tells the genesis of the name of the wine: “To communicate our company identity, we needed to draw on our peasant history to give shape to the visceral bond that the Farina family has with the land. Among papers, books, and old photos, we were drawn to the phrase “Mezzadro alla Fontana” – (sharecropper at the fountain). In it, I see the soul of a peasant – and I feel it in our DNA – a value to own, not because we believe we are winemakers, but to define our character and our profound relationship with the Valpolicella Classica.”

Claudio adds, "We are an earnest family where actions speak louder than words – where loyalty and honesty are fundamental values at the basis of any healthy and united community. Our most prestigious wine is a tribute to our community of “vinegrowers” and a nod to the sharecropping past that unites the heritage of most families in Valpolicella. Do not misunderstand. This is not the Amarone of yesteryear. It is the Amarone that best expresses our relationship with the land and our oenological vision.”

“Mezzadro alla Fontana – Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva 2011” – 3,000 bottles produced. Presented in preview to the most authoritative guides and critics, it has already collected excellent reviews: Decanter Gold 2021 – 96 points, Mundus Vini Summer Tasting Best of Show, Wine Hunter Award 2021 Gold, James Suckling 92 points.