Villa Erbice Valpolicella Ripasso Italy

Villa Erbice delivers a rich wine that almost matches its big brother the Amarone. Toasted oak, prune and tobacco with Marasca cherry and dark fruit overlaying a luscious fruit finish.

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So, what is Ripasso? It’s a half-way house between cherry red Valpolicella and deep rich Amarone. The Italians wanted to add oomph to their Valpolicella and discovered after pressing the dried grapes for Amarone, there was plenty of rich grape skins leftover and winemakers began using these in a second fermentation of Valpolicella. Thus Ripasso, meaning “re-pass” or “go over again” was given its own DOC in 2007.

The Erbice Ripasso is “repassed” over the Amarone skins of the same vintage for one week in January and then aged for 18 months in French oak barrels and for 6 months in the bottle before release.