Mora Estate owner and winemaker Fabiano Ramaci claims to be the only California winemaker making Amarone-style wine from the traditional Italian grape varieties.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
On a hot October morning at a small Sebastopol vineyard, Fabiano Ramaci clipped plump grape clusters from what he called a “mystery row” of vines, interplanted with nine varieties indigenous to northern Italy’s Veneto region — such as Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara — that are sparsely planted in California.
Ramaci hand-selected the best-looking, most hydrated clusters, and carefully laid each in a single layer inside a small plastic bin. He then transported more than 40 bins, carrying roughly a quarter ton of grapes, to Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa, where he makes wine for his brand Mora Estate. But the grapes weren’t headed for the press. Instead, he brought them up to a small loft and stacked the bins on top of others he harvested two and five weeks ago. The grapes were less round, and their skins had begun to dimple and raisin — exactly what Ramaci needs to make his Italian-style Amarone della Valpolicella.
This renowned wine is made using an ancient, labor-intensive technique called appassimento. Grapes are laid on racks and dried — today, in a temperature-controlled room with large fans that generate airflow to prevent rot — for roughly 120 days. (Ramaci dries his grapes for 60-90 days.) During this drying process, the shriveling grapes lose 50% of their moisture, resulting in extremely concentrated flavors and sugars. Appassimento is rarely done in the U.S. and Ramaci claims to be the only California winemaker making Amarone-style wine from the traditional Italian grape varieties.
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The original wines made using the appassimento technique, called Recioto during Roman times, were sweet. Dry appassimento wines were originally considered a mistake — the fermentation went too long, converting all the sugar to alcohol — because dry wines weren’t in style. Tastes eventually shifted, and Amarone was adopted for the dry appassimento style in the 1930s. These wines tend to be big and brooding (sometimes above 16% alcohol by volume), rich and concentrated, with flavors like tobacco, leather, dried fruit and baking spices. Yet Ramaci said there’s been a movement in Italy to make Amarones that have “finesse and elegance,” and that’s the style he’s going for. “The wine drinks more like a Burgundy,” he said. “Corvina, the primary grape for Amarone, is a distant cousin to Pinot.”
Fabiano Ramaci hand-picks the best, most hydrated clusters of heritage Italian grapes for his take on Amarone, which he calls Valporone.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Ramaci, a former restaurateur who owned Concerto on Clement St. in San Francisco for a decade, started Mora Estate 25 years ago in his garage. He had grown up tasting fine Italian wines at his family’s San Francisco restaurant, La Traviata — which catered to opera stars — and remembers tasting Amarone when he was as young as 14. “Something about Amarone was fascinating to me. It was very intriguing,” he said, and while he loves Barolo, “Nebbiolo doesn’t grow great here.”
Yet Amarone posed its own challenges: Ramaci needed to source the indigenous grapes of Italy’s historic Valpolicella wine region, a sub-region of Veneto that’s located in the hills outside of Verona. He worked with UC Davis and other institutions to acquire cuttings for all nine varieties, but because he didn’t own land, he had to convince wine growers to plant them. “I was turned down so many times in the beginning,” he said. “People just wanted to plant Cabernet and Merlot back then.”
Ramaci kept asking and today, his cuttings are planted at four vineyards in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Russian River. Just as only sparkling wines produced in France’s Champagne region can be called “Champagne,” Ramaci can’t legally call his wine Amarone; instead, he coined the term Valporone, a portmanteau of Valpolicella and Amarone. While he waits for the grapes to dry, he’s busy during harvest season making other wines, like his Rosato ($40), a rosé made with Corvina and some Ribolla Gialla (for added aromatics), inspired by the flavor profile of Provence’s famed, food-friendly Bandol. For that wine, Ramaci partially treads the grapes with his feet to help the color develop before running them through the press.
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The grape-drying process, known as appassimento, traditionally takes up to 120 days; Ramaci dries his for 30-60 days in a temperature-controlled room with large fans that generate airflow to prevent rot.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Ramaci also makes a wine called Valpo, an iteration of Valpolicella Ripasso, the region’s lighter, more affordable wine, also known as “baby Amarone.” Priced at $55, it features the same Italian grape varieties as the Valporone, but they aren’t dried. The resulting wine is still rich and complex, though easier drinking (just 12.5% ABV), with higher acid than the Amarone. To give it “a little more oomph,” Ramaci has adopted the traditional Valpolicella Ripasso technique of putting the wine through a short second fermentation on the previous year’s leftover Amarone grape skins, which bring in more tannin and color.He also adds a smidge of Cabernet Franc, which his Valpolicella mentor recommended.
Mora produces a handful of other wines, including a port, plus a line of grappas, which Ramaci also makes with the pomace that’s a byproduct of the Amarone process. One of his grappas, infused with violets, has an ethereal purple hue. Also an artist, he hand-paints every bottle — except the Rosato, because the paint gets messed up when the bottle is chilled — with bright, colorful swipes of his brush.
Ramaci will return to the winery in December or January, during the quiet season, to crush and ferment his Amarone grapes (with all varieties blended together, not separated), then leave the juice in contact with the skins and seeds for an extended maceration — up to 60 days — to lock in freshness and develop layers of flavor and structure. Because it’s not harvest, “nobody needs the tank, so I can take my time,” he said. “There’s no rush.”
The wine, aged in barrels for 18-24 months, ends up at about 14.5% alcohol. At $125, it’s priced like a Napa Cabernet, though one could argue it’s a good value given the time it takes to make.
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An artist, Fabiano Ramaci hand-paints the bottles of most of his wines: Valpo, Rosato and Valporone.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Mora wines have made the list at some of the Bay Area’s top restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Atelier Crenn, French Laundry and Enclos. But Ramaci — who is launching tastings for the first time at Paradise Ridge — admits that even after 25 years of making Amarone, it remains largely unknown and misunderstood here. “It’s just a matter of time before people recognize what I’m doing,” he said, noting that climate change could popularize the appassimento technique, as grapes are picked earlier than usual so that they have high acidity going into the drying process.
“With our world and our climates changing, some areas are not ripening anymore,” Ramaci said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next 10-15 years, this becomes a more common technique.”
Dining and Cooking