Corvina Wine

The lead grape of Valpolicella and Amarone — light-to-medium, low in tannin and high in acidity, with sour-cherry fruit. Dried into Amarone it becomes rich and raisiny; fresh, it’s bright and food-friendly.

The grape with three personalities

Corvina is the heartbeat of Valpolicella, the hills north of Verona in Italy’s Veneto. What makes it fascinating for a beginner is that the same grape, in the same place, becomes several completely different wines depending on what the winemaker does to it — from a light, cheerful red to one of the world’s richest, most powerful dry reds.

On its own, Corvina is pale, light-to-medium bodied, low in tannin and high in acidity, with sour-cherry fruit, a hint of dried herbs and an almond twist. It’s bright, sour-edged and very food-friendly rather than big and bold.

Its magic trick is that it dries beautifully. Grapes left to shrivel into raisins concentrate everything, which is the secret behind Amarone. Corvina is almost always blended with local partners like Rondinella and Corvinone, but it’s the grape that gives the wines their character.

Styles to know

This is the key to understanding Corvina — one grape, four wines, from lightest to richest:

Valpolicella (classico): The everyday version — light, fresh, low-tannin, high-acid, all sour cherry and herbs. Serve slightly cool; it’s almost a “red for white-wine drinkers.”

Ripasso (“baby Amarone”): A middle ground — fuller, rounder and warmer than basic Valpolicella with a touch of dried-fruit richness, and great value. The clever technique behind it is explained in the next section.

Amarone della Valpolicella: The grand wine — rich, full-bodied, high in alcohol (15–16%+) and packed with dried cherry, fig, chocolate and spice, yet finished bone dry. It’s made by drying the grapes first; how and why that works is covered next.

Recioto della Valpolicella: Made from the same dried grapes as Amarone, but fermentation is stopped early to leave it sweet — a lush, port-like dessert red, and historically the original Valpolicella style.

What shapes it — appassimento explained

The one technique that defines Corvina’s grand wines is appassimento (“drying”). After harvest, whole bunches are laid out in airy lofts for roughly three to four months, losing around a third of their weight in water. As the grapes shrivel, sugar, flavour and tannin all concentrate — the engine behind both Amarone and sweet Recioto.

Why Corvina suits it: its reasonably tough skins and loose, open bunches resist rot during the long, slow dry, so the fruit shrivels cleanly rather than spoiling.

How Ripasso is made (“passed over again”): an ingenious shortcut where ordinary Valpolicella is pumped over the still-warm, sugar-rich Amarone pomace (the leftover skins). A second small fermentation kicks off, lending the lighter wine extra body, colour and a hint of Amarone’s dried-fruit depth — hence the “baby Amarone” nickname, without the cost of drying a whole separate crop.

The acid backbone: what ties all four styles together is Corvina’s naturally high acidity. Even at full Amarone richness it keeps the wine lively rather than jammy — the grape’s quiet superpower.

Good to know

Food: Light Valpolicella loves pizza, charcuterie and tomato pasta. Amarone is a winter, fireside wine — pair it with braised beef, aged cheese (Parmigiano, Gorgonzola) or even on its own as a “meditation” wine.

Serving Amarone: Its high alcohol means it shows best decanted and not too warm (around 16–18°C); over-warm, the alcohol turns hot.

Aging: Basic Valpolicella is for drinking young and fresh. Good Amarone, by contrast, can age 10–20 years, turning ever more savoury and complex.

Dry but rich: Amarone is technically dry yet tastes opulent and almost sweet, thanks to all that concentrated fruit and high alcohol — don’t confuse it with the genuinely sweet Recioto made from the same dried grapes.