2021 Gran Passione Rosso Veneto 750 ml

Poured at some of the toniest restaurants in London, including spots that boast award-winning wine programs, the Gran Passione Rosso Veneto has become a MONSTER hit among sommeliers.  

This “Baby Amarone” encapsulates the charms of one of Italy’s richest, boldest reds, and is made with the same labor-intensive—and flavor-intensive—appassimento method that produces benchmark $100 bottlings. Yet this 2021 release, awarded 97 points by Italian wine authority Luca Maroni, runs for a tiny fraction of that.

Gran Passione is a label created by Botter Family Winery, founded in 1928 and currently run by third-generation winemakers. With Gran Passione, they set out to bottle a series of wines that would nod to the historic tradition of winemaking in Veneto.

It’s here in northeast Italy that winemakers perfected their own regional variation of the appassimento technique, which dates back to ancient Greece. The basic premise is to dry grapes off the vines, intensifying sugars, aromas, flavors, and—crucially, to maintain balance—acids. 

The classic Veneto method involves drying grapes in fruttai—spacious, airy warehouses where bunches rest in boxes over the course of several months, slowly adding layers of complexity with time. It’s this method that gives Amarone its epic concentration, often punctuated by a deliciously bitter aftertaste.

The 2021 Gran Passione Rosso Veneto was fashioned from a combination of Corvina and Merlot. For grapes to dry correctly, bunches must be in perfect health, which is why the Botter winemakers employ organic farming techniques and two rounds of hand-harvesting.

A food-friendly, crowd-pleasing, soul-warming red wine you can grab at a moment’s notice, it’s an incredible bargain.