The Marion 2017 Amarone della Valpolicella does not beat around the bush. This is a full-bodied red blend made with air-dried fruit. A hot growing season further intensifies this wine that ended up with a powerful 16% alcohol content. There is blackberry confit, cooked cherry, exotic spice and smoky tar or road paving. A lot of that intensity is delivered up front, and the palate is far more subdued and balanced. This is a 10,000-bottle release.

This is a terrific bottle from Marion and one that I enthusiastically recommend for drinking out of the gate, or for aging. The 2016 Amarone della Valpolicella, made with Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella (and aged in large Slavonian casks for 30 months), is a full and generous wine that reveals special elegance and finesse. The bouquet is layered and deep with wild cherry, rose hip, earthy tones, forest floor, spice and dried tobacco. It shows balance over a silky, tapered mouthfeel with length and polished streamlined intensity. Some 10,000 bottles were released.

This soft and creamy Amarone features herb and smoke accents, layered with date and sun-dried cherry fruit and cocoa powder and loamy earth notes. Medium-bodied, with lightly chewy tannins on the moderate finish. Drink now through 2020. 600 cases made, 100 cases imported.??–AN??Region: Italy / Amarone della Valpolicella Select to Add

Marion's 2009 Amarone della Valpolicella is a distinctive wine with its own set of floral aromas that I have not seen in other wines of the area. The bouquet opens to beautifully feminine tones of red rose petal and musky lavender. The pristine and immediate aromatic delivery is outstanding. So is the extreme elegance and tonic firmness of the mouthfeel. This Amarone is still young, so give it a few more years to complete its evolution.

The leader of the pack in terms of stylistic expression, the 2008 Amarone della Valpolicella is a beautiful wine that remains fiercely true to its Valpolicella roots. In a group tasting of Marion’s reds, this wine occupies its own universe in terms of personality and distinguishing aromatic characteristics. Tones of spice, overripe fruit and dried apple skin make you feel like you are talking to a local in his or her native dialect. This is an authentic, territory-driven wine with budding tertiary aromas of resin, cigar box and dried cedar-wood. Drink 2014-2022. At the end of a long, cypress-lined drive is magic Marion. More than anyone else (including much bigger names), Stefano and Nicoletta Campedelli represent the purest expression of non-Classico Amarone that I know. Located in Marcellise in the eastern part of Valpolicella, their wines show a charmingly wild, crisp and edgy quality that you don’t find in the nearby Valpolicella Classico zone. Stefano is an accidental winemaker: He started out by producing gift bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon to give to guests at his 1993 wedding. His gift keeps on giving. Importer: Omniwines Distributing, www.omniwines.com