100% Merlot!  If you’ve ever been to Lake Garda, you don’t need us to tell you how beautiful it is.  This is truly one of the most gorgeous, genteel parts of Italy.  Most don’t, however, associate Lake Garda with wine, but the hills around the lake, part of the Bardolino and Valpolicella appellations, are teeming with it and have been producing rich, aromatic reds for centuries.  One of the oldest and most esteemed properties in the lake region is Guerrieri Rizzardi, an ancient union of two families, the former of which invested in land in Valdadige, north of Verona.  Then, in 1913, that estate was merged with a second when Giuseppina Guerrieri married Carlo Rizzardi.  All this is to say that between the two families, they now farm estates in both Valpolicella, Bardolino and further east in Soave too.  In the former estate, they grow only red wine- the traditional grapes of the region used to help make their famous Amarone delle Valpolicella as well as a small parcel of Merlot, a grape particularly suited to the moderate climate and red clay soil of these hills.  Normally the Merlot becomes part of the Valpolicella and Amarone blends made by the winery, but in harvests where the grape does particularly well, they vinify it separately and bottle it as Clos Roareti, the name of the small vineyard in which it grows.  This is a unique and very fun wine.  It’s a rather heftier version of the grape that boasts plenty of luscious purple plum and red cherry fruit, a lovely, mouth-filling texture, a warm, fragrant dash of oak and a long, easy-going finish. We loved it!  Drink it tonight, not with the fresh-water fish and lighter pasta fare you’ll find served on the patios of the grand restaurants that dot the Lake Garda shore, but rather think lamb and beef dishes, saffron-enriched risotto Milanese or pasta dishes with sausages, Bolognese or other meat sauces you’ll find in nearby Verona. And if you accidentally find a bottle or two at the back of your cellar in, say, eight or ten years, you’ll be surprised to see how well a wine like this can age despite its modest cost and appellation.

Vinous Media: The 2019 Rosso Clos Roareti is rich with blueberry and plum sauce complemented by balsam herbs and a hint of spiced citrus. This boasts near-glycerol-like dense textures, yet it is also youthfully stern and poised with masses of wild berry fruits and savory spices. It tapers off long and structured with blue and purple-tinged inner florals and hints of black currant. The Clos Roareti is a varietal Merlot which doesn’t see any appassimento, planted in clay-heavy soils. 93 points