Recioto della Valpolicella Explained

What Recioto della Valpolicella is

Recioto della Valpolicella is a red wine made from dried grapes and left sweet on purpose. Its disciplinare records that it was first recognised as a DOC by presidential decree of 21 August 1968 and approved as a DOCG, the top tier of Italian wine law, by ministerial decree of 24 March 2010. The text in force was last amended by decree of 3 August 2023.

The rules allow two types. The still Recioto della Valpolicella may also carry the words Classico or Valpantena. The spumante, a sparkling Recioto, may carry Valpantena but not Classico. Both must show the vintage on the label.

The grape rules are the same as for Amarone: Corvina Veronese (also called Cruina or Corvina) and Corvinone together make up 45% to 95% of the vineyard, Rondinella 5% to 30%, and other authorised red grapes up to 25%. The grapes must come from vines in at least their fourth growing season.

The packaging rules are strict. Recioto may only be sold in traditional glass bottles of no more than 15 litres, closed with a cork; a screw cap is allowed only on bottles up to 0.250 litres. The consortium describes Recioto as the oldest wine of the denomination and the only sweet wine produced in the Valpolicella (Consorzio per la Tutela dei Vini Valpolicella, 2026).

How Recioto is made: selection, drying and the 1 December rule

Recioto starts in the vineyard. The rules cap the harvest at 12 tonnes of grapes per hectare and ask for at least 11% vol of natural alcohol in the fresh grapes. Growers then select the bunches to dry, setting aside no more than 65% of that maximum; the rest may go to Valpolicella or Valpolicella Ripasso. The disciplinare's own description of the area puts the harvest between the third ten days of September and the first week of October.

The selected bunches are laid in a single layer in wooden or plastic crates or on bamboo racks, so that air circulates and the berries are not crushed, and placed in large, well-ventilated drying lofts, the fruttai, built above the cellars. The text describes three to four months of drying, during which the bunches are checked and turned until they have lost at least half of their weight; elsewhere it gives 100 to 120 days. Climate control is allowed only at temperatures similar to traditional drying, and any dehumidifying system that works with heat is excluded.

After drying, the grapes must reach 14% vol of natural alcohol. They may not be made into wine before 1 December, unless the Regione del Veneto allows an earlier start in a difficult year at the consortium's documented request. At most 40% of the grape weight may become finished wine. The fermentation is then stopped to keep the sugar that gives Recioto its sweetness.

Sweetness and strength: what the rules require in the glass

When it is sold, Recioto della Valpolicella must have at least 12.00% vol of actual alcohol and at least 2.80% vol of potential alcohol, which is the sugar still left in the wine. Its total acidity must be at least 5.0 g/l and its non-reducing extract at least 28.0 g/l, the same extract minimum as Amarone.

The official description is a deep red, sometimes with violet tints and tending to garnet with age; a characteristic, pronounced nose; and a full, velvety, warm, delicate and sweet taste. The spumante has the same alcohol, sugar, acidity and extract minimums, with a fine and persistent foam, and its base wine must be made sparkling in a winery within the Veneto.

The contrast with Amarone is clearest in the numbers. Amarone, from the same dried grapes, needs at least 14% vol of actual alcohol and is dry: its residual sugar may not exceed 9 g/l at 14% vol. Recioto needs less alcohol and must keep its sugar.

The Recioto rules set no minimum ageing period before release. The consortium's tasting notes speak of an impenetrable dark ruby colour, dried fruit, cherries in spirit and balsamic notes, and of a sweetness kept in check by good acidity. Its English site suggests serving the wine at 14 to 16 °C.

Where the name and the wine come from

The historical account in the disciplinare is the official version of Recioto's past, and it is worth reading as such. It traces the wine to the acinatico described by Cassiodorus, a sweet wine of royal colour, dense and fleshy, made by drying grapes, which the text treats as Recioto's ancestor. The Amarone disciplinare tells the same story and adds that Cassiodorus, minister of King Theodoric, asked landowners of the Valpolicella for this wine for the royal table.

The name, according to the same text, comes from the dialect word recia, meaning ear: only the highest and best exposed part of the bunch, its ears, could once be set aside to dry. The text also credits San Zeno, eighth bishop of Verona, with teaching growers to keep wine long in the barrel, and records that the Statutes of Alberto I della Scala of 1276 regulated the grape and wine trade into the city. One of their rules forbade keeping grapes at home after the harvest, which clashed with the drying tradition and, the text says, was not accepted by growers.

The wine survived, the nineteenth-century catalogue of grape varieties named Corvina as the typical grape of the Valpolicella, and in 1968 the first production rules and the DOC followed. On 24 March 2010 ministerial decrees separated Valpolicella, Ripasso, Recioto and Amarone into four denominations.

Classico, Valpantena and where Recioto is made

Recioto may be grown in all or part of 19 comuni in the province of Verona, from Sant'Ambrogio and Fumane in the west to Montecchia di Crosara in the east. The drying, winemaking and ageing must take place inside that production area, with some exceptions for wineries that traditionally work within the comuni concerned or hold individual ministerial authorisations within the province of Verona.

The Classico mention is reserved for grapes from Negrar, Marano, Fumane, Sant'Ambrogio and San Pietro in Cariano, and the Valpantena mention for the valley of that name, which has its own boundary in the rules. With either mention, the drying and the winemaking must take place within that zone. Bottling must happen inside the areas set for drying, winemaking, ageing and sparkling production, again with individual exceptions for those who traditionally bottled elsewhere.

Recioto is a small part of the area's output. The consortium counts 59 million bottles of Valpolicella wines in 2024, of which 23% were Amarone and Recioto together; it publishes no separate figure for Recioto. The text also allows the vigna mention, followed by a registered vineyard name, when that vineyard's grapes are dried, made into wine and aged separately. For how the Classico and Valpantena zones differ on the ground, see our page on the Valpolicella zones.

Tasting and buying Recioto on a winery visit

The simplest way to taste Recioto is a booked visit to a winery that makes it; ask when you book whether it is on the tasting list. Book directly with the winery. The Strada del Vino Valpolicella, the wine road association, lists 94 member wineries with their contacts, and the consortium publishes its own list of member wineries with addresses and websites. Neither publishes a tasting price, so ask when you book what the visit includes and what it costs.

For food, the consortium suggests Recioto with desserts, chocolate and cheese, and the disciplinare names desserts and blue cheeses. Because it is sweet by definition, Recioto is the wrong choice for anyone looking for a dry red; that wine is Amarone.

Between the autumn harvest and the earliest pressing date of 1 December, the drying lofts hold the grapes for Amarone and Recioto, so a visit in that season may let you see them; ask the winery. Some estates on our page about the historic villas of Valpolicella combine a tasting with a visit to the house. If you would rather not plan the day yourself, our guide to Valpolicella wine tours from Verona explains how to book a tour with transport, and our pages on getting from Verona and from Lake Garda cover the train and buses. Plan the day so that nobody who has been tasting drives.