Corvinone

A large-berried red grape of Verona's Valpolicella zone, long mistaken for a clone of Corvina Veronese until a 1993 ampelographic study (Cancellier & Angelini, "Corvina veronese e Corvinone: due varietà diverse") and later DNA profiling established it as a genuinely distinct variety, registered separately in MASAF's Registro Nazionale delle Varietà di Vite (scheda 328).

Bunches are winged, pyramidal, larger and looser than Corvina Veronese's, and the grape ripens later (into mid-October); its bigger, thicker-skinned berries are well suited to the appassimento drying process behind Amarone and Recioto. In Veneto's disciplinari it is not a standalone varietal component but a permitted substitute for part of the Corvina Veronese share — up to 50% of that share in Amarone della Valpolicella, Recioto della Valpolicella, Valpolicella, and Valpolicella Ripasso, and up to 20% of it in Bardolino and Bardolino Superiore. Wines show medium tannin with raspberry, cherry, plum, and chocolate notes, and since the 1990s producers have increasingly favored it over Molinara for its denser color and finer flavor.