Need info on Italian wine

[Randy Caparoso]

Well, there are sweet red Italians. In Valpolicella, they now call them Recioto della Valpolicella (as opposed to the dry/bitter Amarone della Valpolicella. Made from selected "ears" (top part of grape bunches) dried 3-4 weeks in a barn before crushing and fermenting. Residual sugar can be quite high -- over 6% -- and of course, the handcrafting process makes for very expensive, albeit lusciously thick and sweet, results.

There's an '88 Recioto currently on the market (the vintage is corrrect -- they aged it a long time for the wine to come into balanced) made by Dal Forno Romano, an extraordinary producer. Half bottles should retail about $35-$40. It's definitely a dessert wine, though. I'd recommend bittersweet chocolate petits fours or decadent (flourless) chocolate cake with, say, a raspberry coulis or coffee-laced anglaise. If you're going through all this trouble to track down such a wine, you might as well hire a violinist and load the room up with long stem roses and votive candles. Whether or not your marriage has been bittersweet, this should do the trick.