“Black cherries, plums, graphite, tapenade, melted road tar and game hits the palate as Romano Dal Forno’s 2009 Valpolicella Superiore shows off its personality. The 2009 brings together the signature richness of a wine made from 100% dried fruit with distinctly wild, almost Syrah-like overtones. Inky and intense, with considerable tannic backbone, the 2009 is really more of a junior Amarone than a Valpolicella. Readers will want to give this super-expressive wine another few years in the cellar, but there is a lot to like, even today.”