Released with numbered bottles, the Zenato 2016 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Sergio Zenato (in a heavy glass bottle with 9,000 of them made) is a thickly statured and rich red wine with lots of fruit weight, big intensity and a powerful 16.5% alcoholic content. The wine is redolent of ripe and dark fruit, and there are plenty of savory and smoky notes as well. The tannins are soft and dusty.

Packaged in a pretty brown label, the Zenato 2015 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Sergio Zenato is very ripe and open with aged aromas of tarry smoke and baked fruit. This inky dark wine feels evolved and further down its evolutionary track than it should be. The 2015 vintage was hot and dry leading up to the appassimento process. That oxidative heaviness is pushed forward by a 16.5% alcohol content. The blend is 80% Corvina, 10% Rondinella and the rest is Oseleta and Croatina. Production is 9,000 bottles.

This is a broad, thick wine with big bones and an extremely full-bodied approach. The 2012 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Sergio Zenato presents a thick wall of sweet plum and cherry syrup with more enticing notes of spice, tar and smoke at the back. The house blend at Zenato sees 80% Corvina and 10% Rondinella with 10% Oseleta and Croatina. The grapes are laid out to dry for 120 days. I like the wine very much on its own, but I imagine it might be difficult to pair with many foods. Aged cheese on crackers might just do the trick. This is the estate's top-shelf wine, made only in the best vintages, representing a selection of the best grapes from old vines. Some 20,000 bottles were made.

This is the Zenato family's top-shelf red wine. The 2011 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Sergio Zenato offers a huge aromatic presentation and a slow, syrupy appearance with viscous glycerine that spreads evenly over the surface of the glass. The concentration is so big and overdone, you taste the bitterness and the ripeness of the grape skins. This is the proverbial too-much-of-a-good-thing wine at a whopping 16.5% alcohol. It's hard to know what to pair it with, if not aged Stilton cheese. There is a subtle touch of sweetness on the close.

The 2008 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva Sergio Zenato is 80% Corvina, 10% Rondinella, 10% Oseleta and Croatina. The wine ages in traditional botte grande for four years. This is regularly my highest scoring wine from Zenato, but the 2008 vintage doesn't show the same level of purity and intensity that we saw in 2007. The wine wraps over the palate with textured tannins and ripe fruit flavors.