The 2018 La Poja opens slowly in the glass as notes of crushed ashen stone and savory herbs give way to crushed cherries and blueberries. This is a decidedly delicate and finessed style. Brisk acidity enlivens its tart wild berry fruits as plum and dark chocolate notes evolve toward the close. The 2018 leaves a coating of fine tannins to linger, finishing with admirable length yet structured. Always a standout, La Poja is a varietal Corvina made entirely from fresh (not dried) grapes.

The Allegrini 2018 Corvina Veronese La Poja (with 14,000 bottles made) delivers lots of ripe fruit with baked cherry, plum and earthy notes of wet clay, terracotta and rusty nail. This vintage lacks some of the extreme clarity and focus that the Corvina grape is very capable of giving. The growing season saw a cool spring and heat spikes throughout the summer that contribute to the large span of random fruit aromas on offer here.

Full bottle 1,617 g. Certified sustainable (3E Equalitas Sustainable Winery). 100% Corvina from a vineyard planted in 1979. Very unusually for the time, the vineyard was up on the hillside (320 m), so a lot cooler than most Valpolicella vineyards. It was also unusual to plant only Corvina, because at that time varietal Corvina has to be vino da tavola (there was no IGT Veronese). In fact, the family were fined when they released the first vintage of the wine in 1983, because they put a vintage date on the label – totally illegal back then! Walter Allegrini, who was the viticulturist in the family (his brother Franco did the winemaking) tragically died just before the first harvest, and Franco made the decision to bottle a 100% Corvina in order to understand what his brother was looking for from this vineyard. La Poja is a small vineyard (less than 3 ha) on a flat plateau overlooking the hill of La Grola, completely surrounded by native vegetation and on 90% limestone soils (10% clay). Fermentation is in stainless steel and then the wine is aged for 20 months in new French oak barrels, medium toast. 20 months of bottle ageing. Bright with Corvina's cherries, bright with blood-orange acidity and fragrance. Scarlet juiciness, crimson sweetness, jewelled clarity of fruit and then a delicious underbrush of wild thyme, dried oregano, juniper and tobacco. The tannins are long with gentle, muscular clench and very slight graininess. Beautifully resolved, fabulously fresh, very appetising. It's such a treat to taste varietal Corvina, which simply shines from this cool, high vineyard. (TC)