amarone

noun

ama·​ro·​ne ˌä-mä-ˈrō-nā 

: a robust dry red Italian wine with a high alcohol content

Examples of amarone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Reds will include Cantina di Casteggio, a barbera from Lombardy; Le Masciare Barbassano, an aglianico from Campania; and a Ca' del Monte amarone from Veneto. —Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 Nov. 2019

Wines varieties include prosecco, bardolino, amarone, vermentino, rosé of cannonau (grenache) and carignano. —San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Sep. 2019

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Italian, from regional Italian (Veneto) recioto amarone, literally, "bitter recioto (a sweet wine from the Valpolicella district)"; amarone augmentative of amaro "bitter, tart," going back to Latin amārus "bitter"

Note: The name for the wine allegedly originated in 1936 when Adelino Lucchese, the head of the Valpolicella wine cooperative, tapped and tasted a cask of recioto forgotten during fermentation in which the sugars had mostly turned to alcohol; he then exclaimed "questo non è un Amaro, è un Amarone" ("This isn't an amaro, it's an amarone") (See the website of the Fratelli Vogadori; and Michael Garner, Amarone and the Fine Wines of Verona [Oxford, 2017].)

First Known Use

circa 1956, in the meaning defined above