What is the name of the Valpolicella technique where the wine is made by passing the juice over the dried grape skins?

• A. Amarone
• B. Valpolicella Ripasso
• C. Recioto
• D. Soave

Answer: (B)

Ripasso is the name for this technique. It involves taking the fresh Valpolicella juice and letting it pass over the dried grape skins that were used in the appassimento process (the same skins that help make Amarone and Recioto). The juice extracts additional color, tannin, and flavor from those skins, adding body and depth to the wine without going as far as an Amarone in richness. This is what gives Ripasso its distinctive char­acter: more substance than standard Valpolicella, but lighter than Amarone.

Amarone, by contrast, concentrates sugars by drying the grapes themselves and fermenting a very rich, high-alcohol must. Recioto uses dried grapes to produce a sweet wine, with fermentation often halted or stopped early. Soave is a different white wine region and isn’t part of this drying-and-skin-contact method.