Amarone’s worldwide sales success has reached such dimensions that the Consorzio della Valpolicella, the producer association of Valpolicella and Amarone, now routinely to refers to it in commercial terms only, even if they try hard to pretend otherwise. The presentation of the latest Amarone vintage this February was preceded, as last year, by a seminar focusing almost solely on the financial aspects of this wine, while the word ‘terroir’ was ominously absent. In Verona they prefer to speak of Amarone as a ‘brand’ instead. The concept of origin has no meaning here, something that was emphasised again later on when...