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Tommasi, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2015

RedItaly2015

By Daniel Min · Tasted 2020-01-04 · Published 2026-09-16 · Updated 2026-09-16

In one paragraphTommasi's Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2015 is a red wine from the Valpolicella Classico zone in the Veneto, made from Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella and Oseleta grapes dried through the appassimento method to concentrate their sugars, at 15% ABV. Giacomo Battista Tommasi began farming this family's land on the hills of Valpolicella in 1902, and four generations later the winery is still family-run; bottling its first Amarone vintage in 1959 opened export markets in more than 85 countries and turned the Tommasi name into one of the faces of Italian wine abroad. On Vivino this 2015 vintage has 19,112 ratings averaging 4.3 (4.3 across all 96,173 ratings for the wine), with two listed critic scores — James Suckling at 92 (Nov 2019) and an unnamed 95 (Dec 2019). The nose leads decisively with oak, chocolate and tobacco (3,978 mentions), followed by plum and blackberry (2,457). Structure: intensity 4.7/5, very powerful, with sweetness at 3.2 and gentler acidity (2.3) and tannin (2.2). Drinking window: 2018–2030. I scored it 4.5 on 4 January 2020. Price: US$59 per 750ml ex-tax (Wine-Searcher, Sept 2026).

At a glance

Two Vivino-listed scores — 92 (Nov 2019, also shown as James Suckling on wine.com's product page) and 95 (Dec 2019, publication not named).

Market note: Roughly Corvina 50%, Rondinella 30%, Oseleta 15%, Molinara 5% (the producer's general house ratio, adjusted by vintage), made by drying the grapes in the shade for three to four months to concentrate sugar and aroma before fermentation — the appassimento method. On wine.com it has listed at $83 regular / $51.99 sale (2015 vintage, currently sold out).

What this wine is

In 1902, Giacomo Battista Tommasi married Augusta and began working the family's land on the hills of Valpolicella. What he left behind wasn't just a vineyard, but a shift in thinking — the idea that wine should be sold not as something to quench thirst but as "a quality product to promote as lively and delectable for celebrations and get-togethers." His sons carried the vineyard through two world wars while serving their Pedemonte community, and after the war, four brothers — Sergio, Franco, Ezio and Dario — modernized the business, expanding into Valpolicella Classica and beyond into Lugana, Bardolino, Custoza and Soave.

The turning point was 1959, the year Tommasi bottled its first vintage of Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. That single bottle opened export markets in more than 85 countries and turned the Tommasi family into one of the international faces of Italian wine.

Amarone as a wine has its own famous origin legend. In the 1930s, so the story goes, at a Valpolicella winery (often said to be Bertani), a cellar master named Adelino Lucchese forgot a barrel of sweet Recioto wine, and when fermentation finally finished converting all its sugar, he tasted the now-dry result and exclaimed, "This isn't an Amaro (bitter), this is an AMARONE (a real bitter one)!" — supposedly naming the wine on the spot. That "accidental discovery" story was recently challenged by researcher Marina Valenti, who dug through the archives of the Serego Alighieri and Rizzardi families and found 1936 inventory records already listing Amarone from the 1933, 1934 and 1935 vintages, plus export records from 1938 — evidence, she argues, that Amarone was a deliberate project to build a typical, larger-production wine, not an accident. Neither version is fully settled, but the argument itself says something about what kind of wine Amarone is.

What the world says

This 2015 vintage has been rated by 19,112 people on Vivino, averaging 4.3 — matching the 4.3 average across all 96,173 ratings for the wine. Two critic scores are on file: 92 (Nov 2019, confirmed as James Suckling on wine.com) and 95 (Dec 2019, publication not named).

The flavor keywords lead decisively with oak, chocolate and tobacco (3,978 mentions), followed by plum and blackberry (2,457) and cherry and raspberry (1,905). Structure: intensity at 4.7/5 is among the highest of any red this magazine has covered, while acidity (2.3) and tannin (2.2) both run gentle — powerful but not rough. Sweetness at 3.2 also stands out, a direct reflection of appassimento's concentrated sugars.

"So hard to go wrong with Amarone and this one's a beauty, albeit a bit young still. Lovely ruby color with a huge nose of stewed fruit, earth and dark chocolate. Dry. Full bodied. Smooth tannins and good acidity." — Vivino review, Oct 2021, 4.5 stars

"Strong wine and dark red on glass smelling like oak, chocolate, cherry, raisin, plum, tobacco and leather. Pairing with Italian pizza." — Vivino review, Apr 2022, 4.5 stars

The recommended drinking window is 2018–2030; I drank it in January 2020, two years into that window.

How I drank it

4 January 2020, 4.5 stars. "Deep dark purple. Black currant, blackberries, cherry, raspberries, raisin, dried prune, oak, chocolate. My first Amarone. Full body and sweet. When a full body is this intense and sweet, it feels like eating thick berry jam. Goes down smooth. The tannin is nicely balanced too — I feel like I'll come back to Tommasi Amarone whenever I'm craving berries. Curious about other Amarones now." Written on my first-ever encounter with Amarone, the "thick jam" comparison lines up exactly with Vivino's structure data — intensity 4.7, sweetness 3.2.

That same day I opened four bottles total: Delamotte Brut (4.5), Tenuta Regaleali Bianco 2016 (3.0), and a re-tasting of Natale Verga Moscato d'Asti (4.5). This Amarone tied Delamotte for the top score of the night at 4.5 — the evening's high point, arriving after a sparkling wine and an Italian white had set the stage for this dense red.

The closing line, "Curious about other Amarones now," is itself a small record — this Tommasi was the starting point of my whole Amarone journey, and my 4.5, a full 0.2 above the community average of 4.3, probably owes something to how good a first impression it made as that entry point.

Where this wine shows up

Artwork and stills are not reproduced for copyright reasons; scenes are summarised.

Vivino community data

2015 vintage rating distribution (19112 ratings, average 4.3)

Most-mentioned aromas

Structure: Acidity 2.3/5 · Intensity 4.7/5 · Tannin 2.2/5 · Sweetness 3.2/5

Average by vintage (all vintages: 96173 ratings, average 4.3)

My original note (Vivino, 2020-01-04)

Frequently asked questions

Links & sources

View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher

• Vivino — wine page and community data
• Tommasi Viticoltori official — History
• WineNews — Amarone della Valpolicella, not from a "lucky" mistake but from a project on typicity
• Vogadori Vini — Amarone wine was born by mistake in the Recioto fermentation
• Wine.com — Tommasi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2015