In the last 20th century, a new style of wine known as ripasso (meaning “repassed”) emerged. With this technique, the pomace of leftover grape skins and seeds from the fermentation of recioto and Amarone are added to the batch of Valpolicella wines for a period of extended maceration. Pasqua stands for wines. Now that we have what the label means out of the way let me talk about the wine.
This is a medium bodied wine really pairs well with meats, cheese and especially with spicy foods. We enjoyed this wine more when we had it with food. Don’t get me wrong it was still good, it just tasted better to me paired with food. Some wines stand on their own and you don’t need anything, in fact you don’t want anything except the wine. The food brought out the cherry and plum notes. Since it was only aged in oak barrels for 8 months there was not a lot of toast or oak, just a lot of berry with a hint of licorice. This is a really good value wine and a great wine to pair with almost all types of food. In fact if you have a dish you’re not sure what to pair it with I would choose this wine. You can pick up a bottle of Valpolicella Ripasso Pasqua (2016) for $10.99 at Trader Joe’s now.
I give this wine 3 glasses. 
About myredwineguys
My red wine guys, Jim and Rich, have been drinking and comparing red wines together for the last 10 years. We drink reds exclusively (except for champagne during New Year’s Eve celebration's or special occasions). In our search to find the best red wine for the buck, we are constantly buying and drinking a variety of reds. Frequently, we see many of our favorite reds increase in price (making them impractical to buy and consume with the dismal economy). This motivates us to try and compare lesser known reds from a variety of wineries. We are constantly telling our friends where to buy and save on these great reds. One weekend over a bottle of red wine (of course), we decided to share our recommendations with the world via a blog (with the support of our wives who really think this is another way for us to drink more red wine). We are going to be making road trips up the coast and sharing our opinions on some great California Reds.
Jim is a retired Navy Senior Chief now working as a Navy Technical Rep. His world travels have given him the opportunity to taste wines on different continents. He finds himself often comparing them to his favorite region – Napa Valley’s Oakville/Rutherford districts that produce some of the world’s best Cabernet Sauvignon's.
Richard is a musician who grew up in Santa Maria with a family rich with red wine tradition. According to the family legends, his grandfather used to make wine out of grapefruit when grapes were not available. He grew up drinking and making wine with his father and other Italian families in the central coast, long before there were grape vines in the area. In fact, the reason his family located to California was to make wine!
Thank you for visiting our site! We hope you enjoy a glass of exceptional red wine soon!
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