Two faces of Amarone

Regular readers may have noticed that Amarone as a category has yet to convince me. The majority of the wines seem, at least to my palate, too full bodied, overextracted, alcoholic (by law the alcohol level has to be at least 14.5 %) and sweet. A Valpolicella producer once remarked that most Amarone is nothing more than a 'vino per il wine bar', ie a winebar wine: big, dark, often with lashings of oak, impressive but only if you drink one glass of it, and completely incompatible with most foods. I wouldn't go that far, although it does seem to...