Quintarelli Giuseppe

The family company was founded in 1906. Today it produces around 4,000 cases of wine a year.

The late, great Maestro del Veneto, Giuseppe Quintarelli, succeeded in establishing his mythical and legendary estate during an amazing sixty-year career. All of the tradition, love, heart, and soul of crafting one of the world’s finest wines continue at the Quintarelli home and winery in the hills north of Verona. Giuseppe’s daughter Fiorenza, his son-in-law Giampaolo, and his grandsons Francesco and Lorenzo are all keeping a close watch over the family’s legacy.

It is impossible to speak about Quintarelli without superlatives. The name itself stands for so much: the family, the wines, a style, a tradition, a way of doing things. After all the time, effort, patience, and care that go into the making of a bottle of Quintarelli, it truly does mean so much more than wine. Giuseppe, fondly known as “Bepi” to those closest to him, was a perfectionist in every way. From the beautiful handwritten labels, to the best possible quality cork, to the exquisite wine in the bottles, the Quintarelli name is a stamp of authenticity and the ultimate indication of an artisanal, handmade, uncompromising wine of the highest quality.  

Nothing is ever hurried at Quintarelli. The wines take their time and are given the time they need. In the still, quiet calm of the family cellars above the town of Negrar, along the winding via del Cerè, deep in the Valpolicella zone, the wine from the family’s hillside vineyards ages patiently and gracefully in large casks until it is ready. Every release is a masterpiece, a testament to time, tradition, skill, and passion, the creations of a master artisan. You can’t really compare these wines to any other in the region, or anywhere else in the world. They really are in a class and a category all their own.

Bianco Secco Ca’ del Merlo IGT:
• Grapes are pressed immediately after harvest
• 12 hour cold soak
• Temperature controlled fermentation
• Regular batonnage

Primofiore IGT:
• The “first flower” is the only red wine at Quintarelli that does not employ dried grapes or the ripasso technique. It is also the youngest red wine released by the estate every year.
• After harvest, grapes left in wooden boxes to continue ripening
• After pressing and fermentation, wine is aged for several years in Slavonian oak barrels

Valpolicella Classico Superiore DOC:
• Grapes are pressed immediately after harvest
• After 3-4 days of maceration, primary fermentation starts with indigenous yeasts
• Wine is racked and then sits until February
• Wine is racked onto the lees of the Amarone which starts a second alcoholic fermentation (this process is called ripasso)
• After this fermentation, the wine is racked into large Slavonian oak barrels for seven years

Rosso Ca’ del Merlo IGT:
• A single vineyard bottling
• Grapes are pressed immediately after harvest
• After 3-4 days of maceration, primary fermentation starts with indigenous yeasts
• Wine is racked and then sits until February
• Wine is racked onto the lees of the Amarone which starts a second alcoholic fermentation (this process is called ripasso)
• After this fermentation, the wine is racked into large Slavonian oak barrels for seven years

Rosso del Bepi IGT:
• Amarone is only produced in exceptional years, in “average” years, the wine is declassified and bottled as Rosso del Bepi. In poor years neither Amarone nor Rosso del Bepi is produced.
• Careful selection of grapes during harvest
• After harvest, grapes sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats
• Careful attention is paid to the positioning of the grapes so the appassimento can occur naturally
• Noble rot starts to appear in November and develops mostly in January
• Grapes are pressed at the end of January and after 20 days of maceration, alcoholic fermentation begins with indigenous yeasts
• Fermentation lasts 45 days
• Wine is then racked and ages in Slavonian oak barrels for seven years
• Alcoholic fermentation continues during this aging period creating a dry wine

Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOC: 
• Amarone is only produced in exceptional years
• In truly exceptional years an Amarone Riserva is produced, a personal barrel selection by the family
• Careful selection of grapes during harvest
• After harvest, grapes sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats
• Careful attention is paid to the positioning of the grapes so the appassimento can occur naturally
• Noble rot starts to appear in November and develops mostly in January
• Grapes are pressed at the end of January and after 20 days of maceration, alcoholic fermentation begins with indigenous yeasts
• Fermentation lasts 45 days
• Wine is then racked and ages in Slavonian oak barrels for seven years
• Alcoholic fermentation continues during this aging period creating a dry wine

Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva DOC:
• In truly exceptional years an Amarone Riserva is produced, a personal barrel selection by the family
• Careful selection of grapes during harvest
• After harvest, grapes sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats
• Careful attention is paid to the positioning of the grapes so the appassimento can occur naturally
• Noble rot starts to appear in November and develops mostly in January
• Grapes are pressed at the end of January and after 20 days of maceration, alcoholic fermentation begins with indigenous yeasts
• Fermentation lasts 45 days
• Wine is then racked and ages in Slavonian oak barrels for seven years
• Alcoholic fermentation continues during this aging period creating a dry wine

Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOC “Selezione Giuseppe Quintarelli”:
• An exceedingly rare release (more rare than Amarone Riserva)
• A single barrel selection made by Giuseppe himself that he deemed to be truly extraordinary
• Careful selection of grapes during harvest
• After harvest, grapes sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats
• Careful attention is paid to the positioning of the grapes so the appassimento can occur naturally
• Noble rot starts to appear in November and develops mostly in January
• Grapes are pressed at the end of January and after 20 days of maceration, alcoholic fermentation begins with indigenous yeasts
• Fermentation lasts 45 days
• Wine is then racked and ages in Slavonian oak barrels for seven years
• Alcoholic fermentation continues during this aging period creating a dry wine

Recioto della Valpolicella Classico DOC: 
• Careful selection of grapes from specific vineyard parcels that are uniquely suitable for Recioto
• Recioto refers to the “ears” of the grape clusters, the upper shoulders of the bunches that get the most sunlight and are the most ripe. The wine must have significant sugar to go through two alcoholic fermentations and remain sweet.
• Recioto must have significant levels of residual sugar after alcoholic fermentation
• After harvest, grapes sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats
• Careful attention is paid to the positioning of the grapes so the appassimento can occur naturally
• Noble rot starts to appear in November and develops mostly in January
• Grapes are pressed at the end of January and after 20 days of maceration, alcoholic fermentation begins with indigenous yeasts
• Fermentation lasts 45 days
• Wine is then racked and ages in Slavonian oak barrels for five to six years
• All of Quintarelli’s wines are capable of very, very long aging, but none more so than the Recioto

Alzero Cabernet IGT: 
• Harvested before most other grapes, at the end of August and beginning of September
• Careful selection of grapes during harvest
• After harvest, grapes sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats
• Dried grapes are pressed in mid-December
• Grapes are pressed and after 20 days of maceration, alcoholic fermentation begins with indigenous yeasts
• Fermentation lasts approximately 50 days
• Wine is then aged in French barrels for two or three years, then racked into Slavonian oak barrels for four more years
• During this aging process, additional alcoholic fermentations take place

Amabile del Cerè “Bandito” IGT: 
• Harvested before most other grapes, at the end of August and beginning of September
• Careful selection of grapes during harvest
• After harvest, grapes sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats
• Grapes are pressed at the end of January/beginning of February when noble rot has developed on 30% to 40% of the grapes
• Fermentation starts with indigenous yeasts after 20 days and last approximately 50 days
• Wine is aged in French oak barrels (Limousin, Allier, Tronçais) for five to six years
• During the aging process, alcoholic fermentation continues
• The rarest of all the Quintarelli wines—the current vintage is 2003 and the one before was 1990. It is named after a lost barrel that was hidden under food stores and undiscovered during a Nazi raid of the property during WWII. The barrel was discovered years later and the wine had aged beautifully.

Multiple passages through the vineyards produce a myriad of wines, many produced using the appassimentotechnique whereby the grapes are dried on rush mats before being pressed and made into wine. From the delicious and seductive Bianco Secco, to the benchmark Valpolicella that created a revolution in the thinking about what it was possible to produce in this region, to the Rosso del Bepi and Amarones produced according to the quality of the harvest, to the otherworldly Recioto and the exceedingly rare Bandito, the sheer artistry and depth of the range is truly exceptional. A bottle of Quintarelli never disappoints!