Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 1991

The last two wines with lunch were paired with dessert, and the first had an apple cider nose that was quite exotic and noticeably different than any of the wines already served this weekend. It reminded me of Amarone on the palate, but it didn’t seem sweet enough. I was thinking it might have been 1990 Bonneau Cuvee Speciale actually, but this classy 1991 Quintarelli Amarone was drier than expected (92).

- John Kapon / CEO / Ackerr Merrall & Condit

Aributes have been pouring in on social media for a winemaker described as ‘maestro’ whose ‘stunning Amarones were legendary’, and who was respected as an uncompromising perfectionist. Giuseppe Quintarelli was born in 1927, in Negrar in the Veneto, the heart of Valpolicella. His father Silvio had been making wine since before the First World War, cultivating vines with his family under a sharecropping system, and managing to buy his own land after the war. Giuseppe took over the estate in 1950, and started a programme of gradual improvement and expansion. Today the 12ha of vineyards stretches along the eastern side of the Negrar valley, the grapes brought in and vinified in the estate cellars located on the peak of the Cà Paletta hill in Cerè di Negrar. As well as its renowned Amarone della Valpolicella Classico and Amarone Riserva, the esate produces a Valpolicella Classico and a Recioto della Valpolicella, and a handful of IGT wines - a Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Corvina blend called Primo Fiore, Rosso del Bepi, Alzero, Amabile del Cerè, and a dry white, Bianco Secco, from a rare local variety called Saorin. In many ways Quintarelli was one of the most traditional of the Amarone producers, ageing his wine for seven years in Slavonian oak 'bottis', hand drawing – and hand-glueing – all his labels. It was part of the Quintarelli legend that every bottle could be slightly different, even of the same wine in the same vintage. This was regarded as proof of true artisanality. As many point out, however, Quintarelli may have been traditional but he was not afraid of innovation. In 1985 he introduced new grape varieties such As Nebbiolo, Croatina, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon. Bianco Secco was one of the first dry white wines in Valpolicella.

- Pekka Nuikki / Editor of the Fine Wine Magazines and Champagne Magazine