Quintarelli

History

The estate’s history began in 1924, when Silvio Quintarelli, who had previously been growing grapes under a sharecropping arrangement elsewhere in Valpolicella, founded his own winery in the village of Negrar. His son Giuseppe, who is called Bepi, took over the operational running of the estate in the mid-1950s and, over the next six decades, transformed it into what it is today.

At a time when most of Valpolicella was mass-producing diluted, industrial wine for the mass market, Bepi went in the opposite direction, doing everything by hand and refusing to release any vintage that he deemed not up to his standards. He passed away in January 2012 at the age of 84, and the estate passed to his daughter Fiorenza and her husband Giampaolo Grigoli. Their sons Francesco and Lorenzo, representing the fourth generation, now also work at the estate.

Vineyards

The estate cultivates around 12 hectares of vineyards on the hillsides of the Valpolicella Classico area, stretching along the eastern side of the Negrar Valley. The winery is situated at the top of the Ca Paletta hill in the hamlet of Cere, where the altitude helps to avoid valley fog and ensures maximum sunshine for the vineyards. Yields are kept extremely low, and the harvest is carried out in several stages to ensure that the grapes for each variety and each wine are picked at precisely the right moment.

Terroir

The soils of the vineyards of Quintarelli are a mix of limestone and basalt, which is quite typical of the volcanic slopes of Valpolicella. The vines grow at altitudes ranging from 150 to 460 metres above sea level. The climate is influenced by the proximity of Lake Garda and the Lessini Hills, it is mild enough to allow full ripening, yet cool enough to preserve the wine’s structure and freshness.

Grapes

Red wines are made from the classic Valpolicella varieties: Corvina and Corvinone account for around 55 per cent of the blend, Rondinella for around 30 per cent, and the remainder consists of Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, Croatina and Sangiovese. White wine is made from Garganega, Trebbiano, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and the rare local variety Saorín. ‘Alzero’, Quintarelli’s iconic Bordeaux-style red wine, is produced from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Winemaking

Appassimento, the drying of harvested grapes on reed mats, plays a central role in the production of virtually every wine in this region. Even the entry-level ‘Primofiore’ wine uses 50 per cent semi-dried grapes.

For the finest red wines, the grapes are dried for at least five months before pressing, and then slowly fermented using local yeasts for around 50 days. After fermentation, the wines are aged in large Slavonian oak barrels for many years: ‘Valpolicella Classico Superiore’ for around six to seven years, ‘Amaro’ for seven years, and ‘Recoto’ for five to six years. This unhurried approach means that the cellar always holds wines from several vintages at the same time, each at different stages of ageing.

Wines

The range extends from ‘Primofiore’ and ‘Valpolicella Classico Superiore’ to ‘Recoto’, ‘Amaro’ and the rare ‘Amaro Riserva’. ‘Alzero’, produced only in exceptional years from dried Bordeaux grape varieties, has become a cult wine.

Production across the entire estate amounts to around 60,000 bottles a year, a minuscule figure by any standards, which partly explains both the prices and the queues. The estate has no website and publishes virtually nothing, yet it remains one of the most sought-after names in the world of Italian wine.