TN: 1993 Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella

  • 1993 Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella - Italy, Veneto, Valpolicella, Amarone della Valpolicella (3/7/2012)
    This was purchased at the winery in 2005, handed to me by Old Man Quintarelli himself. So when one of my friends who was on that trip planned a big dinner, I felt it was the right time to bring this out and celebrate the great man’s passing. Opened about an hour before pouring, this had HUGE aromatics, but not in a sweet or overwhelming way. They were big, yes, but well-balanced, offering deep and dark notes of plums, dark fruit, cherries, milk chocolate, licorice and herbs. All the different aspects seemed to melt one into the other seamlessly, such a joy to smell. The real wonder was how different it felt on the palate, very elegant and light on its feet even though all those aspects carried through from the nose. Effortless and weightless yet quite profound, a really hedonistic wine but not in an over-the-top way. I’d never apply the terms “jammy” or “gobs” here, and I’d smack the first person to say that around me while drinking this wine. I think my only quibble would be that the finish was a tad shorter than I’d prefer or would have expected. Please note, however, that it wasn’t short, rather a smooth medium-length finish that petered out instead of dropping off. Quite a beauty and a wonderful way to celebrate a master’s life.

Posted from CellarTracker

Fantastic.

With food or all on its own?

This was served with cheeses, walnuts and bread. Nice pairing too though I’ll admit I spent most of my time with my nose in the glass.

LOVE wines like that

Michel,
Very nice note, thanks.

Cheers,
-Robert

I had this wine around Thanksgiving and thought it as good as anything I drank in 2011. My bottle was also hand carried back from a visit to the winery, in 1999. TN in archives.

The King of Amarone is dead, long live the new King, whoever they may be.

We once shared some of that with some foot soldiers from the De Grazia Army in a hotel lobby in Verona during VinItaly. One of them said (and I quote), “Holy SHIT!!! This is WINE…compared to this we sell grape juice!”.

Sad to say, I lost half a glass worth doing a spit take when I heard that…

Another story about the “Q”:

We were at a huge dinner put on by Porthos wine magazine two stories deep under that huge enoteca down by the river in Verona maybe 10 years ago and they poured Quintarelli and Dal Forno side by side with both the winemakers sitting right there. They asked the president emeritus of the Valpolicella Consorzium for his opinion and he said, “The Quintarelli is a perfect Amarone…and the Dal Forno is the best Dal Forno ever made!”. Huge laughs all around as it was obvious he was not digging the Dal Forno…

We visited both Dal Forno and Quintarelli on the trip where I bought this bottle, and I didn’t buy anything from the former. Great trip, but Quintarelli was the highlight of our time in northern Italy.