2016 Giuseppe Quintarelli “Alzero” Cabernet

Giuseppe “Bepi” Quintarelli was the Maestro of the Veneto, a legend whose handwritten labels are recognized worldwide. His father Silvio founded the estate in 1924 on the eastern slope of the Negrar Valley, in the heart of Valpolicella Classico. Bepi’s patience defined a style of Amarone that became the reference point for the whole region, and his family — his daughter Fiorenza with her husband Giampaolo and their sons Francesco and Lorenzo — runs the estate by the same principles today.

The twelve hectares of vineyards sit on volcanic and limestone soils, farmed without chemicals and for low yields. Grapes for Amarone are dried for months before a long fermentation, and the wine rests for years in large Slavonian oak casks before release; the Riserva, made only in exceptional vintages, spends around a decade in wood. In difficult years there is no Amarone at all, and the fruit goes into Rosso del Bepi instead — a kind of self-control that has almost disappeared from the wine world.

The range is wider than people think. The Valpolicella Classico Superiore is essentially a baby Amarone, sleek rather than heavy: half the grapes are pressed straight away and half are dried for about two months, and the wine is then refermented on the Amarone lees. Alzero applies the drying method to Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot; Primofiore is the freshest, most immediate red; the Cà del Merlo Bianco Secco is one of the most singular whites in the Veneto; and Amabile del Cerè and the Recioto show the sweet side. Quintarelli’s Amarone is not a dessert wine: it is dry, structural and profound — the gold standard I measure the category against, and the wine that made me want to become a sommelier.