Giuseppe Quintarelli - Recioto della Valpolicella 2011

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.

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. Wine is 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

"A totem of the region, this is a stunning recioto born of six-months appassimento and a decade in barrel. Riffs on Chinotto, alpine spruce, bitter cherry, clove, mahogany and walnut husk, with a waft of something more exotic akin to incense and Chinese medicine cabinet. The finish is uncannily dry of feel, sooty and almost gritty, such is the tannic exactitude. Compelling gear, like discovering a new needle in a haystack of overwhelming complexity with each fresh sip." - 97 points, James Suckling

Producer: Giuseppe Quintarelli

Country: Italy

Region: Veneto

Varietal: Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella

Appellation: Recioto della Valpolicella

Vintage: 2011

Size: 375ml