2015 Quintarelli Valpolicella Classico Superiore

Veneto, Italy

Giuseppe Quintarelli was a legendary maverick in the Veneto. You can’t really compare these wines to any other in the region, or anywhere else in the world. They really are in a class and a category all their own.  For this wine, 50% of grapes are pressed immediately after harvest, 50% are dried for 2 months into raisins. The wine is racked onto the lees of the Amarone which starts a second alcoholic fermentation (this process is called ripasso) and then aged in Slavonian oak for seven years. The super-long aging process turns this full bodied, rich wine into a super refined and balanced wine of incredibly complexity. Notes of black cherry, plum, leather, vanilla, chocolate, herbs and tobacco with high tannins and acidity ensuring at least 25+ years of life ahead.