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2013 Rosso Cà del Merlo

Giuseppe Quintarelli
Discount Eligible $100.00
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Producing a bottle of Quintarelli is no simple task. After harvest, while half of the fruit—in this case, a diverse blend made up mainly of Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella—is crushed and fermented like a traditional red wine, the remaining grapes are set to dry for two months in a process known as appassimento. After the two lots are blended, the wine is then passed over the pressed skins from the family’s Amarone, a powerful wine made entirely from dried grapes. During this ripasso, the sugars left over in the Amarone pomace set off a small secondary fermentation, slightly boosting alcohol content and, crucially, contributing additional texture and rich, complex flavors. Only after all this has taken place is the wine racked to massive Slavonian oak botti, where it rests for no fewer than seven years before bottling.
     And now here it is: the fruit of all that labor, a product of local tradition and clever innovation perfected over many decades by the Quintarelli family. Edition 2013 of the Ca’ del Merlo is a vibrant and tightly wound beauty with a dense, elegant core of luxurious black fruit and sweet spices, the whole showing class and restraint. Treat it as you would a fine Barolo: decant it young, cherish it old, and serve it alongside full-flavored, savory dishes such as braises, wild mushrooms, and hearty pastas coated in slow-cooked ragù.

Anthony Lynch


Technical Information
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2013
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: 55% Corvina and Corvinone, 30% Rondinella, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, Croatina, Sangiovese
Appellation: Veneto IGT
Country: Italy
Region: Veneto
Producer: Giuseppe Quintarelli
Winemaker: Quintarelli Family
Vineyard: 30 years average
Soil: Limestone and Basalt
Aging: After this fermentation, the wine is racked into large Slavonian oak barrels for seven years
Farming: Traditional
Alcohol: 15%

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About The Region

Veneto

map of Veneto

Italy’s most prolific wine region by volume, the Veneto is the source of some of the country’s most notorious plonk: you’ll find oceans of insipid Pinot Grigo, thin Bardolino, and, of course, the ubiquitous Prosecco. And yet, the Veneto produces the highest proportion of DOC wine of any Italian region: home to prestigious appellations like Valpolicella, Amarone, and Soave, it is capable of excelling in all three colors, with equally great potential in the bubbly and dessert departments.

With almost 200,000 acres planted, the Veneto has a wealth of terroirs split between the Po Valley and the foothills of the Alps. While the rich soils of the flatlands are conducive to mechanization, high yields, and mass production of bulk wine, the areas to the north offer a fresher climate and a diversity of poor soil types, ideal for food-friendly wines that show a sense of place. Whether it’s a charming Prosecco Superiore from the Glera grape, a stony Soave or Gambellara from Garganega, or a Corvina-based red in any style, the Veneto’s indigenous grape varieties show real character when worked via traditional production methods.

Since his first visit in 1979, Kermit has regularly returned to the Veneto to enjoy its richness of fine wines and local cuisine. Our collaboration with Corte Gardoni, our longest-running Italian import, is a testament to this. The proximity of beautiful cities like Verona and Venice, with their deep culinary heritage, certainly doesn’t hurt, either.

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Kermit inspecting wine barrels

For the wines that I buy I insist that the winemaker leave them whole, intact. I go into the cellars now and select specific barrels or cuvées, and I request that they be bottled without stripping them with filters or other devices. This means that many of our wines will arrive with a smudge of sediment and will throw a more important deposit as time goes by, It also means the wine will taste better.