Sometimes wine isn’t about analysis, but rather beads a direct line into the ephemeral and emotional. Sometimes wine is sensuality and emotion more than intellect. This was just such a wine – one which I too swiftly wrote off as internationally styled on my first sip, but which I could not stop drinking and which by the end of the bottle I had to acknowledge as truly original – opulent wine with soul. It does exist. Even if such wines are only truly experienced in the mists of the sensuous. Move over pleasure police, cause I’m drinking wine!

Excellent
$83 at Kits Wine Cellar

NB: All Marion wines are made by Celestino Gaspari who was the wine maker at Quintarelli for 20 years and is consulting wine maker for Dal Forno.

Quintarelli is an icon producer in the Veneto region of Italy. His wines are mostly inaccessibly priced, with this, the cheapest offering, clocking in at a solid $70, and the top Amarones coming in at around $500. That’s a price to match the greatest wines in the world, and not one many are willing to pay readily. The estate dates back to 1924 and Giuseppe has been in charge since the mid-1950s. He is an absolute traditionalist, not having changed the techniques set by his father. He ages his Amarone for seven years in Slavonian oak “botti”.

The nose on this had loads of black pepper, some char, ash, and wonderful sweet cherry fruit. The palate is dry and ash-like, with a pepper, dusty and meaty character. The fruit shows cherry and strawberry along with some balsamic vinegar notes. There is so much body and intensity here, and way beyond anything I’ve had with the name ‘Valpolicella’ attached to it. A wonderful and singular wine – so much so that when I have enough money I plan on buying the big stuff.

Excellent
$70 at BCLDB (Kits Wine Cellars also has Quintarelli wines)