“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.”
– Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
Guiseppe Quintarelli : 1999 Ca’ del Merlo, Valpolicella IGT
The words of Shakespeare’s Juliet seem apropo when speaking of Guiseppe Quintarelli, the Master of Veneto, and more specifically of his famed Valpolicella & Amarone wines of “fair Verona”…To those of us who’ve coveted his $100 – $950 bottlings of Valpolicella Classico and Amarone della Valpolicella & Riservas, this offer is a rare treat. At regular retail of $90, the “Ca’ del Merlo” offers a more affordable alternative and a Single Vineyard site experience, but at these prices you can’t pass up the chance to taste Quintarelli’s magic in a bottle!! Now, about the wine….
“This wine is a single vineyard Valpolicella named after a plot of land where a large Merlo (bird) sat perched on a tree overlooking the hillside. It differs from the Valpolicella only in that the grapes come from one specific site, so it’s deeply influenced by the terroir of that one plot. Quintarelli’s “other Valpolicella,” the Ca del Merlo, as all of the wines from the Master of the Veneto, calls for a deeply meditative experience; you can’t drink it without closing your eyes, the better to savor the experience. It’s a voluptuous wine with so many slowly unfolding layers that you’ll get dizzy trying to put your finger on all of them. Chewy rich plum, warm spices, the smoke of a roaring fire, the velvety grasp of tannins, the lingering and kaleidoscopic finish—Ca del Merlo is a Valpolicella that will amaze, please and seduce even the most discerning wine-lover. The 1980 vintages should be drunk within the next three years, while the 1990s can continue to cellar for another decade and the 2000 even longer.” – Italian Wine Merchants Review (**It should be noted that IWM is selling this same vintage and bottle for $86.81 a bottle & for 6 bottles with shipping it would cost about $560!!)
(*Very Limited Qty at a stellar Price in store!)
Info below from one of my favorite wine blogs: Jeremy Parzen’s Do Bianchi
http://dobianchi.com/tag/quintarelli/
“With our main course, we opened Quintarelli’s 1999 Rosso Ca’ del Merlo (an IGT for you DOC/DOCG/PDO/PGI buffs and a great example of how some of Italy’s greatest wines are not DOCGs). Man, this wine was killer: still a baby in the bottle, tannic and rich, with a seductive chewy mouthfeel, excellent with my Brooklyn-style thick cut pork chop. And the price was unexpectedly reasonable.” – Jeremy Parzen, PhD, of Do Bianchi
Please reply to order with your desired quantity and we will allocate accordingly: leigha@macsbeerandwine.com. All wines in limited inventory supply at time of the email.
