17 Jan - See additional information at the end of this article.
January 2012 has torn away another human icon from the Italian wine scene. Only a few weeks after Giulio Gambelli passed away, yesterday the sad news reached us that Giuseppe Quintarelli has died.
Quintarelli may be known primarily for the exhorbitant prices at which his Valpolicella and Amarone changes hands, but 'Bepi', as Quintarelli was also known, was anything but a marketing wizard. A staunchly traditional man, he believed that good quality grapes could come only from the hillside, and his Amarone, which was produced only in exceptional...