Quintarelli Alzero Cabernet Veneto 2012

96 points Monica Larner (Wine Advocate): "The Quintarelli Giuseppe 2012 Cabernet Alzero (packaged in a heavy glass bottle) is a stunning wine that delivers a level of cautious brawn, intensity and fruit weight that sets this wine apart within the portfolio. The blend is 40% Cabernet Franc, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot, and the grapes all undergo a few months of appassimento. I've been asked about possible perception of VA (volatile acidity) that can sometimes appear in wines made with air-dried fruit. As a much-respected Italian colleague once told me, "serve a dare spalla," ("it gives a shoulder to the wine"), and I can't help but admire the beautifully lifted and upright quality of the bouquet that appears especially radiant and buoyant in this wine. The magic, whatever it is, works. Drink: 2024-2048. (Dec 2021)"

Alzero is a blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Cabernet Franc, and 20% Merlot made in the Amarone style. After careful selection during harvest at the end of August and beginning of September, the grapes (picked before most of the others) sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats. Dried grapes are pressed in mid-December, and after 20 days of maceration, alcoholic fermentation begins with indigenous yeasts, lasting approximately 50 days. The wine is then aged in French barrels for two or three years and racked into Slavonian oak barrels for four more years. During this aging process, additional alcoholic fermentations take place. Vintage after vintage, the Alzero remains one of the most unique wines in Italy.