FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 98
Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2013
Picked after hail tore through the valley below the winery, dried on mats until noble rot set in, then left in old casks for seven years, the 2013 is the Amarone of a family still making wine the way its late patriarch insisted.
- Maker
- Giuseppe Quintarelli
- By price in wine
- 77 of 100
Create a free account to see every recorded price and every grade.
Create a free account- Producer
- Giuseppe Quintarelli, Negrar, Valpolicella Classico, Veneto
- Estate founded
- 1924, by Silvio Quintarelli
- Vineyards
- About 11 to 12 hectares of hillside vines; sources differ
- Blend
- 55% Corvina and Corvinone, 30% Rondinella, 15% Cabernet, Nebbiolo, Croatina and Sangiovese, per the U.S. importer
- Method
- Grapes dried on mats or in boxes until late January, then aged about seven years in Slavonian oak
- Alcohol
- 16.5%
- Critic scores
- Wine Advocate 96+ (December 2021); Vinous 95 (April 2022)
- Suggested drinking window
- 2025 to 2050, per Wine Advocate
A sharecropper's son and a hillside in Negrar
The Quintarelli story begins with Silvio Quintarelli, who farmed vines as a sharecropper in the early 1900s before moving to Negrar, in the heart of the Valpolicella Classico zone north of Verona, after the First World War. In 1924, with the help of his wife and sons, he established the family's own vineyard there.
Today the winery sits in the hills above Negrar, on the winding via del Cere, with roughly 11 to 12 hectares of vines at around 500 meters. Its range runs from a white Bianco Secco to Valpolicella, Rosso del Bepi, Amarone, the sweet Recioto and the rare Bandito. The family stresses that its wines are made by repeated passes through the vineyards and different selections of grapes, not from separate parcels.
Bepi, the maestro
Giuseppe Quintarelli, known to those closest to him as Bepi, was born in Negrar on March 19, 1927. The business passed to him in 1950, and over a 60-year career he extended the estate and experimented relentlessly. Alongside the traditional local grapes he planted varieties such as Nebbiolo, Croatina, Sangiovese and the two Cabernets, which still appear in small amounts in his Amarone.
At a time when many neighbors were turning to mass production, he cut yields far below other producers, picked by hand and gave his wines years of aging before release. His labels, handwritten by his daughters, became a mark of authenticity. The Italian wine writer Franco Ziliani described his wines as requiring 'intelligence, experience, culture, patience and time.'
Quintarelli died at his home in Negrar in January 2012, at 84. His wife Franca, his daughter Fiorenza and her husband Giampaolo Grigoli, and their sons Francesco and Lorenzo took over. The 2013 was among the first vintages made entirely after his death, and the family has kept his methods intact.
How a Quintarelli Amarone is made
Amarone is made from grapes that are dried after harvest, a process called appassimento, which concentrates sugar and flavor. At Quintarelli the bunches sit in wooden boxes or on rush mats, arranged so they dry naturally. Noble rot starts to appear in November and develops mostly in January.
The grapes are pressed at the end of January. After about 20 days of maceration, fermentation starts with native yeasts. The wine is then racked into large Slavonian oak casks for seven years, according to the family's U.S. importer, and fermentation continues slowly during that time until the wine is dry. A French wine merchant's profile of the estate gives eight years for the Amarone and ten for the Riserva, so accounts of the exact length vary.
The family does not make every wine every year. In truly exceptional years it also bottles an Amarone Riserva, a personal barrel selection, and an even rarer bottling labeled Selezione Giuseppe Quintarelli. Some merchants list the 2013 Amarone with the Selezione wording on the label; the sources found do not make clear whether those bottles differ from the standard 2013 Amarone.
2013: rain, hail and a late harvest
The 2013 season in Valpolicella was difficult. A long, cold winter lasted into late March and delayed budding until mid-April. Spring was cool and wet, with heavy rain into the first half of June, and poor weather at flowering reduced pollination. That loss had a hidden benefit for Amarone: looser bunches with fewer grapes dry more evenly on the mats.
Late June and early July turned hot, and August was stable, dry and not too warm, with wide swings between day and night temperatures. Then, in late August and early September, violent hail storms struck the Classico zone, devastating some vineyards, particularly in the lower Negrar valley, the Quintarellis' home ground. Picking began in late September and continued on and off through rain into October. Across the region production fell by about 20 to 30 percent, and by up to half in some areas.
After seven years in cask, the Quintarelli 2013 reached critics in late 2021. Wine Advocate scored it 96+ in December 2021, describing dark ruby and garnet color, black fruit, dried plum, spice, campfire ash, camphor and grilled herb, a silky mouthfeel and a long cellar life ahead; the reviewer said it would appeal to Quintarelli purists with plenty of time to wait. Vinous gave it 95 in April 2022, calling it cool-toned and energetic, with crushed raspberries, clove, tangerine, mint and cocoa over a nervous core of acidity.
Identifying it, and what it costs
The wine is labeled Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, with Giuseppe Quintarelli's name and the vintage, and comes in a heavy glass bottle; the 2013 carries 16.5% alcohol. It was also released in magnums.
In October 2026 a U.S. retailer listed a 750 ml bottle of the 2013 at $394.99. A magnum labeled Selezione Giuseppe Quintarelli was listed by a California merchant at $999.99. A two-bottle lot of the 2013 was offered at auction in Paris in December 2024.
The numbers
- Vineyard area
- 11 ha (importer) or 12 ha (French merchant profile)
- Estate production
- About 60,000 bottles a year across all wines, per one profile
- Blend
- 55% Corvina and Corvinone, 30% Rondinella, 15% Cabernet, Nebbiolo, Croatina, Sangiovese
- Average vine age
- About 30 years
- Soils
- Limestone and basalt
- Cask aging
- Seven years in Slavonian oak (importer); eight years per another profile
- Alcohol
- 16.5%
- Wine Advocate
- 96+ (December 2021)
- Vinous
- 95 (April 2022)
Timeline
Silvio Quintarelli establishes the family vineyard in Negrar.
Giuseppe Quintarelli is born in Negrar.
The family business passes to Giuseppe.
Giuseppe Quintarelli dies at home in Negrar, aged 84; his family takes over.
After a long, cold winter, the vines bud in mid-April.
Heavy rain continues into the first half of June, reducing pollination at flowering.
Hail storms hit the Valpolicella Classico zone, especially the lower Negrar valley.
Harvest, begun in late September, continues through intermittent rain.
The dried grapes are pressed at the end of January, per the estate's usual method.
Wine Advocate scores the 2013 Amarone 96+.
Vinous scores the 2013 Amarone 95.
A two-bottle lot of the 2013 is offered at auction in Paris.
A U.S. retailer lists a bottle of the 2013 at $394.99.
The world in 2013
A meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia, the most powerful since the 1908 Tunguska event.
Pope Benedict XVI resigns, the first voluntary papal resignation since 1294.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is elected pope and takes the name Francis.
Bombs at the Boston Marathon kill 3 people and injure 264.
The Rana Plaza building collapses in Savar, Bangladesh, killing 1,134 people.
Edward Snowden's disclosures of U.S. surveillance programs begin to be published.
Croatia joins the European Union as its 28th member.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $395 | Asking price, not a saleRetail asking price per 750 ml bottle at a U.S. merchant. Not a sale. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2013 is number 77 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (98 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The grapes for Quintarelli's Amarone are not pressed until the end of January, months after harvest.
- Noble rot develops on the drying grapes over the winter.
- Quintarelli's labels were handwritten by Giuseppe's daughters.
- Fermentation carries on slowly in cask during the wine's years of aging until it is fully dry.
- Poor pollination in the wet spring of 2013 helped: looser bunches dry more evenly.
- The 2013 Amarone reaches 16.5% alcohol.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026