1990 Amarone della Valpolicella

I do not drink much Amarone (although I methodically taste them every year) as I find most of it to be too pruny, somewhat oxidized, and not fresh enough, even allowing for the particular style of these wines. Yet even I get excited by such spectacular Amarones. Quintarelli has made many great ones, and I have enough bottles in my cellar to prove my faithfulness to his wines. The profound 1990 Amarone della Valpolicella is a magnificent example of Amarone. Dry and massively proportioned, with a dark plum color, this wine offers up copious quantities of chocolate, smoke, tar, and sweet pruny fruit, with intriguing nuances. Full-bodied, powerful, and rich, with no hard edges, this is a heady, sensationally-endowed wine that should drink well for 15 years. Wow! An amazing wine.||Readers who follow the Italian wine scene must argue incessantly over who makes the greatest wines of Veneto - Quintarelli or Dal Forno Romano? Both are at the top of their game, producing spectacular wines that are reference points for an area of northeast Italy that is beginning to show signs of awakening from a long period of moribund mediocrity. Wine Advocate.August, 1997