Giuseppe Quintarelli, died on Sunday. He was 84 years old at the time
of his death, and he died at home in Negrar, in the Veneto region in
northeastern Italy.

Guiseppe Quintarelli was a winemaker. He
made glorious wines, rich, complex wines
infused with the sense of where they were
made.

Bepi, as he was known, followed his father
and grandfather into the winemaking
business. He started in the family business
in the 1950s and was still making wine in
the early 21^st century. He respected and
adhered to traditional techniques for making
wine and but also experimented with new
techniques to try to improve the quality and
consistency of the wine that came out of his
vineyards.

His interest in quality didn’t stop at the wine
making – he also used high quality corks,
bottles and labels. The labels on his wine
bottles are hand written and have his
signature on each one.

So the point of all this is that here was a man who spent his life focused on making the best wines he could, paying attention to the big things as well as the small things that made a difference. He tried new things but also respected the traditions of his industry. He understood that quality comes from skill and patience, seeing the big picture as well as the details. Good lessons for us all.

For the record, I had a bottle of his wine back in the fall – and it was everything it was promised to be.  Maybe the best bottle of wine I’ve ever had.  So if you come across one on a wine list somewhere, and you don’t mind dropping a couple of hundred bucks on it, order it up and think about Bepi and what quality means.