Quintarelli Bianco Secco Ca' del Merlo 2024

The Giuseppe Quintarelli estate is located in the village of Cerè in the municipality of Negrar, within the Valpolicella Classico zone, north of Verona. Silvio Quintarelli established the estate in 1924, having previously farmed vines on a sharecropping basis in Marano di Valpolicella. His son Giuseppe, known throughout the region as Bepi, took over operations in the early 1950s and ran the estate until his death in January 2012 at age 84. The estate today is led by his daughter Fiorenza and her husband Giampaolo Grigoli, together with their sons Francesco and Lorenzo.

The property covers approximately 12 hectares on the eastern slopes of the Negrar valley at around 500 meters elevation. Vines are trained in the traditional Veronese pergola system and farmed organically. The full range of varieties planted includes Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Croatina, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Garganega, Trebbiano Toscano, Saorin, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay. Annual production across the entire range is approximately 60,000 bottles.

The Bianco Secco Ca' del Merlo is the only dry white wine produced at the estate. It stands apart from the red wine range in its winemaking approach, relying on stainless steel and glass vessel aging and extended lees contact rather than the long oak aging that defines the Valpolicella, Amarone, and Ca' del Merlo red. That said, it shares the same single-vineyard fruit source and the same organic, native-yeast approach that runs across the entire portfolio. The estate has no website and carries out no formal marketing.

On Primal Wine, the Quintarelli range also includes the Quintarelli Rosso Ca' del Merlo 2018, the Quintarelli Rosso Ca' del Merlo 2017, the Quintarelli Rosso del Bepi 2016, and the Quintarelli Valpolicella Classico Superiore. Explore these alongside other benchmark bottles in our best-sellers collection.

The Veneto is Italy's highest-volume wine region by output, though its most historically significant wines come not from the plains but from a series of hillside zones north and west of Verona. Valpolicella, the zone most closely associated with the Giuseppe Quintarelli estate, sits in the western Veneto, on basalt and limestone hills between the Lessini Mountains and the Adige River plain. Within Valpolicella, the Classico zone, which covers the valleys of Fumane, Marano, and Negrar, is considered the historical core.

The Negrar valley, where Quintarelli's vineyards are located at around 500 meters above sea level, is characterized by iron-rich limestone soils over a base of basaltic rock. This combination of calcareous and volcanic parent material contributes both the mineral structure and the textural weight found across the estate's range, including its whites. Vineyards at this altitude benefit from cooler nights, which preserves natural acidity and aromatic definition in white varieties.

The Veneto's white wine identity is defined primarily by Garganega, the grape at the heart of both Soave DOC to the east and the Ca' del Merlo vineyard in Negrar. Soave Classico, the historic heartland of this variety, runs along volcanic and limestone ridges between Verona and Vicenza and has become one of Italy's most closely watched white appellations. Garganega produces wines with white stone fruit, almond, mineral salinity, and a structural bitterness on the finish that makes them particularly food-compatible.

Beyond Soave and Valpolicella, the broader Veneto IGT classification allows producers like Quintarelli to work outside DOC constraints, blending varieties and using techniques not permitted within appellation rules. This flexibility is central to the Bianco Secco Ca' del Merlo's grape composition, which brings together indigenous and international varieties grown side by side on the same hillside.

Browse our full Italian natural wine collection and our curated white natural wine selection on Primal Wine.