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Loving the notes! But a minor pedantic correction; the leaves for tea in Peru and Bolivia is coca, where cocaine comes from, whereas cacao is where chocolate comes from. I lived off that tea; it’s supposed to help with altitude acclimatisation something my body is rubbish at!
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I’m another here who’s grateful that you took the time to share your experiences and pics. Thanks for doing so, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the virtual ride ! 
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Austere is a useful term and has led to some interesting reading. This was drunk with the family so no day two on this occasion. Will be interested in comparing with other Alsace domains.
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This is also a bottle with some air miles but a lot less scenery than the interesting Peruvian travelogue @PHarvey !!
Last nights glass and a bit more tonight.
Quite sharp on opening but smoothed out and classic Barossa Shiraz. Hints of spice and vanilla embedded in the big fruit finish. Probably needs a bit more time…but nevertheless very enjoyable and well priced as as a first of a 6 case bought earlier this year.
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That’s more or less what I thought about my first bottle of this too - very good but surprisingly tangy, and probably needs a little time to settle in. Good price for the case deal, definitely.
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Guiseppe Quintarelli Tasting
Negrar, valpooicella, veneto is where the wines are from.
- 2015 Vallana Nebbiolo Brut Rosē £30
Dry, Fair acidity. Mellow brandy soaked strawberry. Fairly serious. Amazing transformation of nebbiolo. Bit of a food wine.
Phrases to avoid when describing the wine
- I could get recco on this prosecco
1b) Billecart-Salmon champagne 2002
Showing some age and a little oak. Very fine, great taste. Yellow. Great warm up act.
- 2020 Bianco Secco £30
Wonderful fresh fruit nose. Full of life. Peach, Field blend. Lovely. More acidity than I expected. Mountain wine. Nose beats palate
- 2018 Primafiore £50
Haven’t had a nose like that. Just want to draw more in. Note to self, need to breathe out too. Black fruits on the nose. Elegant. No appassimento. Fresh.
Crikey I realise I’m a future customer. Could drink this all day.
I don’t have a clear frame of comparative reference for this style but it seems it’s a distinctive one all of it’s own.
Apparently this is a “house” wine to drink when (if) you need a break from their Amarone
10/10
- 2013 Valpolicella Classico Superiore £70
Fabulous. 2nd wine of the year in a row I.e. eclipsed the last one.
50/50 appassimento and fresh. Then ripasso
Next level. Nose is fabulous. Layers. Sweetness and balance. Love the fruit, perfume and complexity. Apparently it ages not sure if I’d be able to resist
- 2013 Rosso Ca del Merlo £70
50/50 appassimento/fresh + ripasso. Added cab sav + merlot. Hello US market 
Similar nose. Richer mid range with added grape varieties. Still love it
The deeper you breathe the better it gets. That’s not usually the case. Usually get more alcohol notes
- 2010 Rosso del Bepi
Todo watch: Barolo boys film Amazon prime
15.5% It’s not an Amarone, but made in same way. Not the same vintages as amarone. Two a decade.
Stunning, more concentrated. Super rich. Tasty. Super intense. Nose slightly less pronounced
“Brunello 2010 would be a waste to crack now” says MW in attendance. “Sigh” I quietly think as that’s just what I celebratory cracked just before the birth of my last child, knowing I was going wine free and losing my sleep over the months to come. Also coming up to two years ago now so must have cracked it with extra invinticide. 
- 2012 Amarone della Valpolicella £300+
Nose fabulous. Magical. Absolutely amazing. Feels less alcohol at 16.5% than the Bepi. Third wine of the year of the night. The leap up is worth it
Very disappointing as I may have to buy some. I love it and it costs so so much. Must keep orders to two cases per year. Kids don’t need new clothes. They can leave school at 16. Perhaps I can ship them as manual labourers to Quintarelli
- 2011 Alzero cabernet £300+
Most desirable in secondary and US markets. CS grape. Quintarelli nose (apparent throughout the range)
Slightly American targeted. Sublime. Richer. Amazing. Some heat didn’t notice the heat on the Amarone
All these wines exhibit low residual sugar but taste sweet from the fruit.
I haven’t spent ages refining my notes ie trying to nail taste or smell components. The wines deserved my attention in the moment and pours were small. 3 “wines of the year… so far” in one night
Is it worth it?
People pay millions on art. We all accept this without a blink of an eye.
So I’m actually left thinking it is worth it and relative to long term NFT ownership bargainous.
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Sounds like a great tasting.
I’m always stuck on that question of “is it worth it?” and “is it moral to spend that much on a bottle of wine”. It’s always much more difficult to answer after tastings like that. Obviously my bank balance (or lack there of) has a far clearer idea as to the answer! (£50 for a house wine?!?!?).
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Yes. Beforehand I was thinking it would be a perfectly acceptable outcome if I found the higher end wines a little bit better but definitely not worth it.
Despite my tongue in cheek notes I am left thinking the Valpol at £70 is worth a case of 6 in bond next time I can. The Amarone I could potentially stretch to the odd bottle.
Relative to bordeaux where cost is similar for high end wines and production quantities are relatively huge. These are very small production (11 hectares) and relative to those I think definitely holds its own (he says with very limited experience of high end bordeaux)
£50 for a house wine
I’ve spent more on worse bottles. The only reason he described it as that is it’s purely fresh grapes so, lighter and fresher tasting. I can imagine with the abv and intensity of the higher end, it would represent a fresher change for the palate
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I’d also say as a tasting group (we paid £60 per person). This is a great way to experience these high end wines without being destitute
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I imagine Mr Harvey has his time filled with chasing guinea pigs for dinner
Wine Grapes says Quebranta is a
‘traditional red skinned variety from Peru, where it is grown mainly to produce pisco, the national grape spirit, but also for rose or red table wines at varying sweetness levels for domestic consumption.’
Book says it is a cross of Listan Prieto (aka Mission) and Negramoll
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I’m loving the pics & the virtual experience from a cold grey Hertfordshire, so keep it all coming please!
I had a similar trip in Argentina 15 years ago - for work in fact, but with lots of time before-during-after for my own stuff - and following your stuff is taking me right back to the mountains & wines & blue skies of South America :~}
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That seems a good deal to me, I must say.
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Monday I made a new dish taken from a recipe in Waitrose’s magazine. It uses 4 ingredients, all (no surprise) from Waitrose. I followed the recipe almost exactly apart from the 25 minutes given for it. I’ve learnt that such times are not possible (not by me anyway) so I allowed an hour.
Sausage and Cannellini Bean Stew
The four ingredients are:
- Waitrose 6 Cumberland Pork Sausages 400g (seasoned with pepper, mace, nutmeg & dried herbs).
- 2x - Waitrose chargrilled vegetable sauce with olives 350g (A sauce made with tomatoes, vegetables, olives and extra virgin olive oil)
- 3x - Cans Essential Cannellini Beans in Water drained 235g
- 2x - Baby Leaf Greens 200g
The recipe is for six. There were six sausages so that means each portion would have only one sausage. I decided to do exactly what the recipe said (tho’ I misread the recipe and used only two cans of beans, which was plenty) and freeze the excess.
- Cook the sausages and
- Heat the sauce in a large pan
- Drain the beans, reserving their water
- Add drained beans to the sauce
- Cut half the greens to bite size pieces, discarding thick stems.
- Cut cooked sausages into 4 or 5 pieces and add the pan
- Add the greens to the sauce, stir through over a low simmer
recipe says to steam rest of greens and serve on side - I didn’t
We ate probably half the stew. Mrs M was very enthusiastic about it. Next time I’ll use pak choi or pointed cabbage or cauliflower florets instead of the greens, of which I used only one packet.
With it we enjoyed:
2020 The Wine Society Portuguese Red (Portugal, Vinho Regional Península de Setúbal)
What a super, drinkable pleasurable wine. Simple, rewarding, warming lovely and … amazingly cheap. Well done, TWS!!
Tuesday Mrs M had her usual on-line bridge session which starts early so we had an early dinner of Mrs M’s favourite crispy slices of aubergine in tomato & basil sauce and penne with a mixed salad and no-brainer™
2020 Casa Vinicola Roxan The Wine Society’s Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Italy, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo)
Wednesday I stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts and red pepper strips in black bean sauce, accompanied by boiled rice (and for me chopped red chillies in Thai fish sauce) and stir-fried pak choi in oyster sauce with which we had we had
2020 Riebeek Cellars Cinsault Morrisons The Best Bush Vine (South Africa, Swartland)
I was not sure what wine to have with the strong tastes of black-bean and oyster sauces, but this was just tickety-boo, and greatly enjoyed.
Thursday tea with tonight’s dinner for afterwards I’ll be going to our monthly U3A Wine Tasting, which is titled Every One a Winner. All I know about the wines we’ll be drinking tasting is they are medal winners from the Wine Society list.
(all this week’s wines are from TWS except the Cinsaut from Morrisons)
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I understand where the costs come from particularly with these small producers, 11 hectares is big for northern Italy! As you say it’s a little harder to swallow when you look at Bordeaux/Super Tuscan/Napa production. £70 a bottle for a case of 6 is about where I’ve top out (I try to stay under £50 but then Massolino single vineyard Barolo and a few Brunello, I tried to go higher in this years Burgundy, but ended up with a single bottle!) but I’ve not yet made it to the £300ish (and only over £100 once) odd bottle but it does also sometimes feel like it’s only a matter of time.
£60 for that tasting does seem like a good price! The question I have now is “where from?” as I’d like to give a couple of those wines a go myself!
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yes it was fabulous value, with a not for profit wine club. slightly subsidised against other tastings
Opened last night - wrote a grumpy review then thought better & deleted it. Better today.
Domaine Bruno Clair, Marsannay Les Grasses Têtes 2017
At £36 this is expensive for me, or is it cheap for a Burgundy? certainly it’s excellent in the glass & that is what matters - as an occasional treat. Has a new world richness & concentration, full bodied for a P.N. No secondary notes (yet) so although drinking extremely well currently, will benefit from more time in the bottle.
I wouldn’t buy again because there are much better ways to spend £36 at the TWS. But that is down to Burgundy and the wine market in general - not a reflection on this wine.
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Thanks, Peter! Most interesting, and not at all surprising! 
What is perhaps most surprising is that, at least as far as I know from talking with the top two producers on the island a few years ago, there is no such crossing on the island of La Palma itself, where the cuttings from the two grapes almost certainly came from (I’m not aware of listán prieto on any other Canary islands).
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@suiko My understanding is Listan Prieta was collected by missionaries when their ship stopped there on its way from Spain to the Americas.
Listan Prieta was planted in the missions to provide the necessary sacramental wine and over time it became known as the mission grape.
I have drank Mission in California , but I had to hunt it out as its pretty rare. Most was made in recent times into a fortified wine called Angelica, but I had the red table wine from several wineries, and visited Storey Winery in Amador County which has some ancient Mission vines and bought some bottles.
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According to Wine Grapes Negramoll is a very old variety that originated in Andalucia, Spain and was taken to South America (from Spain) where its first appearance is in a document dated 1787.
As per my earlier post, the cross with Listan Prieta is said by Wine Grapes to be a natural cross that took place in Peru
Yes, sure, I know the history. The main source of interesting Listán Prieto is now of course Chile, where new (and very good) wines seem to be coming out yearly.
I didn’t know Negramoll / Negra Mole was supposed to have originated in Andalucía, though. There is nothing in Andalucía today that even resembles it (no light-bodied red grapes at all as far as I know), though there is most certainly Negra Mole in the Algarve, where it is undergoing a renaissance in my local vineyards. I was told here that it has no connection with the Tinta Negra Mole of Madeira, though I am sceptical (as I am of the Wine Grapes Andalucían origin!)
Interestingly, both Listán Perieto and Negramoll are much commoner on La Palma than the other islands, where Listán Negro is the dominant red grape.
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