In the early 1980s, Romano Dal Forno had a lot on his plate. he was struggling to make a living from his family winery, while looking after three young children. He knew the wines he was making were good, but he couldn’t shake the feeling they were missing something. Fate intervened when one Bepi Quintarelli took him under his wing, and shared everything he knew about winemaking. ‘I listened to everything he had to tell me and tried my level best to understand what he was doing’. These were lessons well learnt. Romano Dal Forno is now a master of his craft, passing on everything he knows to his sons - and Bepi Quintarelli is a legend.

The Dal Forno vineyards are on the slopes of Monte Lodoletta, in the Val d’Illasi. The family works with the traditional grape varieties here (Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Oseleta and Croatina). They are able to blend fruit from a variety of different soil types at different elevations, for further character and complexity in the wine. The winery they finally completed in 2008 is a spacious temple of modernity. (That’s something Luca Roagna told me – it is hard to make great wines without physical space in the winery. Without space, things end up going wrong.) ‘Tradition is important,’ says Romano, ‘but each new generation adds something more.’ The Dal Forno wines are intense, powerful, and long-lived. It’s worth noting that even the Valpolicella spends up to 45 days air-drying according to the vintage, followed by two years in new oak and three years in bottle. a Valpolicella here is like most other producers’ Amarone. (NT 04/08/22)