Highlights: Quintessa 2021 Napa, California
Website: https://www.quintessa.com/
Quintessa make just one red each year from its 135 acres of vines in Rutherford. There’s no second wine. The estate is divided up into plots which are vinified seperately, and then a final blend is made. The 2021 vintage is a blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 3% Carménère, 1% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot, aged for 22 months in 65% new French Oak, 32% neutral oak, and 3% terracotta.
Quintessa 2021 Rutherford, Napa, California
14.5% alcohol. Classic old-school Napa (without the over-ripeness), showing sweet but brooding blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, with stern savoury, slightly reductive notes under the sweet fruit. There’s some density here, and although it’s ripe, it has a grippy undertow. Such density, with a Mediterranean edge to the otherwise Bordeaux-style lavender- and herb-laced blackcurrant and berry fruits. This is currently in a slightly awkward stage, with the fruit cramped by the significant tannins, and finishing with some bitter notes, but there’s a lot of potential to this wine, with real concentration and mineral extract. It will be interesting to see this develop. I think it’s quite serious, but also shows polished tannins, and on day two it’s much more engaging and open. 95/100
