A wine that I have heard neither love nor hate for around here is Quintessa. There seems like there has been a change or two in winemaking over the years, but I feel like the style has always had a bit of restraint: they never quite get the Parker Points like other Cali Cabs. So what’s the berserkers official opinion?
(I do confess a love of Illumination - that SB, in its good years, is absolutely sublime).
Charles Thomas is there now, he was at Rudd, and before that Mondavi. I think he makes a very pure restrained style that will never get great Parker points, but ages well and is great with food.
His SB is great.
*we sell whatever we get of this wine each year.
I think it’s an excellent wine, at least the recent vintage that I tried last year. I would still call it a fairly modern style for Napa in that it’s quite forward with extremely ripe tannins, giving it a fairly velvety, plush mouthfeel, and that there’s a lot of intensity. However, I do agree that it’s fairly restrained relative to a lot of other high end Napa cabs these days. The alcohol was well integrated, and the fruit was mainly fresh rather than tasting like liqueur or cooked fruit. It does have the balance of a wine that I’d expect to age extremely well. I’m not a big fan of young Cabernet in general, but I found it extremely enjoyable.
Pretty good juice. Have had about 3, and liked them all.
But at the retail price, it’s poor qpr, or u can say they are overpriced.
what isn’t from down there?
I can’t think of a Napa Cab that I think is as good for less money.
I was pleasantly surprised by this at a recent trade tasting. Certainly not the style of wine that I typically drink, but I was impressed the the purity of fruit and overall balance.
As a favorite wine of my better half, I have enjoyed Quintessa on several occasions. We visited them during a trip to Napa in May and had a wonderful tasting (three vintages) and tour of the property.
The 2001 and 2002 were outstanding. IIRC Aaron Pott made them both.
^ yup. i recently had the 02 (from a maggie) that was outstanding.