Tasting Notes

WA93

The 2010 Quintessa, a blend of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with some Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carmenere (don’t forget, the proprietor Agustin Huneeus has a background in Chile), is an elegant, finesse-styled red offering deep, rich, cassis fruit, dusty, loamy soil notes, medium to full body and ripe tannins. This evolved, seductive, round, generous 2010 offers up attractive notes of white chocolate and flowers as it sits in the glass. This is one of the first vintages made by Charles Thomas who has an impressive resume having worked previously at Robert Mondavi Winery and Rudd Estate. This 2010 should be drunk over the next decade or more.

WSM93

As luscious and luxurious as this wine may be, it has transparency to its flavors and a cool feel that keeps the fruit feeling fresh rather than superripe. The core of the blend comes from the center of this 280-acre estate, where the soils are gravel over rhyolite. The vineyards are planted on a series of hills between the Silverado Trail and the Napa River; the eastern hills of the property are white volcanic ash over rhyolite and the western side of the property is the kind of alluvial soil that's more typical of Rutherford. Charles Thomas culled more than 10 percent of the fruit to diminish the impact of the heat wave in 2010 and ended with a finely ripened wine with the flavor of fat black cherries. the fruit meets firm, precise tannins in a dark and spicy cabernet with drive. For roast duck.

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