Quintessa (375ML half-bottle) 2010

Professional Ratings

• 94 Decanter
  At 10 years old the colour is just starting to show amber and brick edging. The aromatics also are smudging into blackberry, liquorice and truffle. This is very much at its plateau for drinking, with soft and welcoming campfire notes and the energy just starting to dip a little from the last time I tasted this wine two years ago. A beautiful mature Napa Cab. Carménère and Petit Verdot complete the blend. Drinking Window 2020 - 2036
• 93 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  The 2010 Proprietary Red Wine continues to drink well, showing just a slight color change at the rim. Representing a different winemaking team than current efforts (and a relatively cool vintage), it's a crisp, streamlined effort, with cigar box notes tightly framing cherry fruit, a silky feel and a lingering, mouthwatering finish. Best After 2016

• 93 Wine & Spirits
  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.
• 92 Wine Spectator
  Pure, rich and supple, with a mix of mocha, dark berry, cedar and black licorice notes, all coming together on the finish. The tannins keep the reverberating flavors in check. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carmenère. Drink now through 2026.