Quintessa 2020

Professional Ratings

• 98 Decanter
  Here is one of the stars of this challenging vintage. A muscular wine, leading with tremendous freshness on the palate, restrained red-toned fruit, and very subtle yet elegant cedar wood intermixed with red-rock minerality. Medium to full-bodied, offering more black fruit on the palate, redolent of muddled blackberries and juicy plums. An iron fist in a velvet glove comes to mind, given the tannin texture, which leads with the furry, velvety side of the glove and transitions to an undercurrent of ironclad and dusty minerals. All this turns fresh and lively through the finish. Perhaps a bit hot on the alcohol, but this will soften soon enough—absolutely one of the more riveting wines of the entire vintage. I had the chance to taste this wine at Quintessa with Rebekah Wineburg, Winemaker and Rodrigo Soto, General Manager, and it was the last in a lineup of wines going back to the 1994 vintage, and it showed all I have written -- Wineburg and Soto are so finely in tuned with Quintessa’s vineyards that it’s almost no surprise they devised such a beautiful wine through such a difficult year, battling fires and dealing with obstacles related to the pandemic. Seek this out.
• 94 James Suckling

  A lovely red with a pretty core of currants, berries, spices and mushrooms. Medium to full body, layers of polished tannins and a juicy finish. A very balanced and fine wine. A little chewy.

• 92 Jeb Dunnuck

  The 2020 Proprietary Red is another rock-solid 2020 that has the vintage's dense, compact feel while staying balanced. Red and black currants, mulberries, iron, leather, and violet notes define the nose, and it's medium to full-bodied, has a layered, elegant mouthfeel, and outstanding length. The blend is 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 4% Carmenere, and the rest Petit Verdot that spent 22 months in 60% new oak.