Varietals: 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 3% Carménère, 1% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot
100 Points Wine Enthusiast
An exquisite wine, relying primarily on Cabernet Sauvignon from a single estate. Aromas of lavender, dried herbs and grapefruit pith combine with flavors of firm fruits and cocoa on a structure of abundant, powder-fine tannin and a mouthwatering finish. This wine is refined, detailed and delicious, with as much elegance as energy. Best 2026–2040.
Cellar Selection
99 Points James Suckling
So much graphite and volcanic character on the nose with metal shavings and gunpowder. Black ink, iron and rust, too. Blackberry and blackcurrant undertones. Full-bodied but not overpowering, with chewy and juicy tannins that are long and very subtle. Superb finish. From biodynamic grapes with Demeter certification.
98 Points Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2021 Proprietary Red was just bottled in July of this year. It offers pure blue fruits, spring flowers, violets, and spicy oak, with a beautiful chalky, mineral note that comes through more on the palate. It's elegant, full-bodied, has ultra-fine tannins, good acidity, and terrific length. It's another gorgeous wine that will evolve for 15+ years.
96 Points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Marked by scents of cherries and raspberries, with just the barest hints of cedar and mocha-tinged oak, Quintessa's fruit-forward 2021 Proprietary Red Wine is wonderfully smooth and supple in the mouth. It's medium to full-bodied, suave and silky, all class and elegance, without any sense of excessive bulk or rusticity. If one were to have a complaint about it (hardly likely), it's that it comes across as almost too polished, too elegant, too easy to drink.
94 Points Wine Spectator
This sports a fresh-edged beam of mulberry, black currant and boysenberry fruit, while flashes of hibiscus and violet fill in throughout alongside singed apple wood and iron notes. Shows the vintage's combo of dense fruit and racy-edged structure, with nice tension. Best from 2025 through 2038. The 2021 Quintessa is a wine of great concentration and finesse. But it is just one point on an arc in more than three decades of history, reaching towards an unseen future—and we are not ones to rest on our laurels. The vintage is hard-won affirmation that meeting the opportunity of a stellar growing season with vision, experience, intuition, and science can result in great beauty and excellence.