Quintessa 2014

2014 was an excellent growing season (albeit with 6.0 magnitude earthquake on 24 August). This is fresh, perfumed, rich and intense. The perfume is garriguey and Mediterranean, lovely dusty (Rutherford dust) tannins and then sweet acidity washed by juice. What a lovely wine – fresh and complex, racy, seamless acidity. Supple and plush. Quintessa is one of those wineries (Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars is another, Corison, Stony Hill and many more) that has maintained the same leaner, fresher style through the Napa boom years. “The ambition has been maintained from the beginning,” says winemaker Rebekah Wineburg. These wines are now absolutely of their time, and they are splendid.