2019 Quintessa Proprietary Red Rutherford Napa Valley 750 ml

We called our last offer of Quintessa’s Proprietary Red the greatest ever from their Rutherford estate.

It was true when we said it.

That was before the gorgeous 2019 Napa Valley vintage produced the highest-rated Quintessa of all time. Named Wine Enthusiast’s #19 Cellar Selection of the year, it’s the first 100-pointer in the winery’s history—and if you ask us, the honor is long overdue.

Take one sip and discover what made Quintessa a Napa Valley benchmark: With its gorgeous ripeness, lush and tightly knit texture, and aromatic brilliance of a warm-vintage Bordeaux, it’s a refined expression of one of the Valley’s greatest terroirs.  

Quintessa follows the Bordelais blueprint: They produce one flagship red wine from their biodynamically farmed Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Carmenère. Each of their 26 blocks is farmed, harvested, and vinified separately, then blended to capture the estate in its diverse complexity.

The 2019 vintage provided optimal conditions for Quintessa to craft this exquisite wine. The weather was moderate throughout, producing grape clusters with perfect ripeness and acidity. Winemaker Rebecca Wineburg and her team had the luxury of a long, leisurely, low-pressure harvest that allowed them to pick the grapes with nothing but utmost quality in mind. 

Wineburg aged the 2019 for 20 months in 60% new French oak, then another year in bottle. The result is the kind of wine that made Quintessa an icon and represents Napa Valley at its most decadent and elegant. It’s a must for any California Cabernet collector and will pay dividends for decades.