2008 Quintessa Rutherford Bordeaux Blend

“Patrick Leon's first year as winemaker alongside Tim Mondavi, as Lucien Sionneau retired. This is a superb vintage (in fact the entire trio of 1984, 1985 and 1986 are a wonderful balance of Napa and Bordeaux). Dark flesh with an anise, saline edge to the finish, luscious quality to the brambled fruits, with a sweetness that gives away their age but a ton of minerality that keeps things skipping along. 21 days skin contact (note that they start to nudge this figure upwards at this point). Widely seen as one of the best vintages of the 1980s, with an early budbreak, a long moderate growing season and warm dry harvest, and this is still going strong. (JA)” (09/2019)

“There is no big burst of fruit or towering wave of sweet oak to make this one an immediate turner of heads, but there is a real sense of sophistication at work here with plenty of depth and layering right from the start. The wine is at once both slightly supple and fairly firm in feel, and its vitality is hard to ignore. It teases with touches of toast and dusty earth spice while hewing to a very long line of optimally ripened currants, and it has all the right pieces in all the right places to grow famously for ten years or more. *Two Stars*” (12/2011)