Quintessa Rutherford Napa Valley 2020

98 points 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. Drinking window 2023-2045 (Feb 2023)."

96 points Lisa Perrotti-Brown (The Wine Independent): "The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with 7% Cabernet Franc, 4% Carmenere, and 2% Petit Verdot, is deep garnet-purple in color. It leaps with vibrant scents of wild blueberries, redcurrant jelly, and warm cassis plus hints of underbrush, pencil shavings, and bay leaves. The full-bodied palate is lively and fine-grained, with bags of bright fruit and a fragrant lift on the finish of this impressive wine. Drink 2023-2040 (Aug 2023)."

94 points 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. Drink or hold. (Sep 2022)."