Welcome to Q Journal.

EACH YEAR, in anticipation of our Quintessa release, we collect stories and capture moments that tell the journey of our wine from soil to glass. We invite you to explore stories from the 2023 vintage below.

  • The 2023 Quintessa

    After three years of drought, the winter of 2023 gifted us with copious rain. It replenished the lake and saturated the deep vineyard soils. These reserves provided the foundation for a strong growing season.  Cool and wet conditions in early spring delayed bud break by two to three weeks. This unhurried cadence set the tone…

  • The 2022 Quintessa

    The 2022 growing season benefited from late fall rains of 2021. With this nutrient storage, the vines relied on their reserves to usher them through the following drought year. Dry winter conditions prompted early bud break, but a cool spring nurtured steady bloom. Moderate temperatures throughout most of the summer meant veraison aligned with a…

  • 2022: A Year in Photos

    At the estate, we think about time in cycles. A season will always reach its natural conclusion. Endings segue into new beginnings. Harnessing energy, releasing energy: these moments are how we measure time. Biodynamic farming respects these cycles of nature and has been fundamental to Quintessa since the beginning. Our founding philosophy introduced principles that…

  • The 2021 Quintessa

    A dry winter marked the start of 2021, foreshadowing somewhat smaller canopies in the vineyard. We pruned accordingly to encourage balanced ripening through the growing season. Against the backdrop of dry conditions, spring was refreshingly cool, allowing the clusters to develop slowly. From June through August, when sugar begins to accumulate, days were moderately warm,…

  • A Portrait of Quintessa

    How to capture the story of Quintessa in a single image? This was a question that both inspired andchallenged us. It’s not as if maps of the estate didn’t exist. But none of them successfully painted the full picture of this property’s distinctive setting in Rutherford between two mountain ranges, nor its astonishing geological complexity,…

  • Research Meets Reward

    Farming organically and biodynamically carries a great deal of responsibility. Each year, we seek to learn what the plants need to perform at the highest level—to best capture the diverse character of our estate, no matter the conditions of the season. Our effort to understand Quintessa’s composition underground informs our vineyard decisions aboveground. Our geologic…

  • Seeking Illumination

    Illumination emerged from a clear vision, inspired by the tradition of Bordeaux’s great estates. Simply put: to create a white wine that would be a worthy partner to Quintessa—possessing the complexity, character, and transparency to mirror our estate blend. From our first small production in 2006, the core of the fruit for Illumination has always…

  • The 2020 Quintessa

    In hindsight, 2020 was a bellwether year, a season that tested—and ultimately affirmed—our pinpoint understanding of each vineyard block, the kind of wine it wants to produce, and the proactive farming it needs to fulfill that potential. The mosaic of our estate vineyard gave us a wide-ranging palette of unique site expressions to work with…

  • The 2022 Illumination

    Our Illumination mirrors the soul and substance of Quintessa, produced with the same philosophy of blending and expression of terroir. It’s a white wine with complex layers of flavor, profound textures, and the capacity to age. A blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, Illumination expresses the character of the sites where it is grown, amplified…

  • The 2019 Release

    The 2019 Quintessa celebrates the precision and nuance of a vintage that reflects the full complexity of our estate. It is an expression of Quintessa in a graceful growing season, yielding a wine of transparency and depth—full of flavor, while also energizing and persistent. This vintage began with well-timed rains that encouraged a smooth start….

  • Becoming Quintessa

    The blue oaks growing throughout the estate are testaments to its formation. It was the vision of Valeria Huneeus to not only respect these majestic trees, but to retain every single one on the property, many of which have been rooted here for centuries. These oak forests inform the character of Quintessa as much as…

  • The Voice of Quintessa

    For more than three decades, we have dedicated ourselves to deepening our relationship with the Quintessa estate. Founders Valeria and Agustin Huneeus discovered Quintessa in the course of their search for a pristine landscape. Their shared vision was to steward the beauty of an estate while thoughtfully farming a wine that could become its distinctive…

  • Guiding the Vine

    It can be easy to overlook a vineyard in winter. The vines are bare of leaves, dormant. The fruit has all been harvested. However, the winter months reveal a wine’s potential. Bare vines in winter stand like an x-ray, divulging the form of their growth over time. The vineyard’s imperfections are visible. Its adaptation to…

  • A Dedication

    Each year we rededicate ourselves to preserving the pristine beauty of Quintessa, to respecting the distinctive voice of this property, to stewarding its future. It is the commitment of our entire team that makes this possible. Most of our employees have worked at Quintessa for more than 15 years. In the vineyard, Martin Galvin has…

  • Our Farming Vision

    From the first moment Valeria saw what would become Quintessa, she was very adamant about not doing anything to harm the land. To discover a property of this size in Napa Valley that had never been planted to vineyards was rare, and presented a great responsibility to protect the beauty. Organic, and in 1996, Biodynamic®…