Jack Quinn

Jack Quinn 2004 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2004 Grape Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: September 19, 2004 Release Date: Spring 2007 Aging: Aged for 22 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 125

Vintage Notes: 2004 was a long, relatively warm growing season, with naturally low yields. Spring came early that year, the vines thrived all summer long and all indications were for an early harvest. Indeed harvest did come early, along with a wave of intense heat that brought the grapes quickly to full maturity. At the Agave Rose Vineyard, yields were 2.7 tons per acre of small clusters with good color and flavor intensity.

The resulting wine from our vineyard shows great balance, with aromas of raspberry, chocolate, caramel and flint. It shows many of the classic characteristics of Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon, with purity of fruit, hints of dried herbs, and an element of smoke that is alluring. Unlike many modern Napa wines, this wine shows restraint and elegance, and should pair well with many types of cuisine. It shows well now, but should gain in complexity over the next 3 to 5 years.

Jack Quinn 2005 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2005 Grape Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 17, 2005 Release Date: Spring 2008 Aging: Aged for 24 months in 85% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 185

Vintage notes: Due to a tardy and rainy spring which delayed flowering, the 2005 vintage was unusually late. Cool weather for most of the growing season saw temperatures that averaged 70-80°. Mother Nature brought us a nearly perfect 2005 fall with plenty of sunshine and average mean temperatures. We picked the fruit later in the season and this extended hang time has benefited the flavor and color development.

At the Agave Rose Vineyard, yields were 3.5 tons per acre of small clusters with good color and flavor intensity. The 2005 Jack Quinn Cabernet Sauvignon is well balanced with great varietal definition and tannins. This elegant Cabernet is enjoyable right now, but also has the structure to evolve beautifully and will gain complexity over the next 3 to 5 years.

Jack Quinn 2006 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2006 Grape Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 28, 2006 Release Date: Spring 2009 Aging: Aged for 24 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 153

Vintage notes: This 2006 vintage started with a wet winter followed by some late spring rain delaying bud break but leading us to healthy vines with a moderate crop load. The growing season had been marked by two big heat waves in June and July with no rain up until October. The moderate weather following those two early heat waves helped us to extend the period of ripening so that the grapes were able to fully mature with a great acidity, fruit expression and tannins quality.

The 2006 Jack Quinn offers a pure ripe cabernet fruit bouquet with spicy currant, blackberry as well as strawberry notes completed with a creamy vanilla oak. This is a complex full bodied wine with some mouth coating tannins which give us an overall impression of grace and elegance. This elegant Cabernet is enjoyable right now, but also has the structure to evolve beautifully and gain complexity over the next 7-10 years.

Jack Quinn 2007 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2007 Grape Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 6, 2007 Release Date: Spring 2010 Aging: Aged for 24 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 175

Vintage notes: The growing season in 2007 was a very smooth and consistent period, and could be one of the greatest vintages for Bordeaux Varietals in Napa Valley. The season began relatively early, following a dry winter with little rain, in a slightly cooler climate than usual. Vines came into balance with low vigor, and berries and clusters were small to medium sized. Around Veraison, in the middle of July, temperatures were warm with only a few heat spikes, offering a near perfect growing season. By the beginning of September, the vines had served up small quantities of very dark intense fruit which were able to ripen and soften towards the end of the month. By October we were bringing the Cabernet Sauvignon fruit in with ample hang time and full ripeness.

The 2007 Jack Quinn displays notes of black raspberry and black currant intermixed with earthy notes, loamy soil, cedar, and spice box. This is a balance, complex mid-bodied wine with sweet well-integrated mouth coating tannins.

This elegant Cabernet is enjoyable right now, and will certainly gain complexity over the next 10 years.

Jack Quinn 2008 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2008 Grape Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 15, 2008 Release Date: Spring 2012 Aging: Aged for 20 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 207

The 2008 vintage in Napa Valley was a season of multiple challenges but ultimately the small crop was harvested very ripe with mature tannins and produced rich, showy wines with a refined balance. The growing season began with a major cold snap that caused considerable frost damage throughout the valley, especially at higher elevations. Fortunately, our vineyard avoided this damage however yields were well below average. Despite a quick flowering in Rutherford due to a heat spike in late May, we made sure to pay intense attention to detail in the vineyard. This attention paid off and the result was an average crop of beautiful fruit harvested in mid-October. Our 2008 Jack Quinn was bottled in July 2010.

The 2008 Jack Quinn, with classic graphite, creme de cassis, raspberry and cherry compote notes all well-presented in the perfumed aromatics, is a medium-bodied concentrated wine. It has some noticeable tannins that will resolved with couple years of bottle aging. Nevertheless, this is a gorgeous wine to drink over the next 15+ years.

Jack Quinn 2009 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2009 Grape Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 12, 2009 Release Date: December 2012 Aging: Aged for 20 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 210

Rainfall in 2009 was little more than two-thirds of usual for the third year in a row, and the timing of the precipitation was on the vine’s side. Mother Nature managed to have temperature and moisture work in unison to give Rutherford vines and grapes the best scenario possible with a relatively cool and dry 2009 growing season.

The start of the vintage was much less eventful than 2008. Growers were able to sleep nights not worrying about the threat of frost, or the lack of water to combat it if it came. Late spring rains delayed irrigation needs and a warm spell in June helped curtail excessive canopy development. We counted perhaps only four or five days of 100°F plus temperature, thankfully helping reduce demand for water when that resource was relatively scarce. As a result of these ideal conditions at Agave Rose Vineyards we were able to take full advantage of lengthy hang time. That allowed our grapes to reach full phenolic maturity with reasonable sugar levels. Ultimately and before the heavy rains hit Northern California in October 2009, we harvested grapes with developed, concentrated flavors and mature tannins, which helped us to produce a perfumed 2009 Jack Quinn Cabernet Sauvignon, loaded with fruit and elegance.

The 2009 Jack Quinn, exhibits a great purple robe and delivers complex notes of blueberry, blackberry, spicy fruit, as well as tobacco intermixed with lavender flavors. This is a full-bodied concentrated wine, with a load of tannins and a firm texture, opening up to a spicy dark fruit finish. Decanting the 2009 Jack Quinn is advised for immediate enjoyment and we believe the 2009 will do well with a couple years of bottle aging. Nevertheless, this is a gorgeous wine to drink over the next 15+years. Our 2009 Jack Quinn was bottled in July 2011.

Jack Quinn 2010 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2010 Grape Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 22, 2010 Release Date: Fall 2013 Aging: Aged for 18 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 210

A slightly cooler spring and rainfall in early 2010 pushed bud break and flowering back by an average of two weeks across our vineyards. Fortunately, this delay prevented frost from becoming a concern. Cooler temperatures continued over the summer forcing meticulous canopy management throughout the growing season. As a result, winemaker Benoit Touquette orchestrated multiple fruit-thinning passes to decrease the fruit load and promote both ripening and concentration. Two brief heat spikes in August took place before our last fruit-thinning pass, and we were able to remove any sunburned grapes from the vine prior to picking. The long growing season and Indian Summer allowed us to take full advantage of the increased hang-time and allowed our grapes to reach full phenolic maturity and ideal sugar levels.

The 2010 Jack Quinn, exhibits an intense purple robe and delivers complex aromas of cassis, black cherry, violet, licorice and smoke. Dark and rich, this wine impresses for it’s volume, breadth and silkiness. Layers of fruit build to the expressive, creamy finish. The 2010 Jack Quinn should drink well early, and will develop beautifully for a number of years.

Jack Quinn 2011 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2011 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 25 Release Date: Spring 2015 Aging: Aged for 18 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 196

The 2011 growing season was very challenging for most California winegrowers. It started with a wet winter and spring, continuing with rainfall into mid-June that delayed bloom and disrupted fruit set. This set the stage for a long, cooler-than-average growing season with a later-than-average harvest marked by autumn storms. All of the cloud cover and cool temperatures delayed vine development by several weeks. A few high heat events occurred towards the end of the growing season. However, we opened up the vine canopies to ensure sunlight, warmth and good air circulation around the grape clusters. Rain in October caused further delays but we were able to get good hang time and reach full maturity development. 2011 was a year of patience.

The 2011 Jack Quinn is a beautiful delicate wine, very harmonious and a great representation of our beautiful vineyard. Jumping out of the glass, the wine reveals notes of red berries, blackcurrant, spices and expresso. The texture is silky and round; a mid-bodied wine that is well balance and provides a lovely finish.

Jack Quinn 2012 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2012 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 20 Release Date: Spring 2016 Aging: Aged for 20 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 193

The 2012 growing season was exceptional for California winegrowers. It started with a wet winter and spring, transitioning to great weather that blessed us during bloom and an incredible fruit set. In this relatively warm year, the key was to drop the crop aggressively (just after two years of very light production).

As always, few high heat events occurred towards the end of the growing season but we were able to harvest concentrated berries, fully ripe with great flavors. We are extremely happy to release that newer vintage, we hope you will appreciate the wine as much as we enjoyed the growing season.

The 2012 Jack Quinn exhibits some aromas of raspberry jam, black cherry, plum, spices, flowers, licorice and smoke. This rich, explosive wine is all about volume and texture with layers of fruit on the palate that build up to a long and creamy finish.

Jack Quinn 2013 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2013 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 14 Release Date: Spring 2017 Aging: Aged for 20 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 200

The 2013 growing season was exceptional for California winegrowers: an ideal season indeed - dry conditions and a long, sunny Indian summer that provided ideal weather to finish up harvest allowing us to pick each block at peak flavor levels and phenolic maturity.

The season started with a warm, dry spring that brought early bud break, but also helped with canopy vigor and berry size and created ideal conditions for flowering and fruit set under sunny skies. With the exception of one heat spike in late June/early July, temperatures were consistently in the zone for optimal vine activity, resulting in notably healthy vines as fruit went through Veraison and started ripening.

The August 1st start of harvest was the earliest in recent history. Two brief mid-September rains had virtually no impact on the grapes. A sunny weather with breezes followed the rains, allowing for the Cabernet Sauvignon to dry out almost immediately. The cooler, sunny weather throughout October allowed the final grapes still on the vine to linger longer, developing more phenolic and rich flavor maturities with sugar levels remaining steady.

The 2013 Jack Quinn is plump and highly expressive, with perfumed aromatics and plenty of radiant fruit. Silky, polished tannins wrap around a succulent finish laced with dark red cherry, raspberry, wild flowers and cinnamon.

Jack Quinn 2014 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2014 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 9 Release Date: Spring 2018 Aging: Aged for 16 months in 100% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 240

The 2014 growing season brought another year of record-breaking drought but it was also a dream vintage with quality along with 2012 and 2013. This was the third year in the current drought cycle, with almost two weeks ahead of schedule.

Indeed, “early” was the key word all season from bud break to veraison to harvest. The drought was so extreme that the cover crop seeding in winter never grew.. Some rain in late February and early March did help the vines and relieved some stress. Summer weather was perfect for the grapes, with no excessive heat, nor humidity, and no sunburn.

Harvest came early, perhaps the earliest in a long time but with an exceptional quality of fruit with a surprisingly good crop load especially after considering the abundant previous years.

Also and sadly, the 2014 vintage will be remembered for that date of August 24th where an earthquake struck Napa with a magnitude of 6.0, damaging more than 120 wineries, and numerous residential and commercial buildings. Thanks to the generosity and efforts of the community everything was back in order after only a few days and the harvest continued.

The 2014 Jack Quinn is open and forward, with a lot of personality offering a lot of cassis, blackcurrants, toasted spices, graphite and subtle oak. The palate is medium bodied and developed in the glass revealing a wine of great length and precision with a delicious silky texture. Enjoy.

Jack Quinn 2015 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2015 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: September 19 Release Date: Spring 2019 Aging: Aged for 16 months in 85% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 200

The 2015 growing season started early due to drought conditions and higher than average temperatures during the winter 2014/15 - Even more than what we have seen in 2013 and 2014. Flowering has been challenged by cooler temperatures in May so the yield could be affected on some areas, fortunately the Agave Rose Vineyard was an exception to the rule and we were able to carry a normal crop on our site.

Throughout the year the temperatures were higher than normal with quite a number of days at above 100 degrees – The most critical period being mid-September with a stretch of several days with temperatures exceeding 110 in some areas. Thanks to our water infrastructure and canopy management, we were able to « weather the storm », keep the grapes at a cooler temperature and were able to be picked later at optimal maturity.

This allowed us to craft a 2015 Jack Quinn wine that offers smoking aromatics of spice, incense, lead pencil and dried flowers with tons of currants and plum fruits. The palate is ripe and full bodied, opulent and hedonistic with an expansive rounded texture and a huge finish. Enjoy for the decades to come.

Jack Quinn 2016 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2016 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 1 Release Date: Spring 2020 Aging: Aged for 17 months in 75% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 192

The 2016 growing season started as another precocious vintage like 2015, 2014 and 2013. As the year did develop with absolutely no issues and almost perfect weather that allowed us for a great canopy development, a flawless flowering event.

August became a turning point in the season: with unusual weather and lower temperatures. The harvest was finally pushed back into a more normal pattern and allowed us to extend the hang time on the vines to perfect and refine the phenolic development of the fruit.

Taking advantage of a generous year with impeccable fruit condition, this might be remembered as the vintage of the decade which is not an easy task as we all know.

Indeed - It is pretty rare in Napa Valley to have such a great vintage without any dramatic event as we sadly, have seen in the past: drought, flood, earthquake, and fire.

Consequently, the 2016 Jack Quinn wine is really precise and elegant with a lot of minerality, graphite, lead pencil and black current fruit-like aromas and flavors. The palate is medium to full bodied, focused and concentrated on the palate with a lot of depth and length. It is perhaps our best effort so far and definitely a wine to age and discover throughout the decades to come.

Jack Quinn 2018 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2018 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 1 Release Date: Spring 2020 Aging: Aged for 17 months in 85% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 312

The vintage kicked off with less than average rainfall during the winter months. This was then followed by a mild spring, which caused a slightly later budbreak that essentially set the tone for a very healthy flowering and fruit set. Formany, this combination of the healthy flowering and fruit set led to a massive crop, which caused many to be reluctant to drop fruit following the meager 2017 vintage. This may have led to a struggle for concentration and longer than average hangtimes to reach full maturity. This vintage highlighted the importance of adapting the crop according to shoot length and not over-cropping. If you utilized these techniques, as we did, the vintage was actually quite forgiving and allowed us to pickat our leisure.

This 2018 Jack Quinn Cabernet Sauvignon is packed with purity, vibrancy and energy. The long vintage allowed for a nice retention of freshness that can be hard to come by in Napa Valley. Medium-full bodied, this dark & inky wine has a high elegance that exudes notes of juicy black fruits, blueberry compote, black cherry preserves and warm cassis, followed by rose pedal, leather and baking spices finishing long with beautifully ripe and polished tannins. Drink it over the next 15-20 years.

Jack Quinn 2019 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2019 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 25 Release Date: Fall 2021 Aging: Aged for 16 months in 85% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 216

Following a great vintage like 2018, the 2019 vintage showed out even better, being arguably the best vintage this past decade. The 2019 vintage was a growing season without extremes. As comparable to 2018, it had no periods of drastically cool, nor drastically hot weather. The 2019 vintage winter and spring was very wet receiving just over 34 inches of rainfall. Similar to the 2018 vintage, the flowering and fruit set went extremely well, leading to a very heavy crop if not regulated. Due to this, regulation of crop load was extremely important to ensure consistent maturation and quality. For the bulk of the June-September, there were very few heat waves, which allowed for uninhibited maturation that allowed for a very forgiving harvest.

The 2019 Jack Quinn Cabernet Sauvignon beautifully expresses its purity of fruit along with a harmonious sense of seamlessness. Deep garnet-purple, it comes dashing out of the glass with notes of blackberries, dark cherries, black currants, red roses, baking spices and earth. Medium to full bodied, the wine has a beautiful fresh and plush juiciness followed by a vibrancy in the mouth, it is layered with polished tannins that are followed with a nice mineral layered finish. Drink it over the next 10-12 years.

Jack Quinn 2021 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2021 Grape Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon Harvest Date: October 18 Aging: Aged for 17 months in 75% new French Oak barrels Cases Produced: 190

Napa Valley’s 2021 growing season produced small yields with outsized intensity. Wines from this vintage are exceptionally fresh and structured, with graceful aromatics and more red and blue fruit. Already they show wonderful elegance and refinement, and will continue to impress for many years to come.

The season began with a relatively cold and dry winter. Drought conditions continued through spring, which contributed to the smaller-than usual crop size, small berries, and slight delay in bud break. Ample spring sun and an uneventful summer and fall allowed the grapes to ripen slowly and steadily through harvest, producing fruit with exquisite structure, energy and grace.

Consequently, the 2021 Jack Quinn wine is undeniably fresh and charismatic with lots of black current, raspberry and blueberry notes that open up to round and silky tannins on the palate. This full-bodied wine with a perfect oak integration leaves you with a lengthy finish associated with chocolate notes and spices.