Nose
This blend displays a beautiful herbaceous nose of anise seed, warm chocolate, and fresh mint.
Palate
On the palette flavors of black fruit, dark chocolate, and slightly earthy nuance of leather are present. On the finish, soft fine tannins leave a light coat on the palette and mingle with a delicate touch of acidity that balance the wine allowing the flavors to linger.
Growing Conditions
The 2022 growing season was slightly warmer than average temperature throughout. While generally mild in spring with few frost events, the summer months were mild with unusually long heat events lasting five to seven days. Veraison was fairly mild and berries quickly matured. Early September saw very warm temperatures for an extended period. This rapidly increased brix and grapes were harvested about a week earlier than normal.
We source our Quest Cabernet Sauvignon from four of our favorite districts in the area: The Estrella district, with its loamy and gravely river plain slopes and canyons, the San Juan district situated on ancient river plains derived of loamy soils, the Creston district, described below, and the Paso Robles Highlands district, where ancient seabed calcareous soils are integrated with gravely soils.
Our Cabernet Franc, along with some of our Cabernet Sauvignon, is sourced from vineyards in the Creston district, known for its large daily diurnal swings aided by the Templeton Gap maritime afternoon breezes and gravely soils, and the Paso Robles Highlands district.
Bottling
November of 2023
Winemaking
The Cabernet & Cabernet Franc are harvested and fermented individually by vineyard lots and then aged in used American oak barrels.
Aging
The lots were racked twice during barrel ageing, blended together and put into 65% New American oak barrels for an additional 3 months. Just prior to bottling the wine is crossflow filtered. The 2022 Quest Red Wine was aged for a total of 12 months in oak, blended in late Summer of 2023 and bottled.
