These wines were sent to us by QTR, but unfortunately we never had a chance to visit their vineyard property high in the hills above Lake Hennessy on Greenfield Road and hear the story of ownership and the vineyard. The website is now offline, social media hasn’t been updated in several years and we can find no record of any new bottlings. It is always unfortunate when a Napa Valley brand stops producing, but it is all to common. However, it does saves us the time and expenses of making a trip to Colorado to pursue visiting their beer businesses.
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The 2020 QTR Chenin Blanc is medium gold in color; the bouquet offers powerful, well-layered yet elegant aromatics of citrus zest, lemon grass, freshly cut grass, and notes of honeysuckle and jasmine. Smelling the layered aromatics, and savoring the mouth feel and complexities on the palate reminds us of a winemaker who told us Chenin Blanc is not interesting; perhaps this bottling would change his mind. Drinking this reminds of us early spring days, warming but not yet fully summer-like and walking outdoors and smelling a fusion of fruit trees in full bloom with a scent in the air of someone cutting their lawn down the street. The palate features a rounded, saline and almost briny grip from start to finish with flavors of Meyer lemon and like on the bouquet, lemongrass. But its not tart. This wine is richly flavored while simultaneously balanced; it lingers with a bright acidity. Very well done.
The 2018 QTR Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby in color; its aromatics in its youth are generous and fruit forward. The bouquet offers ripe dark fruits including blackberry, dark cherry and plum along with mocha and wood spices including cedar box. Let this breathe, the expression of fruit becomes more pronounced and the oak influence recedes to the background. Its aromatics could easily be described as hedonistic. The palate is about darker fruit flavors. The tannins are finer grained and persist with a noticeable gravelly grip along with a lingering earth/woodsy spice note. This wine is already very well balanced in its youth, seductive and certainly delivers plenty of pleasure on the palate.
QTR stands for Quality Time Remaining, perhaps not as powerful a thought when one is embracing their youth, but certainly something one thinks about more often as they age.
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