July 12, 2023 - Nose: Sweet red and black fruit. Dark cherry and plum with a nice bit of leather, sweet wood and herbs.
Palate: Deep dark red core and browning at the edges. Entry is suave and mouth filling with soft pillowy edges. Dark red and black fruit with pencil, pie spice and a minerally element in the mid-palate.
Finish: Silky and broad. Ends in a crecendo of leather, spice and dried cherries. Then it disappears.
This is a case where Tanzer just nails the descriptors and the pro note is perfect. He really describes this well at this point in its life
July 9, 2022 - Flawed bottle
March 12, 2022 - Still lively and well balanced - dark fruit, but distinctly aged and showing nice secondary flavors. An herbal note (but not pyrazine), some leather and cedar, and dried red and black fruit. It stole the show.
December 12, 2017 - Drank at 67
Light refined with grace and charm
December 9, 2016 - body of a prime Bordeaux from great vintage, with less spice and riper fruit, with taste of left-banker and structure of right-banker. Long finish that didn't fade thru the night. Wine improved over 1hr decant and 3hr dinner. Very impressive.
May 14, 2016 - HDH auction tasting at Tru; 5/13/2016-5/14/2016 (Chicago, IL): This is definitely more varietally correct than the last Colgin I had. Overoaked, with really, really expensive oak. This shows a ridiculous amount of over-the-topness. On the other hand, I will admit this has held its age much better than I would think, with the qualifier "for the style." The palate is just pruney and alcoholic, and plain unpleasant. Into the dump bucket.
December 5, 2015 - Zachys Holiday Auction - Winter 2015 (Smith & Wollensky (48th & 3rd Ave)): Wow - this was in just exactly the right place. As a previous note pointed out, 2000 isn't necessarily the best vintage, but this came together almost perfectly today. Paired with steak and the wine and the meat were a killer combination. This is soft and herbal and spice and raspberry. A lovely wine that competed with the Grange for WOTD. Possibly, possibly the Grange edged, but on any given taste it was a toss-up. Sorry that this was our last bottle.
September 27, 2015 - Not the greatest vintage. Nose was still full of fruit and gave the wine the feel of the perfect nose for California Cabernet. Did not evolve much over the dinner. Was very closed after opening and decanted. Did improve when paired with food. Had a classic French meal with this wine. Had a bottle of this vintage at least 3 years ago and agree with the assessment back at that time. This vintage should drink now and more cellaring will not improve this wine.
September 7, 2015 - Finished our evening ('04 Veuve LGD Rose, '13 Beaucastel Vielle Vignes) with this wine. Lots of sediment so ended up filtering and decanting. Wine was just wonderful. It's not the best year for Colgin or the best wine that they have, but it is so much better than most other wines that I am not fussed on that. Nice herbaceous notes. Touch of the fruit. Delicious. Saved a bit to try again tonight.
August 22, 2015 - Great