June 6, 2023 - TOP SHELF WINE WEEKEND: Initially angular (surprisingly for a Colgin) and displaying some heat and bite, luckily this IX doesn’t take long before it settles into a more comfortable glide. Tertiary flavors of leather, sherry, dusty spice, and tilled earth mix well with darker and deeper red and black cherry and licorice notes. There is distinguishing balance, as well as a well-defined push-pull of a succulent and saturated fruit core and a notable grip on the overall execution. Not as gushing as the other Colgins making their rounds at the tasting, the 2005 has an older soul to it that displays a subtle dignity, like your grandpa who was always just your grandpa – the gruff guy telling you to get off the lawn or stop unraveling the hose, but you later found out he was a WWII fighter pilot and has a substantial pile of Silver Crosses haphazardly shoved in the back of some desk drawer in his study.
I say drink these sooner than later. Colgins in general have a lavish yum factor that never seems to disappoint. The only sacrifice there sometimes is a sense of tension and chiseled frame, which you may have to venture into the likes of Harlan et al, Screagle, or some other esteemed Napa-affluent cult-type deal to break through to the stratosphere of local Cab distinction. Or… grab a 1st Growth if you’re looking for something more linear and swiftly shaped.
May 28, 2023 - Wild and Crazy Memorial Weekend - Sunday (Chris' Castle aka Melissa's Manor): Wow....that was my first impression after following the 2004 Colgin Herb Lamb with this wine. Only a year younger, but more complex and still way too young! If you enjoy robbing the wine cradle, then this wine will be right up your alley now. Yes, I mean you, Prison King.....and Chris :)
2005 Colgin IX - See sfwinelover1 for bottle treatment. This is a nice wine, very fruit dominated right now. Tertiary flavors can be coaxed out, but lie very deep in the background. Dark and red fruit takes center stage, with some earth, coffee and tobacco notes peering out periodically. Also, a little heat coming through, which always bothers me. I wonder of the heat will go away or become more pronounced with additional age....my gut says it will dissipate, but I do not have enough experience with these types of wine to comfortably judge. 94+ now, but upside potential with additional tertiary notes, and huge upside potential if the tertiary notes become more pronounced and it loses the heat from alcohol. Hope I get to taste another one of these in a few years!
May 28, 2023 - Best of the World Wine Night (ex-Italy) (The csimm_M Estate): First of 2 from an auction purchase a few months ago, and one of my 3 brings to winefest. Aerated for about 2 hours, slow oxed for 90 minutes, then left open for 6 hours during the tasting, with the last glass and a half recorked in the bottle for 18 hours, then given 45 minutes of air before finishing on night #2. Phew! This came out of the bottle initially pretty messy, with a big, molten core, mostly tannins but also acidity and alcohol, pushing around the considerable dark fruit and secondary notes in a fairly inhospitable way. By the time it was time to recork for the journey to csimm’s, this was singing, with the alcohol dialed way down (respectfully disagreeing with WBW) but the tannins still pretty giant. This was even better when I got to it about an hour into the tasting, and, after knotting back upon opening on night 2, after the fairly brief aeration, better still, both on its own and with a broiled pork chop and roasted veggies. As the core subsided to friendlier levels, dark florals, dark chocolate, espresso, gravel, and exotic spice became more prominent and wonderful. Even with the significant air, this wine was really something to behold next to its age peers, more or less: the Harlan (in the prime of its drinking, but closer to later than earlier, I suspect), Vega Siclia ((tail end of peak drinking window, maybe just past), Grange (middle of its drinking window) and ‘04 Lafleur (waaaay past drinking window); this bottle tasted as if it had, at most, just entered its peak drinking window, and may not have even done that yet. Like the intensely dense Abreu and very much unlike the ‘18 Lafleur and Harlan, this wine is far from weightless, and isn’t something I could drink every day, even leaving price out of the equation), but my, at the risk of being ingracious and overly praising that which I brought, I just adored it over the 2 days. Talking about relative performance at this level has the angels dancing on the head of a pin quality, but having all of these wines together does give that opportunity. With that in mind, I’d put this close, yet measurably behind, the Harlan and ‘18 Lafleur in my desiderata, equal to the obviously very different Vega Sicilia, Abreu, Grange, and Aubert Lauren, and just above the ‘14 and ‘15 Cariads (but the gap there, wide in my mind at the outset, was closing fast with more air time). It would be my intent to hold my other bottle of this for an undefined while as near fluctuation seems more likely to be up than down, but we all know about good intentions. I’m not going to get into what’s a reasonable price to pay for a bottle, this bottle, of wine relative to other things you could do with that money—it would seem particularly ingracious when several of the other guests paid more for what they brought—but I will say that if you’re the payor and it ends up in your collection, I don’t think you’ll feel rooked. A possible 100 pter here, but 98-99++ at the moment.
May 28, 2023 - Memorial Madness at Case de Chris y Melissa - Day 2 of 2: Like the 16 RM Lore, I had a different experience with the 05 Colgin IX than WBW, and again I had this more towards the late afternoon and distinctly remember seeing about a ⅓ of the bottle left. I had all the Colgins (with the exception of the 15 Cariad which there was still some left from the previous night) together in 4 separate glasses (people thought I was weird because I was trying to critique wine amongst 18 people crammed into a large kitchen/living room area). This wine was in a very good spot for me. Still young for an 05 and showing the best of the group maybe by a smidge. After this tasting, I pretty much told myself that I would seek out Colgins again. Maybe not DTC, but definitely in the 2ndary.
May 28, 2023 - Memorial Day Weekend, Day 2: The Great Gatsby: Dark red intense fruits, deep earth and a little too much heat (possibly really sharp oak).
Flavors matches the nose completely, including the heat unfortunately. Still tasty nonetheless!
I wanted to see if the heat would blow off but this was one of those bottles that I couldn't get a chance to go back to. Maybe it was just me that kept finding this heat wave in this.
November 25, 2022 - vis a vis my tastes (and most of my family's too) this was a touch 'big', but gotta say it was hard to find any fault with this cab blend, wow with beautiful rich but umami-filled flavors... excellent... I probably give a 95 pts score about one out of 500 or 1000 btls, and this hit the mark... funny enough I didn't like this that much when I had prior btls about 5-10 years ago... suspect this can last another 10-20 years and do fine
January 30, 2022 - Wow. This bottle was just singing. One of the best wines I’ve had for its depth and complexity in addition to balance. It was a classic from the first sip.
December 17, 2021 - Holiday Champagne Gala (Park Ridge Country Club): Small late night taste, brief note. Floral and well spiced with reasonably balanced black fruit, very good concentration and enough structure and energy to keep this restrained. Very good now.
April 9, 2021 - Friday evening at Bishan. Aired about 1.5 hours in bottle. Drank in Grassl 1855.
Appearance is clear, deep intensity, ruby colour. Legs.
Nose is clean, pronounced intensity, with aromas of crazy complex in your face rich blackcurrant, blackberries, smoke, incense, dark spices, tobacco, dark soils. Developing.
On the palate, dry, medium+ acidity, high alcohol (15.6% that is very much not felt), ultra-smoove high tannins, full body. Pronoucned flavour intensity, with flavours of blackcurrant, blackberries, black cherries, sweet herbs, olives, smoke, tobacco, dark soils. Long finish.
Outstanding quality. Still can go another 5-10 years even maybe. Pronounced intensity full throttle all the way, yet at no point in time does it feel jammy. Really makes one contemplate. This aged Colgin IX should be seriously sipped by more biased folk to change their impressions of how good well-made New World Bordeaux blends can be.
IX Estate is in the Pritchard Hill area of St. Helena.
Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot.
Hahaha just a wild thought whether the olive note I get here could be from the influence of the Syrah that they also grow at the IX estate.
February 13, 2021 - One hour decant was perfect. Don’t do more than two.
greatstructure. Big Chocolate. Muted nose