On February 23 James did a tasting and Zoom interview with the team at Napa's Colgin Cellars. Located high atop Pritchard Hill in Napa, the spectacular winery is one of the premiere wine producers in California and their Napa Valley IX Estate 2016 wine was the No. 8 wine in the JamesSuckling.com Top 100 Wines of USA in 2019. During the call they tasted a few of the 2018 wines and talked about the vintage. The complexity and intensity of the wines highlight the excellence of the 2018 vintage in Napa, and the nature of the 2018s can be attributed to the relatively long and even grape-growing season.
“The wines don’t necessarily go towards the absolute full-bodied part of the spectrum,” said Paul Roberts, chief operating officer at Colgin Cellars. “They have density but they also have a little bit of this richness without heaviness. They’re super intellectual but they’re not ponderous. I think that it’s the vintage and also the continued evolution of our [vineyard] sites and how we look at them. I think that 18 is going to be a vintage that’s hard to make a comparison.”
One of the four Colgin wines James rated was a perfect 100-point wine, and all the wines showed a great expression of their individual terroirs. They also discussed the 2019 vintage and spoke about how their 2018 wines can be drunk young and old. On the call was Ann Colgin, founder and co-CEO, her husband, Joe Wender, co-CEO, Allison Tauziet, director of winemaking and Paul Roberts, COO and master sommelier.
Watch the video above for the full conversation and tasting, which included various wines that are listed below. Click the link to see the tasting notes and scores (subscribers only).
Colgin Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Tychson Hill 2018
Colgin Cellars Napa Valley Cariad 2018
Colgin Cellars Syrah Napa Valley IX Estate 2018
Colgin Cellars Napa Valley IX Estate 2018
