2024 - 2064
The 2018 IX Estate is a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Cabernet Franc, 8% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot. Very deep purple-black colored, it needs a little coaxing to reveal earth and mineral scents of iron ore, tilled soil, forest floor and truffles with ripe red and black currants, kirsch, Black Forest cake and mulberries plus nuances of tar, lilacs and Sichuan pepper. Full-bodied and built like a brick house, the palate has a rock-solid frame of firm, grainy tannins and exhilarating freshness supporting the taut, muscular fruit. Mineral and savory accents linger long into the epic finish. A thought-provoking, pensive, mesmerizing wine.
“2018 was a super moderate growing season,” said Colgin’s winemaker, Alison Tauziet. “It didn’t even hit 100 degrees up here (on Pritchard Hill). We saw classic cycles of warm days and cool nights. We had a very even fruit set. We had pretty high cluster count, and there was the potential for too much crop. We took another look after veraison and did another vineyard pass. We picked the Merlot and Syrah in September. Then in early October, we got about an inch of rain one night, so we had to wait. We had good breezes to dry things out. Then we pulled the Cabernet in, in the second week of October.” Colgin knocks it out of the park again in 2018. The wines beautifully represent the vineyards and the vintage. Tychson Hill, in particular, blew my mind. With the main 2.5-acre part of the vineyard, planted in 1997, now in full swing, some of the newer 2014 plantings on the next-door slope have started to come on board, and the effect is WOW. The new section is also a tiny plot of 2.5 acres, but this more sloped block has a northern aspect and a gravelly loam profile. The combination makes for a truly magic, ethereal, wonderfully fragrant style.
