2014 Colgin, IX Estate, Napa Valley, California, USA

2014 Colgin, IX Estate, Napa Valley, California, USA

Product: 20148008280
Prices start from £595.00 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2014 Colgin, IX Estate, Napa Valley, California, USA

Buying options

Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.

Description

A huge, dark wine, the 2014 IX Estate exudes full-throttle intensity and richness, with big mountain tannins that give the wine its overall shape and feel. Huge swaths of mineral-drenched fruit make a strong first impression as this dark, brooding wine gradually shows its personality. Graphite, sage and grilled herbs envelop a core of intense fruit. A wine of volume and breadth, the 2014 IX Estate is going to take at least a few years to come into its own.

Drink 2022-2034

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (October 2016)

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Critics reviews

Antonio Galloni, Vinous97/100

A huge, dark wine, the 2014 IX Estate exudes full-throttle intensity and richness, with big mountain tannins that give the wine its overall shape and feel. Huge swaths of mineral-drenched fruit make a strong first impression as this dark, brooding wine gradually shows its personality. Graphite, sage and grilled herbs envelop a core of intense fruit. A wine of volume and breadth, the 2014 IX Estate is going to take at least a few years to come into its own.

Drink 2022-2034

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (October 2016)

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Wine Advocate98+/100

From their steep hillside vineyards on Pritchard Hill, the 2014 Proprietary Red IX Estate is an old-fashioned Mdoc blend dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, but with some Cabernet Franc (rarely seen in the Mdoc these years) as well as Merlot and Petit Verdot. Striking aromatics of violets, forest floor, loamy soil nuances, blueberry, black raspberry and blackberry soar from the glass of this spectacular 2014. The acidity seems reasonable but on the lower side, the texture is magnificent, and the overall purity and equilibrium flawless. This is a wine pushing, even demanding, a three-digit score once again, but Im holding back at least for now. This magnificent effort from Colgin should drink beautifully for 25-30 years.

Drink now to 2046

Robert M. Parker Jr., Wine Advocate (October 2016)

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James Suckling98/100

Gorgeous aromas of lean pencil, blackcurrants and raspberries. So perfumed and glorious. Full-bodied, chewy and intense with great length and intensity. Silky and muscular yet agile and energetic. Needs three to four years to resolve some of the tannins. Better in 2020.

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (January 2017)

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Jeb Dunnuck98/100

The 2014 IX Estate is a normal blend of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon supported by Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. From a consistently warm, moderate growing season, this has a layered, forward style in its ripe black and blue fruits as well as loamy earth, tobacco leaf, and graphite, with perfectly integrated background oak. Full-bodied, supple, and utterly seamless on the palate, it’s another wine from Tauziet that delivers sensational richness and depth with no sensation of weight or heaviness. Drink bottles any time over the coming two decades.

Drink 2023-2043

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (February 2023)

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About this WINE

Colgin Cellars

Colgin Cellars

Founded in 1992 in the Napa Valley, Colgin Cellars is one of the world’s most exciting fine wine producers. The story here began three decades ago. Ann Colgin, driven by a love for the land and a reverence for fine wine, was inspired to source the fruit for her first wine. This bottling, Herb Lamb, came from exceptional hillside vineyards that yield wines of harmony, grace, and precision.

About Colgin Cellars

In the years that followed, Colgin Cellars gradually added to their hillside vineyard holdings. Their reputation burgeoned and, in 2005, they were named “One of the Fifty Greatest Wine Estates in the World” by Robert Parker. Today, these singular wines have a devoted following.

Typically, Colgin Cellars’ wines are sold through direct allocation to private clients. However, we have been fortunate to secure small parcels of their four wines. These include the three Cabernet Sauvignon-based bottlings – “Tychson Hill,” “Cariad,” and “IX Estate” – in addition to the “IX Estate” Syrah.

In the vineyard

Colgin Cellars has three vineyard sites, the oldest of which is Tychson Hill. Situated just north of the town of St. Helena, this – the smallest of the Colgin Cellars vineyards (2.4 hectares) – has historic roots starting in 1860. Owned by Josephine Tychson in the late 19th-century, she was the first woman to build a winery in the Napa Valley. The vineyard was removed during Prohibition, rediscovered by Colgin in the mid-1990s, and replanted with heritage clones of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cariad, south of Tychson Hill, is a 3.2-hectare site on volcanic, stony soils with gravelly alluvium. Here, the mineral-rich soils coupled with the cool mountain climate translate into sublime Cabernet Sauvignon-based blends.

Last, but by no means least, is IX Estate, where the Colgin Cellars winery is situated. Carved from an ancient lava flow overlooking the Napa Valley, its eight hectares, rich in well-draining clays and weathered igneous rock soils, are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Syrah.

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Napa Valley

Napa Valley

North Coast's Napa Valley is California's most famous viticultural area (AVA), claiming some of the most expensive agricultural land in the world and producing wines of ‘cult’ status.

Its 16,000 ha of vines lie over a strip (40 miles long-5 miles wide) of diverse soils (clay, gravely, volcanic), with its northernmost end on the side of Mountain Helena and its foot in San Francisco Bay. The valley is framed by two mountains ranges Vaca (to the north) and Mayacamas (to the south), yet the main climatic influence is the cool wind and fog that is sucked in from San Pablo Bay during the afternoon, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and evenly. 

The area enjoys a variety of unique microclimates, as temperatures can vary dramatically as much as 15 degrees, from the north to the south end of the valley. These differences have led to the creation of several sub-AVAs (14 in total) including:

Atlas Peak, Chiles Valley District, Diamond Mountain District, Howell Mountain, Los Carneros, Mt. Veeder, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, Spring Mountain District, Stags Leap District, Yountville, Wild Horse Valley and Oak Knoll District. The Calistoga AVA is still pending approval.

Both the “Napa Valley” designation and the sub-AVA name must appear on the wine label simultaneously, with the exception of wines from the Carneros AVA, which is shared between the Napa Valley and the Sonoma County.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the undisputed king of Napa grapes, occupying over 45% of the vineyard acreage, followed by (predominantly) Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Zinfandel, Merlot, Cab. Franc and to a lesser extent Petite Sirah, Sangiovese, Barbera, Dolcetto.

Recommended Producers
Frog's Leap, Dominus, David Ramey, Viader, Stag's Leap Cellars, Paras Vineyards, Heitz.

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Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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