Colgin Cellars IX Estate Napa Valley Syrah 2017

98 points - limited                                Limited Colgin Syrah available. 99 Points Jeb Dunnuck: "Lastly, and all destemmed aged 18 months in roughly 70% new French oak, the 2017 Syrah IX Estate needs to be tasted to be believed. It’s hard to understand how this incredible wine was produced in a vintage like 2017. Revealing a deep purple color as well as a monster bouquet of blackberries, orange blossom, smoked meat, bacon fat, and spring flower, it's deep, full-bodied, and beautifully pure on the palate, with silky tannins and a singular, exotic character. It’s not easy to find, but unquestionably worth the effort!" 98 Points Robert Parker:  "Very deep garnet-purple in color, the 2017 IX Syrah Estate opens with the most beautiful nose of crushed black berries, boysenberries, mulberries, chocolate-covered cherries, star anise and red roses with touches of garrigue, mandarin peel and fragrant earth. Medium-bodied, the palate is very firm and elegant with approachably ripe, rounded tannins and layer upon layer of perfumed flavors. It has a long pepper and spice-laced finish. Very impressive!" ...“It was an adventure! It was definitely one of those vintages that had a philosophical impact,” Colgin’s winemaker Allison Tauziet said, speaking about the 2017 vintage. “We had a lot of rain to begin. And then the heat tempered the vigor of the vines. It was a year where a lot of decisions mattered.” In spite of the challenges 2017 threw at them, Colgin came up trumps with their Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. But the heat really hit the Merlot hard. “There is not much Merlot in our 2017 blends,” Tauziet confessed. “Our farming is designed to mitigate that heat—we have had a lot of success with shade cloth. We leave more leaves to protect the fruit. And we have good air flow.” Colgin’s Syrah was harvested in mid-September. The Cabernets came in at the end of September. Only about 5% of the fruit was hanging during the fires—all of this was discarded or sold. “We had some Petit Verdot affected by the fires—we got rid of it all,” Tauziet told me. As for the winemaking during the 2017 power outages due to the fires, “We have a generator, but getting the diesel for it up the mountain and getting dry ice was very difficult.” All told, yields at Colgin in 2017 were down about 30% across the board, which, relatively speaking, is not bad.

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