2019 Colgin Cellars IX Estate Syrah, Napa Valley, USA (750ml) VERITAS

WINEMAKER NOTES:

The 2019 “IX Estate” Syrah shines with glimmering notes of violets, mandarin zest, and tarragon. Underlying savory layers of tapenade, barbecue spice, and tea leaves accentuate the soil-driven notes of forest floor and iron. A silken, enveloping texture unfolds across the palate finishing with super fine tannins and a burst of salivating flavors.

TASTING NOTES:

Crushed stone, berry and lead pencil. Flintlock and iodine, too. Full-bodied, very tight and focused with incredible depth and intensity. Sculpted and intense. Incredible. Silky and tight tannins. Great finish. Reminds me of the 1978 La Chapelle. This needs three or four years to come together.

– James Suckling, 100 pts.

Sporting a deep garnet-purple color, the 2019 IX Syrah Estate hops up and down with its showy, flamboyant scents of chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries and preserved plums, before bursting into a gorgeous perfume of bouquet garni, candied violets, tar and roses, followed by unsmoked cigars with a waft of Sichuan pepper. The generous, full-bodied palate offers beautifully rounded, pebble-like tannins with invigorating freshness and so many fragrant layers that linger with edifying persistence. An absolute diva of a wine!

– Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, 98 pts.

Potent and polished, with deeply structured blueberry, smoked meat, licorice and fruitcake spice flavors that gather richness and tension toward broad-shouldered tannins.

– Wine Spectator, 94 pts.