2003 Colgin IX Estate Syrah

Colgin Cellars in St. Helena is named for its founder, Ann Colgin. With a background in fine arts, Colgin started her professional life at Sotheby’s, where she became interested in wine and later became a wine auctioneer. In 1992 she founded her own winery and began making about 200 cases annually. Working with legendary winemaker Helen Turley, Colgin’s Cabernet Sauvignons quickly became some of the benchmarks of California’s finest winemaking. In 2017 Colgin sold a 60% share in the estate to LVMH, the French luxury goods company. Colgin makes Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines and Syrah. Allison Tauziet is winemaker. Robert M. Parker Jr. has written that Colgin’s “are some of the world’s greatest wines…"

Napa Valley AVA is the most famous winemaking region in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world. With nearly 43,000 acres of vineyards and more than 300 wineries, it is the heart of fine wine production in the United States. Winemaking started in Napa in 1838 when George C. Yount planted grapes and began producing wine commercially. Other winemaking pioneers followed in the late 19th century, including the founders of Charles Krug, Schramsberg, Inglenook and Beaulieu Vineyards. An infestation of phylloxera, an insect that attacks vine roots, and the onset of Prohibition nearly wiped out the nascent Napa wine industry in the early 20th century. But by the late 1950s and early 1960s Robert Mondavi and other visionaries were producing quality wines easily distinguishable from the mass-produced jug wines made in California’s Central Valley. Napa Valley’s AVA was established in 1983, and today there are 16 sub-appellations within the Napa Valley AVA. Many grapes grow well in Napa’s Mediterranean climate, but the region is best known for Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay is also very successfully cultivated, and about 30% of the AVA’s acreage is planted to white grapes, with the majority of those grapes being Chardonnay,

This grape is grown in milder climates and produces a medium-to full-bodied wine. It is also known as Shiraz, but should not be confused with Petit Sirah, which was developed by crossing Syrah with Peloursin.