Colgin Retrospective at the Villa d’Este Wine Symposium

I was delighted to moderate this Colgin retrospective at the Villa d’Este Wine Symposium, held last November in Lake Como, Italy. The tasting featured a number of super-rare bottles chosen to highlight the influence of site and the ability of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon to develop complexity with age.  It was the first seminar at the Symposium to feature the wines of an American estate, something I was especially thrilled to see.

Villa d’Este in fall, Lake Como, Italy

The brainchild of François Mauss, the Villa d’Este Wine Symposium brings together consumers, wine professionals and academics for a weekend of seminars, tastings and dinners. Lake Como is a magical place. But in the fall, these idyllic shores and historic buildings that dot the landscape transform into an especially tranquil, serene corner of the world where everything seems to slow down to a more human pace. Winemakers, many of whom I visit during the year, are never so relaxed as they are in November, once their most recent vintage is safely in the cellar.

The Colgin retrospective featured a number of super-rare bottles, all from the estate’s library. Proprietors Ann Colgin and her husband, Joe Wender, along with COO Paul Roberts, were on hand to share their story. I moderated what turned out to be a lively discussion, as many tasters were discovering these wines for the first time. The eight wines encompassed all three eras at Colgin. Helen Turley was the winemaker from 1992 to 1999, when she handed over the reins to her protégé, Mark Aubert. Allison Tauziet joined in 2005 and became winemaker in 2007 following Aubert's departure. The highly respected Bordeaux oenologist Alain Raynaud consults.

Cabernet Sauvignon fermenting in barrel

The tasting was essentially broken down into three flights. The first was a look back at the 2005s at age ten. We then tasted two wines from Colgin’s Tychson Hill property, one of the most historic sites in Napa Valley. The last pairing was a comparison of two older vintages of Colgin’s Cabernet Sauvignon Herb Lamb, a wine Colgin no longer makes. I tasted all of the wines twice, first at the estate in October and a month later in Lake Como. Even after the transatlantic voyage, all of the wines were more expressive in Italy, proving yet again that the idea that wines show better when tasted at the properties is total nonsense. But that’s a story for another day. All of the wines were double decanted several hours before the Villa d’Este tasting. As is my practice, I tasted through every bottle beforehand.

One of the main topics of discussion was terroir, or the concept that wines reflect their origins. Of course, terroir is central to virtually any conversation about Old World wines, but less often used when talking about New World wines. Rightfully, that is slowly starting to change in Napa Valley as wine lovers gradually discover the region’s extraordinary diversity of sites and microclimates.