2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Tychson Hill

I tasted a huge range of wines, both young and older, during my most recent visit with Ann Colgin, Joe Wender, Allison Tauziet and Paul Roberts. The 2019s are more than worthy follow-ups to the 2018s, which, incidentally, are every bit as special as they were last year. Tauziet describes the difference between the two years as a difference in evening temperatures. While 2018 saw no heat spikes to speak of, 2019 experienced wider diurnal shifts. The 2019s appear to have a little more density than 2018, but they are of course a year younger. As flashy as the Colgin wines can be young, they don’t really start blossoming until around age ten or so.

This is an utterly magnificent set of wines from Colgin. As always, I tasted with the entire team; Ann Colgin, her husband Joe Wender, Winemaker Allison Tauziet and COO Paul Roberts, but via Zoom in a very 'classic' 2020 session. Like virtually all properties, the Colgin sites benefitted from a long growing season with pretty unremarkable conditions except for a spell of cold weather in May that delayed bloom. Overall, the wines feel less extracted than in the past. It's hard to say if that is the year, or slight changes in cooperage or winemaking, but the 2018s have a level of textural finesse I don't recall seeing in the past at this stage, just a few months after bottling. Tauziet added that the wines extracted easily and saw 18-21 days on the skins, with more co-fermented lots than in the past.