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1993 Colgin Cabernet Sauvignon Herb Lamb - USA, California, Napa Valley (10/3/2013)
A great Napa Cab, one of the best I have had in a long time. Like the Alsatian wine that preceded it, this took awhile in our glasses to fully open up, but it was fantastic when it did. Its nose here was full of lovely aromatics from the first pour, with fresh blackberries and cassis scents punctuated by lifted notes of mint and briar and fresh herbs (rosemary and thyme came to mind), then a little spinkle of tobacco spice, some dried rose petals and a whiff of fresh cedar wood, all on a little pat of earth - a wonderful nose. The palate was at a really nice place. It made no excuses for its new world origins, with a sunny fleshiness to its dark-frutied flavours of cassis and blackberries, yet there was a lovely freshness to it all, so that the wine felt very bright and fresh, even energetic, with a lovely high-toned purity to its fruit. This was really a pleasure to drink, with every sip calling out for another. There was still a nice bit of structure lent to the midpalate by firm, slightly woody, but very ripe tannins. However, it was all so beautifully resolved and integrated. Very refined indeed. It had great complexity too, with a beautifully long, juicy finish replete with little notes of minty, herby tobacco, exotic Middle-eastern spice (sumac I thought), another brush of cedar wood, and a tantaslising linger of rose petals. A tremendous wine, and tremendously enjoyable as well. Hedonistic yet controlled, showing new world voluptousness wed to old world elegantce, this is at peak now. (95 pts.)
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