Winemaker Notes
The 2006 vintage Tychson Hill Vineyard Cabernet is a wonderfully aromatic wine. The wine is laced with a beautiful gravelly note, as well as an element of graphite. Feminine aromas of honeysuckle, perfume and talc leap from the glass, followed by darker notes of charcoal smoke, wet stone and barbecue spices. On the palate, the wine has a deliciously round and plush entry. There is great finesse to the tannin, which is quite silky.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From Colgin’s first-growth quality estate vineyard, Tychson Hill, located north of St. Helena, on the western slopes, the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Tychson Hill Vineyard is performing far better out of bottle than it did from cask. An extraordinary bouquet of flowers, cedar, tobacco leaf, black currants, blueberries, chocolate, and scorched earth scents is followed by a wine of prodigious concentration, purity, depth, and sweet tannins. An amazing effort for this vintage, it is a compelling bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Wine Spectator
A rich, savory style, with complex currant, wild berry, cedar, herb and spice flavors, shaded by toasty oak. Full-bodied and tightly wound, structured and persistent, ending with firm tannins and a minerally edge. Best from 2010 through 2017. 250 cases made.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
St. Helena is in the heart of the Napa Valley, nestled between Calistoga to the north and Rutherford on its southern border. On its western side, the Mayacamas Mountains guard it from the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean; to its east stand the Vaca Mountains. In conjunction, these mountain ranges serve to lock in summer daytime heat. But in the evening, cool air from the San Pablo Bay funnels up through the valley, creating very chilly nights. It isn’t uncommon for temperatures to drop 50 degrees, a shift that promotes a balance of sugar ripeness and acidity in wine grapes.
St. Helena contains a plethora of different soil types in a small area, which have been enhanced over centuries by rain runoff from both mountain ranges. Its vineyards cover a variety of terrain, spreading across the bucolic valley floor and its benchlands.
These ideal topographic and climatic growing conditions easily caught the attention of early winemaking pioneers. In fact, St. Helena is the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry. Dr. Crane founded his cellar in 1859, David Fulton in 1860 and Charles Krug in 1861.
Today there are no less than 400 separate vineyards planted within the 12,000 acres that make up the St. Helena appellation.
Revered most for its red wines based on Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, the St. Helena appellation is also a source of superior Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon blanc.