The "cult" grows!

[JohnL]

A long time ago, I was dining in a restaurant and noticed a Colgin '92 Herb Lamb Cabernet on the wine list. this wine had just begun to appear on radar screens in the wine press with some very good reviews. I ordered a bottle. I found the wine to be very very good--it was subtle and had an elegance with a core of complex fruit. Most of all it had a wonderful balance and symmetry.

A lot of time has passed and Colgin has been lumped into a misnamed category of "California Cult" wines. I believe that the term cult was originally applied to denigrate the wines by creating a convenient category for detractors to dismiss them. Worse, the term "cult" is often used to explain away the popularity of these wines. (It's not the wines but rather the blind devotees).

I also have a hard time reconciling a lot of what I read about Colgin (indeed about most of these wines) with my own (and others) experiences.

I also believe that these wines have been done a great disservice by this category. Without getting into a debate over etymology i offer the following thoughts:

--they are in great demand and thus expensive and difficult to find

--the number of opinions about these wines far surpass the number of people who have much tasting experience

--they do not all taste the same. Lumping them in this category can not have much to do with how the wines taste.

--they apparently, do age well. These wines when released were delicious and drinkable young. many detractors stated that the wines couldn't possibly be worth the money as they were not age worthy. True, a wine's aging potential should be a factor in its value as should a wine's track record, these should be weighed against the amount of pleasure a wine provides regardless of age. a lot of the detractor's ignored several elements to the track record issue. The winemakers, the vinyards etc. The fact is--what specific attributes indicate or predict a wine's age worthiness are still a mystery.

Well as any number of tasting notes--professional and otherwise--these wines seem to be doing quite well at 10 to fifteen years of age--where's the line of demarcation for "ages well."???

--no one actually drinks these wines--they are traded back and forth by speculators. Again I refer to the many tasting notes available on the internet. Sure there are collectors and speculators but an awful lot of folks have opened these wines up and drunk them.

I should note that I have been lucky enough to have tasted many of these wines over several vintages since my encounter with the Colgin. I like some more than others. I tend to view each as an individual wine and judge each on its merits (or lack of merit). Are they worth the money?

That is up to the individual. Is any wine worth the money?

I can say that a lot of these wines; Harlan, Screaming Eagle, Colgin, Abreau etc are distinctive wines that deserve to be judged on what's in the glass and evaluated honestly.

Unfortunately, there are some who let the politics of wine intrude.

Anyway, I offer the following from James Suckling. Makes for interesting reading.

I have joined the cult

Edited July 28, 2006 by JohnL (log)