Our Provenance Guarantee
Purchase with confidence. All of our wines are selectively sourced and thoroughly inspected for authenticity and signs of poor storage. Accepted bottles are preserved in our climate-controlled cellar until they reach your doorstep. We have no storefront and no walk-in traffic, so nothing is moved or handled between inspection and shipping.
The bottle you see photographed is the bottle you receive (or fundamentally identical when multiple bottles are listed), and our commitment to you is that it arrives as represented. If it doesn’t, we want to hear from you.
Tasting Notes:
98 points — Wine Advocate (Lisa Perrotti-Brown), October 2019
Opaque purple-black in colour, the nose quite closed and shy to begin, slowly unfurling to reveal freshly crushed blackberries, mulberries and blackcurrants plus suggestions of dusty soil, bouquet garni, pencil lead and cast-iron pan, with gentle wafts of sandalwood, cardamom, rare beef and black tea. Medium- to full-bodied, the palate is built like a brick house, strutting incredibly ripe yet super-firm tannins, with a lovely, uplifting freshness helping define all those black fruit and savoury layers, finishing with epic length. Needs time, but this should turn out to be incredibly nuanced and long lived.
98 points — Jeb Dunnuck, January 2020
Blackcurrant, tobacco, gravelly earth and lead pencil emerge from a wine with “a Chateau Latour-like austerity and class.” Coming from vines high up on Pritchard Hill, it builds beautifully on the palate — full-bodied and massively concentrated, yet with stunning balance and polished, silky tannins. Dunnuck writes that enough can’t be said about the quality coming from this estate, and that this is another magical wine that will stand up to the greatest Cabernets in the world. Hide bottles for five to seven years and enjoy over the following forty to fifty. Drink 2025–2075.
97 points — James Suckling
94 points — Wine Spectator
Vinous (Antonio Galloni) — no score published
The 2017 really speaks to the essence of this site high above Lake Hennessey. Rich, ample and full-bodied, with tremendous mineral and savoury intensity. Graphite, menthol, liquorice, espresso, spice, black cherry and plum emerge with some reluctance, but it is the wine’s explosive energy that stands out most. A potent, brooding wine that clearly demands patience, its mountain structure especially evident today.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Ann Colgin founded her label in 1992 and built it into one of the most admired names in Napa. The estate that carries her flagship wine sits high on Pritchard Hill, on the east side of the valley above Lake Hennessey, where thin volcanic soils and elevation produce fruit of unusual intensity. The property was acquired in 1998 and planted in 2000; the first IX Estate was made in 2002. Roughly twenty acres are under vine across nine separate blocks, farmed in small parcels and vinified separately. The house sold a majority stake to LVMH in 2017, and Allison Tauziet has been winemaker since 2005.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar since purchase.
Condition:
Perfect.
