History
Colgin Cellars bought the 125 acre parcel, the Long family's Parcel 9, in 1998, high above Lake Hennessey east of St. Helena. Planting ran from 1998 into 2000, the estate winery, home to all Colgin production, was finished in 2002, and the first IX Estate Red and IX Estate Syrah came that same vintage. Helen Turley made Colgin's early wines; Allison Tauziet arrived in 2005 and has directed the winemaking since 2018. LVMH took a sixty percent stake in late 2017, and an expansion begun around 2020 is adding another twenty-plus acres in phases.
The Site
The vineyard faces east into the morning sun at roughly 1,150 to 1,400 feet, outside any sub-appellation, on red, iron-rich, rocky volcanic soils overlooking the lake.
Vines and Blocks
Twenty original acres: sixteen of red Bordeaux varieties led by Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, and four of Syrah, in small hillside blocks.
The Wines
The IX Estate red is Pritchard Hill in essence, saturated blue-black fruit, polished tannin and mineral depth, with the IX Estate Syrah its rarer shadow, both produced in small allocated quantities.