2005 Chateau Col Solare Red

Its Cabernet Sauvignon blended solely with 25% Merlot, the 2005 Col Solare is disappointingly drying in finish and was surely far more pleasurable some years ago. It spend 26 months in barrel, a length of elevage that has since not been approached and which, in Notaro’s words, “I have never found that the wine needed.” That said, there are certainly interesting scents and flavors here including autumn foliage, cedar, tobacco, and dried cherry, which – just as in the corresponding 2006 – hold most fascination and sense of savor on the mid-palate. This should certainly be enjoyed soon. (Similar reservations to those just mentioned apply in spades to a 2002 tasted alongside.) While the Antinori family, their enologist Renzo Cotarella (who visits regularly) and their partners at Ste. Michelle might have initially envisioned their mostly gently sloping, 30-acre Red Mountain vineyard as incorporating some Sangiovese, 18 years after the first Col Solare release – and following many years of reliance on purchased fruit before ever planting a significant share of their own property – the estate focus has ended up being on Bordelais cepages (right down to Carmenere, though winemaker Marcus Notaro notes that its few rows “are more for landscaping, at least for now”) and to a lesser extent Syrah. This is all in keeping with the varieties that have by now become the mainstays of the Red Mountain A.V.A. which Col Solare bottlings, as they become more and more reliant on estate fruit, will probably begin to advertise on their labels. For now, there can be as many as a dozen different vineyard sources reflected in a given bottling. Notaro – who benefits from a superbly equipped facility – can keep all of the Col Solare vineyards under a watchful gaze from that vantage point, and in conversation as well as in the glass, it’s clear that’s not all he’s watching carefully. Among his particular concerns are managing tannins through multiple methods and vessels for fermentative extraction, whose regimen changes from lot to lot not to mention with cepage and vintage. These wines are generally assembled very early on in their elevage, as much as a full year before bottling, though there may be some later fine-tuning. Cotarella says he wants them to be “ageless,” but it’s clear from the extent to which I was permitted to explore them vertically that the team here has a long way to go yet – partly in fine-tuning their approach; though, to be sure, partly in simply patiently waiting to observe its effects on aging – in demonstrating such potential. I was privileged to taste a range of 2011 barrel samples by cepage that showed encouraging, sappy promise and in some instances early finesse – particularly true of Cabernet Franc, a grape that Notaro expects will play an increasing role in future editions of the Col Solare grand vin. Tel. (509) 588-6806