Corison Winery

Note: This is a pre-release review. The wine will be released sometime in 2007.

Fortunately, it’s no big whoop any longer that women make wine, because so many do. But what’s interesting is that if you tasted any of Cathy Corison’s wines, and she’s been making them for a long time, you would never describe them as feminine. That’s because she produces wines that are substantial and reveal their place of origin.

But her 2003 edition from her Kronos Vineyard just south of the town of St. Helena, I must say – while still exhibiting those aforementioned characteristics – is feminine. It’s soft, lovely and pretty, and lush and rich. Like all her wines, they are symmetrically balanced. When it is released next year, it will be drinking quite nicely, but will continue to do so over the next 15 years.

The Kronos parcel, planted to clone 7, is 35-plus years old. Vines of this age tend to be non vigorous, meaning that every ounce of flavor and minerality is coaxed out of the sparsely populated clusters. Corison picked the fruit at an almost old-fashioned 24.2 Brix (degree of sugar), which manifested in an almost unheard of alcohol of 13.4 percent; which all goes to prove that a wine can still be gorgeous while the alcohol is held in check. It spent 22 months in French oak (age not specified), and there were only 400 cases produced.

Reviewed August 24, 2006 by Alan Goldfarb.