Loved all four of the previous episodes of Season 10, especially the previous one "The Last Street in Manhattan", and was incredibly impressed by the high standard of the season. After being hit and miss for a while, it was like 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent' properly got its old spark back. While the story idea for "Trophy Wine" is not an innovative one, it is also very intriguing and is a good setting for this kind of show.
Which "Trophy Wine" clearly had fun with. To me it was a little disappointing after four such wonderful episodes previous to it and falls a little short of greatness. Also consider it perhaps the weakest episode of Season 10. Despite how that sounds, as some of the weakest episodes of 'Criminal Intent's' previous seasons were not good at all, it is still a very good episode indeed which has a lot about Season 10's high quality. Which is why it is sad that it didn't last longer.
"Trophy Wine" has foibles. Like a couple of the previous episodes, everything with the therapy slows the episode down occasionally.
Adrian Pasdar's performance has divided people here and can see why. He does have sinister moments, but he can be hammy and his character is unsubtly obvious.
However, "Trophy Wine" has a lot of truly great things. As ever, the photography and such are fully professional, the slickness still remaining. The music is used sparingly and is haunting and non-overwrought when it is used, and it's mainly used when a crucial revelation or plot development is revealed. The direction has some nice tension while keeping things steady, without going too far the other way.
Moreover, the writing is lean, leaves one in thought and nothing feels sugar-coated. The mystery is not a predictable one and while quite intricate later on coherence never felt like an issue. Goren and Eames are such a well-matched and contrasted pairing and are great characters in their own right. The acting is very good on the whole.
Concluding, very good. 8/10.