External search
Google (images)
Wine Advocate
Wine Spectator
Burghound
Wine-Searcher
Vintages
2019
2018
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
Show more
From this producer
Show all wines
All tasting notes
|
| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 88.6 pts. and median of 89 pts. in 40 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Odedis.Wine.reviews on 4/6/2021 & rated 95 points: Dark ruby in color with a brick rim.
Beautiful nose of blueberries, blackberries, black currants, sweet cherries, raisins, vanilla, cedar, licorice, metals, cloves, herbs, spices, dark chocolates, vinaigrette and pencil lead.
Full bodied, elegant and smooth, with medium acidity and long legs.
Dry and fruity on the palate with plums, cherries, blueberries, wood, cloves, vanilla, spices, espresso, dark chocolates, peppercorn, pencil lead and earth.
Long finish with fine grained tannins and tangy raspberries.
This is wonderful Syrah from Napa Valley. Well balanced and enjoyable by itself or with food. Showing great complexity and mouthfeel.
This 20 year old needs 45 minutes to open up properly, and remove the barnyard smell.
I've had this vintage a few years ago, and this is my last bottle. I'm glad it was such an enjoyable wine.
This is gorgeous and delicious. Rich, yet subdued. Elegant and smooth.
Good by itself or with food. I paired it with a BBQ burger.
14.2% alcohol by volume.
95 points. (574 views) | | | Tasted by matthewearl on 8/1/2015 & rated 80 points: Past its prime. Lost its body and soul. Nose is nice but the body is just flat. Tastes more like a young pi of noir than an old Syrah. Decent notes of red licorice. From magnum, decanted, straight from winery. No wonder they were unloaded them.... (2655 views) | | | Tasted by closetcook on 10/16/2011 & rated 89 points: Excellent, really (4981 views) | | | Tasted by kosinski on 2/10/2011: Over the hill. Bottle might be corked, but there's enough fruit there to make me think not. Smells like a musty old basement, with flavors to match. Some dark red fruits appear with aeration, but mostly what I get is mustiness, some astringency, and acid. Disappointing. No numerical rating due to uncertainty. (5419 views) | | | Tasted by Mark Brandon on 5/8/2010 & rated 91 points: Deep, Red and Dark, mature fruit. Rich with a long uplifting finish. Glad to have one more. (5764 views) | | | Tasted by bwillia on 6/17/2009 & rated 92 points: A deep brooding well crafted wine. Very, very enjoyable. (5869 views) | | | Tasted by Yiannis on 12/22/2008 & rated 92 points: Dark purple, very youthful. Elegant nose, very Northern-Rhone-like (cote-rotie?) with currants, grilled herbs and black pepper. Full bodied and balanced palate, with soft tannins, nice fruit core and high acidity. Very long finish. Beautifully integrated oak. A very well-made syrah, combining new world fruit richness with old world elegance. At its prime right now, will drink well for at least 10 more years! (4413 views) | | | Tasted by cabrnay on 11/18/2008 & rated 90 points: Phelps is known for their Insignia, but their Syrah is very smooth, very Napa, not the typical peppery spicey blend from other areas. I like this smooth Syrah, good fruit and tannin blend, vbery easy to drink. (3069 views) | | | Tasted by davidandrose on 9/20/2008 & rated 89 points: Pop and pour, with about 20 minutes of air. More enjoyable right out of the bottle than earlier tastings. Imagine this is at its peak, but certainly doesn't show signs of decliining. (2964 views) | | | Tasted by cabrnay on 9/18/2008 & rated 89 points: Very soft feel, I'd recommend letting it get at least a few minutes of air first as the first taste is that classic Syrah taste that oddly enough I'm not a big fan of. Very nice balance of fruit and tannis, very little if any oak that I can tell, but it's not missed. Mollydooker's site likes to use the term fruit weight to explain that "velvet glove" that sorounds your tongue when you drink a good Shyraz, while this is not as promnounced as the Dooker... it's got that "pink floyd" feel of being comfortably numb on the tongu, very enjoyable drinkable wine. Good example of Napa Syrah. (3001 views) | | | Tasted by markmontgo on 9/8/2008: Jammy, nice fine tannins and ready to drink. For less than 15 bucks on sale, I'll buy more. (3061 views) | | | Tasted by davidandrose on 11/6/2007: Rose Drank. No note (3502 views) | | | Tasted by davidandrose on 10/13/2007 & rated 88 points: Pop and pour / not decanted; consumed over 3 hours. This was fairly unpleasant right out of the bottle upon opening, just overly tannic and disjointed. With 60-90 minutes of air, the tannins smoothed out and the wine became more approachable. As noted by others, I also found considerable sediment in the neck, and poured the first 2 glasses through a fine sieve after cleaning out the major sediment by hand. Not bad for $25, but certainly not something I'd seek out more of. (3554 views) | | | Tasted by E-Dub on 7/5/2007 & rated 85 points: I was excited to open this after reading the good reviews. Not as impressive as I'd hoped. Very closed nose even after an hour in the glass. On the palate actually quite big and the tannins are a bit out of balance (too big). Not as complex in this bottle as others have stated. Wouldn't buy again.
Color: 5/5
Nose: 10/15
Palate: 13/20
Finish: 7/10 (3814 views) | | | Tasted by mmyette on 6/10/2007 & rated 88 points: Maybe starting to decline, or else there is bottle to bottle variation. I did not think this was nearly as good as the others. (3693 views) | | | Tasted by Hollowleg on 3/14/2007 & rated 89 points: WARNING: DECANTING REQUIRED!!! My previous two bottles were a disappointment, granted I drank them before I learned about decanting. There's a lot of sediment so it also should be filtered unless you like your wine chewy. This syrah blew me away tonight with both its' fruity & toasty flavors. It went very well with grilled lamb & rice. I'll probably buy another. (3931 views) | | | Tasted by Quickdraw on 1/28/2007 & rated 83 points: I thought the wine was much too tannic, especially for a 2001. It has a nice bouquet of rasperry and vanilla, and the flavor was good, with hints of blackberry and black cherry, but the finish was much too tannic for my tastes. There are many better Syrahs out there. Could be I was disappointed because Joseph Phelps' Cabs are so wonderful, and this wine is just average to slightly above. (3996 views) | | | Tasted by ihavezinned on 1/10/2007 & rated 89 points: Ditto. (4113 views) | | | Tasted by ihavezinned on 1/6/2007 & rated 89 points: Concur with all other notes. Decanted 2 hours. Lots of black fruit and cotton candy on the nose. Not quite a fruit bomb, but pretty close. Blackberry, black cherry, coffee, tobacco on the palate. Beautiful balanced tannins, medium long finish. (4104 views) | | | Tasted by Whitenl on 12/5/2006 & rated 85 points: Heavy sediment was noted. A very good wine, but I was expecting more from Phelps. Sweet at the start with heavy dark fruit flavors. (4106 views) | | | Tasted by Paul Lin on 9/1/2006 & rated 89 points: Tasted at the winery. Wonderful nose of baked bread and caramel. On the palate, the wine exhibits some black fruits, espresso, and white pepper. Medium-full body. (4357 views) | | | Tasted by mmyette on 8/21/2006 flawed bottle: flawed bottle. (4297 views) | | | Tasted by mmyette on 8/21/2006 & rated 90 points: see previous notes. (4256 views) | | | Tasted by mmyette on 8/10/2006 & rated 91 points: excellent still. See previous notes. (3842 views) | | | Tasted by mmyette on 7/5/2006 & rated 91 points: Drank on forth of July with fireworks. The show was good too. (3870 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Joseph Phelps Producer website
In the late 60s, Joseph Phelps was running one of the largest construction companies in the U.S. when he won the bid to build Souverain Winery (now Rutherford Hill) located a few miles outside of St. Helena. Enamored with the beautiful Napa Valley and contemplating a career change, in 1973 he bought the 600-acre Connolly cattle ranch in Spring Valley, and began planting vineyards. The winery was completed in 1974 and that same year the first Syrah was made, the first grapes were crushed at the new facility and the first Insignia was produced. It was a period of unparalleled activity, creativity, ingenuity, entrepreneurship and risk-taking and it put Joe Phelps on the map of top Napa Valley wine producers.
Nearly four decades later, the flagship wine, Insignia, is recognized as one of the world’s great wines. Twenty nine of 34 vintages have been rated ninety or more points by various wine publications. From 1990 to 2007, the average score from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate is 94.5 pts., with the lowest score still a fabulous 91. The 2002 vintage was “Wine of the Year” by Wine Spectator Magazine, and the 2007 vintage has been rated 98 points by Robert Parker and 96 points by Wine Spectator Magazine.
Over the years, the goal of becoming 100% estate grown resulted in carefully planned acquisitions of prime vineyards in the Napa Valley. Today, the Phelps estate consists of the Spring Valley Home Ranch outside of St. Helena, Banca Dorada in Rutherford, Las Rocas and Barboza vineyards in Stags Leap, Yountville Vineyard in Oak Knoll, Suscol Vineyard in South Napa and Backus Vineyard in Oakville.
Beginning with the 2009 vintage, estate-grown wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Insignia, Backus (the single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville) and Eisrébe, a dessert wine made from the Scheurebe grape. In addition, a small amount of Syrah is produced from fruit owned by Hyde Vineyards in Los Carneros.
Though the main focus is on Bordeaux varietals, Joe Phelps has had a life-long love affair with the wines of Burgundy and a desire to craft wines in that style. Originally Chardonnay was sourced from St. Helena, later from Yountville and then from Los Carneros. Through the years, however, Joe continued to search for the ideal spot to grow both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and his search ended when the perfect combination of climate, soil and location was found in Freestone, located in the Sonoma Coast AVA, a mere eight miles from the Pacific Ocean. In 1999, 200 acres were acquired and planting began. Today, 80 acres of Pinot Noir and 20 acres of Chardonnay are producing some remarkable wines which are available for tasting at the Freestone Guest Center. Visit Freestone Vineyards to learn more.Syrah Varietal article (Wikipedia) | (Wines Northwest)
Note that some producers in the Northern Rhone distinguish between simply Syrah and "Serine", the latter described as ‘an ancient clone of Syrah, the berries of which are more oval-shaped and less deeply pigmented than Syrah’ by producer Tardieu-Laurent. USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)Napa ValleySt. Helena |
|
