Community Tasting Note
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Mark1npt Likes this wine: 94 points
November 5, 2022 - For me this bottle was personally disappointing. One bottle shared with friends back in March of this year was a good 3-4 pts better. It was classy, refined and just all around very, very good. This bottle never quite did much f anything for me. It was ok. The nose was better than the palate. Don't get me wrong, this is still a nice 93-94 bottle but it's not 97. The fruit is nice, the balance is quite good, the backing acidity says there's more time. Just not sure why this bottle was so much different than one just 6-7 months ago? I believe they were both bought at the same time and from the same retailer, but this one just doesn't seem to have the layers or the pedigree of the last bottle of '13, nonetheless, it's quite enjoyable with friends and food and good music!
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12 Comments
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El_Dougo commented:
11/7/22, 12:02 AM - Bad luck :(
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Mark1npt commented:
11/7/22, 7:27 AM - ED, this seems to be the way Insignia rolls for me.....I get 1-2 really, really good bottles and then one that's just ok. Been that way for the last 20 years, for me. Don't know if it's a manufacturing/quality control issue in the cellar, storage issue prior to getting to me or just inconsistency in their vineyards. Sometimes when you make an expensive/popular wine, the temptation can be to increase production/profit and you then incorporate a few lesser barrels into the mix. That's all it takes to bring the wine down a few notches.
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El_Dougo commented:
11/7/22, 6:21 PM - Funny that you mention this as I was at a dinner party last night in which we discussed managing quality of production while increasing volume. We essentially questioned how / if Champagne has been able to keep up with the steady increase in supply these last few years. As these vineyards turn up the volume on production what does it do to yield rates, quality of fruit, vigor of the vines, overall mix of barrels as you suggest, etc.? Perhaps the steady increase in Insignia leads to the same challenges. Meanwhile, I have noticed Insignia increasing in price significantly in the last couple years. I remember when I was cheap and good…
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Mark1npt commented:
11/7/22, 7:41 PM - Dougo......I remember hearing stories about En Primeur in Bdx, when Parker would show up to grade them, and the owners of the various Chateau would wheel out their absolutely best barrel, a 1 of 1 for him to taste from. Of course, they were great! 98-100 points all around! He made many a Chateau owner a billionaire, but that was not the barrel that ended up Stateside for everyone else to drink from.......we all paid for the 98-100 bottles but routinely got the 94-97 pt bottles from the lesser barrels....there are so many games played in the wine industry here and abroad, I just don't trust anyone, anymore.
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sfbikeguy commented:
11/7/22, 9:15 PM - Certainly an interesting thread. I have way too much Insignia going back to ‘97. I can say my best path to an enjoyable experience is to open the bottle mid-morning and start decanting mid-afternoon. Certainly more airtime than many will recommend, but my experience is that inevitably the last glass of the night around 9 is claimed to be the most enjoyable of the evening. I have the 02, 05 an ‘11 on deck to open soon. The first two are from magnum. I’ll post after.
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Mark1npt commented:
11/7/22, 9:42 PM - sf.....I routinely do the same kind of air treatment with my Bdxs and of course, Insignia is a Bdx blend, too. 2-2.5 hours of air was all it took the last '13 to rock and it rocked further over the next 2-4 hours that we drank it, so about 6.5 hours overall of air.
This bottle was given the same 2-2.5 hours of decant to start, it maybe improved a point throughout the next 2+ hours of dinner but didn't get close to the last bottle. I recorked what was left and had it the next afternoon and it really wasn't in any way improved from the night before. Just two very different bottles of the same wine!
PS.....I do enjoy older wines, but a '97 Insignia I had a few years ago from a friend's cellar was nothing but prune juice, pretty well past it's prime. I hope your bottle is better for you! -
sfbikeguy commented:
11/7/22, 9:49 PM - Ahh- Such a bummer. Re my '97... Yeah, it became an 'experiment' a few years ago. Just a single bottle remaining fortunately. M
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Mark1npt commented:
11/7/22, 9:56 PM - Dougo....I just remembered another instance of questionable wine. I happen to like a certain Cali cab and most here know I'm partial to the Missouri Hopper vineyard. I can easily pick it out of a crowd. Well, near the end of one night at one of our wine get togethers here at the house, I cracked another winery's 'cab' for my friends and was immediately taken aback. It was a dead ringer for another company's MHopper! Then I realized something......the same winemaker makes the wine for both wineries and processes it at the same facility. One is sold as a MHopper and the other is just that company's flagship cab with no labeling as being from MHopper. Now, it's entirely possible it was an honest mistake on the bottling line, but really? Each barrel in the cellar is clearly marked with all sorts of information. I simply think that a barrel or part of a barrel of the one wine was sacrificed to top off a pallet of bottles for the other winery, maybe to meet a production goal/quota? I don't know the answer, but there was no mistaking one company's wine was in another company's bottle, both from the great '16 vintage in Napa.
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Mark1npt commented:
11/7/22, 10:00 PM - sf, 'your' '97 may be fine.....all I'm noting on my end is a lot of bottle variation in Insignia, specifically. I have plenty of Cali cabs from the '80's and '90's I'm still drinking, and I haven't come across any 'prune juice' yet!
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El_Dougo commented:
11/7/22, 10:18 PM - The M Hopper story is almost unbelievable. Thanks for sharing it!
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Mark1npt commented:
11/7/22, 10:27 PM - Dougo, it just so happens I'm a big fan of the winemaker and of both companies wines. My buddy, who also drinks both, was like "yeah, you're right, it's a dead ringer for the other company's MHopper." So it wasn't just me........now, I will say, since that one night, I've had at least 4-5 more bottles of the non MHopper maker and none of those were the dead ringer for the other company's MHopper like that one bottle that night was. Hence, my conjecture about them using part of a barrel of the MHopper on the bottling line to finish off a pallet of the other company's cab. One company's cab cost about $120 while the other's MHopper maybe $200? I think I came out ahead! But, it sure was unexpected and weird.
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Decanting Queen commented:
11/9/22, 3:12 AM - Ooooh which are you talking about? I know the producer, I just want to be sure I have the right cab since I probably have it in my cellar!!