April 17, 2024 - Was one of the wines of the night at an all mag dinner that included some heavy hitting mags (ie Redigaffi, Ovid Hexameter, Valbuena #5, some high scoring aussie, and others. Some thought it was the WOTN but all agreed it was absolutely in a prime drinking window right now. Lots of mature, rich balanced black fruit, leather, tobacco, chocolate, and earth notes are perfectly rounding out the glass.
March 30, 2024 - 13.5% Napa cab comprised of 90% cab, 7% merit, 3% petit verdot.
Didn’t need the Durand (although I used it) since this cork came out in 1 piece.
Based on previous reviews I popped and poured and oh boy. Home run. Tasted like a 15yo Bordeaux. Full of life, balanced, tons of primary flavors still, mod tannins. Licorice, strawberry, raspberry, chocolate, pipe tobacco, mushroom.
After 1 hour getting some faint tertiary notes, but still fruit forward. Based on prior reviews I was worried this was past it’s prime, but the bottle I had could have gone another 10 years. Terrific wine.
March 16, 2024 - A 65th Birthday Celebration (Schur House - Riverwoods IL): Tired.
November 8, 2023 - part of vertical
October 18, 2023 - Surprisingly still showing very well, but I would drink this soon. 13.5abv and drinking like a beautiful and well-structured Bordeaux. There is still some intensity, but a more subtle richness, Ripe/dried red and black fruit, sweet dried herbs, licorice, creme de cassis, and forest floor. Some primary fruit left, but dominated by tertiary note. We tried this side by side with the 2007 and we actually like this 1995 vintage more because of its elegance. If we were blind tasting, we would not have guessed this was a Napa cab.
August 1, 2023 - Stunning and by far the most complex and best Insignia I have ever enjoyed.
Gently bottle breathed for 4 hours, loved the silky yet robust mouthfeel with medium acidity. Late sweetness was so enjoyable as was the very long complex finish.
Joseph Phelps produced 10,000 cases of the 1995 Insignia, which is about 120,000 bottles.
This is a blend of 🍇
90% Cabernet Sauvignon,
7% Merlot and
3% Petit Verdot.
It achieved 13.5% alcohol.
Three-quarters of the fruit came from estate vineyards and the rest from growers. It spent 26 months in new French oak.
This 1995 vintage began as a potentially troublesome year.
The early spring was very wet, and unusually cool weather plagued both June and July, two important months in the growing season. Warm weather finally arrived in August (much later than usual), and stayed through the end of October, producing a glorious Indian Summer that allowed growers to delay the harvest.
The results are wines that have gotten stronger and stronger in bottle.
Insignia especially these aged vintages, this one is coming up to 30 years now! What a treat...
Intense, powerful but silky and refined at the same time. Amazing..
Rich with arguably the best mouthfeel of all the spectacular wines we enjoyed that fun evening in Taman Tun, including aged Ducrus, Pichon Lalande and Cheval-Blanc too!
Coincidentally my Pichon Lalande Comtesse was from this same 1995 vintage too!
One of 10 bottles at TCs welcome home in TTDI KL, graciously shared by bro Dr Muruga Vadivale. Lesson learned.. Do not pop an Insignia below 10 years, better if its 15-25 years old!
Above Enoteca, TTDI KL Malaysia
1 Aug 2023
May 28, 2023 - Decanted for an hour and drank over two. Red fruit, beautiful napa cabernet with some leather and tobacco. Still going strong and not fading. Great bottle. Better than Solaia 2015 because of age i believe
May 14, 2023 - Still dark in color
Nose has potent dark fruits and initially raw meat that then softens to tobacco and leather with hints of cinnamon and cardamom
The palate is that classic, lovely Napa fruit profile of blackberry/black cherry. Fine grained tannin is in the background and the richness of the fruit suggests this wine has a few more years
Very nice
December 31, 2022 - Drank from 3L bottle New Years Eve at Tryons. Poured into glasses at beginning of evening, allowing to breath for a couple hours before drinking. Kind of flat/compressed on first taste at opening, but opened up dramatically after an hour. Excellent as we sat down to dinner. Nice flavors, tannins resolved but not pruney at all. Good drinking overall and a nice use of this trophy bottle purchased almost 25 years ago.
October 9, 2022 - Drank side by side with 2000 Pichon Baron. The Phelps had dark fruit on the nose reminiscent of the old world. To me seems like a cross between right bank BDX and Left Bank St Julien. The palate still has lots of primary fruit flavors as well as secondary notes as well. Everything is in balance and was easily the WOTN. As prior reviewer suggested, just missing something. If you rate it blind score may be lower 90s but since I know it's Napa and this usually is not my thing I think it merits a 94.