March 22, 2024 - This was a beautiful wine that was at the peak of its powers.
It was perfectly balanced and still quite fresh and elegant with a lovely nose of dark/red fruit with hints of spice. It was sublime in the mouth with just the right hint of sweetness. The finish was long and very enjoyable. It definitely had that "aaahhh" factor.
NOTE: We did not decant, and it showed a surprising amount of sediment That did not negatively impact the wine in any way, but you might consider decanting.
December 8, 2023 - 96 Insignia is showing very well today. Raj Parr thought it’s full of glyphosate junk lol, fair enough but I for sure don’t taste it in the wine. Feels no more than 15 years, the fruit is clean and polished, ripe cherries and plums, some chocolate shavings, cigar box and light bell peppers, not at all an oaky mess. A lot of enjoyment to be found here today or 10 years down the road.
October 7, 2023 - Drinking beautifully. Needed about an hour to open up
September 8, 2023 - Medium ruby.
Intense and expressive nose, with marked cedary and menthol. cassis and blue berries, cigar flavours less prominent.
Medium body, soft and velvety with some slight tannins still present but not intrusive. Very balanced and good intensity throughout.
all flavours coming together; More red berries with slight blue berries flavours. Menthol, cedar and tobacco. Some licorice at the end.
Very long. Excellent.
July 2, 2023 - Gorgeous in every sense of the word. So many special qualities. At peak or slightly beyond. Still has a light bite.
February 5, 2023 - dinner with Oscar, Ellen at Zeru. Yummy
November 11, 2022 - One off magnum (hard to price individual bottles, but probably about $240) from a large private party purchase 2 years ago. Subtle and vibrant on the nose and palate with notes of mixed black and blue berries, dark florals, earthy minerality, chocolate, leather, anise, dark chocolate and a touch of tar. Mid purple, medium to full bodied, thick legs. Well integrated, silky medium tannins, light to medium acidity, no heat. VG++ complexity, VG+ persistence and intensity. The kickoff of magnum madness and weekend festivities, I knew I’d serve this in a group with my sis and her partner, even if the others (we were 8 in total for a dinner at the Noe Valley estate) weren’t wine cognoscenti. The ah so pulled the surprisingly firm cork out with an impressive pop, and the wine showed an almost ineffable lightfootedness, so much so I’d have put my chips in the middle on this being a BDX. More than drinkable off the pour, the suppleness of the wine made me just a bit concerned that this might lose altitude quickly, like, to varying degrees, the ‘04 La Jota CS and the ‘06 Araujo Eisele, so we kept this corked. But not to worry: not only did this not happen, but it continued to develop and deepen over the couple of hours it was open. A wonderful companion to our homemade pizza and calzones, this was more than equally comfortable on its own, and, while it’s in a great place—at least this bottle, as a well-stored magnum was—but probably not likely to get better, it feels to me like this should hold well over the next 5+ years, maybe more. This wine was not only the WOTW (the second “W” being “weekend”), but would have climbed the medal stand against any of the BDX from the tasting at csimm’s. It would have been nice to have it against the ‘16 Pontet, to which this was preferred, and/or the ‘06 Abreu Madrona, which this ever so slightly fell short of, as my favorite wine of the Autumn. It also felt a step or 2 above the VG++/excellent mid to late 90s Napas I enjoyed at the tasting soyhead arranged in August, although as observed in the lens of the BDX tasting, having so many similar wines together can sometimes make the individual qualities of each blur. As an aside, I’ve had numerous Insigs over the years, although this was the furthest from the vintage date (and perhaps the only mag), and this struck me as solidly the best, although they’ve all been at least 95 point wines by my scoring. Someone else in a note observed that ‘97 was the watershed year in Napa, when the warmth of the vintage led to fuller, riper wines, and after that year, that became the new normal (with later picks, presumably, compensating at least somewhat for relatively cooler vintages). While I’m not sure that’s 100% accurate, I note that, from personal experience in the past year or so, having had a ‘97 Shafer HSS and a ‘04 and a ‘09 of the same bottling and a PM LP from ‘04 and ‘14 along with this and more recent vintages of this cuvée, there is an undeniable trend in this direction. That said, with at least these 3 bottlings, they started far enough on the BDX side so that while I can’t unequivocally say I like the more modern stylings more, I can’t say that I like them consistently less, either and have felt very lucky to have all 3 of the cuvées in my back, and hopefully, future, pages.
July 29, 2022 - VISUAL IMPRESSION 5/5
Clarity: clear
Color depth: deep
Color shade: garnet red
SCENT 13/15
Purity of tone: clean
Intensity: pronounced
Aroma expression: raspberry, chocolate, blackberry, blueberry, mint
Development stage: fully matured
TASTE 17/20
Sweetness: dry
Acidity: low
Tannins: middle minus, well balanced and round
Alcohol: middle (13,5%)
Body: full
Taste intensity: full
Taste expression: pronounced; black cherry, blueberry, vanilla, wood, hints of sweetness
Finish: long
OVERALL IMPRESSION 9/10
Quality: excellent
Drinkability: drink now, still good for a few years
January 29, 2022 - Magnificent. Classic cabernet from California pre-ripeness rush of 97.
December 11, 2021 - This wine really surprised me! My generous friend decided to pull this out as a challenging follow up to a magnum of 2003 Margaux. He nailed it! This has loads of body, black and blue fruit. My friend nailed it "blueberry pie". Sweet and long. Excellent.