Joseph Phelps Vineyards - Insignia 2021 (750ml)
Price: $365.00
| Producer | Joseph Phelps Vineyards |
| Country | USA |
| Region | Napa Valley |
| Varietal | Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Vintage | 2021 |
| Sku | 9298 |
| Size | 750ml |
James Suckling: 98 Points
A standout vintage for one of California?s most collectible cabernet sauvignons. The color is black throughout but with a dark garnet rim. Gorgeous aromatics of spearmint pencil shavings toasted oak and dark plums before a silky fresh but firm texture takes over the palate and dusky blackcurrant tobacco-leaf rose-petal and cedar notes emerge and linger. Full-bodied and saturated with rounded well-integrated tannins that emerge on the lingering finish and keep melting in the glass. It will drink best from 2028.
Jeb Dunnuck: 96-98 Points
Not yet bottled the 2021 Insignia has a pure concentrated medium to full-bodied style that shows the vintage beautifully. Cassis blue fruits graphite lead pencil shavings and floral notes all define the bouquet and it has beautiful tannins a great mid-palate and outstanding length.
Wine Advocate: 96-98 Points
Set to be bottled in January 2024 the 2021 Insignia looks to be another huge success. A blend of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot with 2% each Cabernet Franc and Malbec all matured in 100% new French oak winemaker Ashley Hepworth said she thought production would be about 18000 cases. Waves of cherries cassis and dark chocolate mark the nose while the palate is full-bodied concentrated rich velvety plush layered and long. The dusty tannins suggest ample structure yet the wine is plush enough to be almost approachable. It's a truly complete delicious seductive wine yet naysayers may criticize it for lacking a certain amount of individuality or soul. It was a gorgeous afternoon when I pulled into the parking lot at Joseph Phelps Winery. For those who haven't been it's tucked into a small side valley east of the Silverado Trail in Saint Helena a short ways up Taplin Road. The terrace overlooking the vineyards and old winery building are beautiful settings in which to taste and a high shelf in the interior is home to an impressive lineup of empty trophy bottles consumed by the founder. Winemaker Ashley Hepworth had been at Phelps for 23 years when I visited in February but she has since departed to start her own consulting business. Assistant winemaker Kelly Fields?18 years with Phelps?also joined us for the tasting and I believe she is staying on. I wrote in my notes at the time that they showed remarkable longevity for non-family members in a Napa winery?I hope I didn't jinx anything! Getting back to the wines this was primarily a look at the 2019s from bottle and the 2021s from barrel (or tank). Hepworth explained that they picked about one-third of the red fruit in 2020 but "couldn't make the wines work" so that wine was sold in bulk. From 2008-2016 the Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was actually all estate but it now includes some grower fruit to replace missing volumes from vineyards that are being replanted. The winery owns roughly 400 acres in Napa Valley with about 80 under redevelopment. According to Hepworth it's usually a bit under 50% new oak mostly French but includes a small proportion of American (less than 25%). The big boys here are Insignia and the Backus Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon both top-quality wines but made in contrasting styles. Insignia is a wine blended from several sites and typically quite lush meant to epitomize the ripeness and softness of the valley floor while Backus from a single vineyard is more structured. Both Backus and Insignia age in 100% new French oak. Given the attention to Cabernet Sauvignon at Phelps it would be easy to overlook the winery's long history with Syrah which Joe Phelps bottled as a varietal wine in 1974?the first in California. Today the Syrah is sourced from Larry Hyde in Carneros but it remains a terrific wine?and one that sells for about two-thirds of the price of the Napa Valley Cabernet. Co-fermented with a small amount of Viognier (like Côte-Rôtie) it's the unsung gem in the winery's portfolio. The 2021s look promising here as at so many of the wineries I've visited. Fields said overall yields were down about 10% from the 10-year average. May was chilly and rainy which got the vegetative growth off to a good start but then the summer was dry with no major heat waves. "Canopy management was key" according to Fields. Published: May 04 2023
Vinous: 95-97 Points
The 2021 Insignia is still in barrel but it is immensely promising. Bright acids and beams of tannin confer freshness. This is a mid-weight vintage of Insignia that is built more on finesse than power. Crème de cassis lavender spice and new leather linger. - By Antonio Galloni on December 2023 There is a lot of news at Joseph Phelps these days following its acquisition by French conglomerate LVMH in 2022. Winemaker Ryan Knoth formerly of Sinegal joined in March 2023. David Pearson formerly the CEO at Opus One and Managing Director at Meadowood arrived a few months later as CEO. The 2021s made by Ashley Hepworth express a more finessed style than some of her previous wines. I also found the 2022s quite promising. In this challenging year Hepworth favored cooler sites in the southern portions of Napa Valley with longer extractions that were needed given the low color/low tannin nature of the vintage. Needless to say it will be interesting to see what the next chapters hold for this iconic winery.
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