2016 Insignia

Insignia, the top wine made at the estate, and since 2004 using only estate fruit, was conceived to represent the best wine that the family could make in any given vintage. It didn’t have to be the same wine every year – in the early days it was even a white wine in some vintages. But with its unmatched vineyard locations for growing Cabernet Sauvignon, the Phelps family found that they had the most wonderful fruit to choose from to make Bordeaux blends, with plots neighbouring Heitz and Bond in St Helena, as well as in Rutherford, Oakville, the Stags Leap District, the Oak Knoll District and South Napa Valley. In 2016 the blend is 84% Cabernet, 10% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec and 3% Cabernet Franc. Having tasted it ourselves, we were impressed by the fresh red fruit, cherry, plum, and sweet strawberry on the front palate, followed by a surge of fresh mint, dark blackberry fruit, violets, cocoa and coffee, with fine, mineral tannins and a long, elegant finish. With the critics hailing the 2016 as one of the best Insignias ever made (for Antonio Galloni it is “second only to 2013 among the top vintages of this decade so far”), this is one not to miss.