1995 Joseph Phelps Insignia

Bright, dark red-ruby. Inviting aromas of black raspberry, woodsmoke, cedar, mocha, olive tapenade and dried flowers, plus a building note of truffle. Smooth on entry, then a bit dusty in the middle palate, with the raspberry, mocha and underbrush flavors showing good savory energy and moderate sweetness and depth. This wine doesn't have quite the mid-palate fat to support its tannins as the 1994 Insignia has, and yet it gained in clarity and intensity as it opened in the glass, without showing any dryness on the back end. My score went up accordingly.

A wine of great intensity and richness, it displays classic notes of licorice, barbecue smoke, creme de cassis, cedarwood and forest floor. Full-bodied with sensational purity, a multidimensional mouthfeel and a long, voluptuous finish with no hard edges, it has only reached mid-adolescence, and has at least two decades of life ahead of it. This 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. They easily rival the 1994s, but the 1995s are more streamlined. Phelps produced 10,000 cases of the 1995 Insignia, a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot that 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.

Exceedingly ripe flavours on the nose suggest this wine might lack structure but on the palate all is pulled together so tightly that the wine is not yet a pleasure to drink. (JR)