2001 Insignia

Opened this bottle with dinner for our anniversary. I am not good with tasting notes, but thought it was one of the best wines that I had. The nose was amazing, the texture was silky smooth. I don’t see these old school Ca wines being discussed on this forum very much. Most of the time I see the “new guys” such as Fait Main, Memento Mori, etc… Is anyone here still enjoying the wines such as Insignia, or are the new guys so much better?

I’m in the old school Ca Cabs camp. Definitely. Not sure if the Insignie 2001 belongs to that category. But I buy all 90s, 80s and some 70s Napas I can get my hands on.

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Nobody drinks these old school Ca wines anymore, they’re too popular - about sums it up here I’d say [snort.gif]

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I drank the '99 Insignia recently and it was lovely and still young.

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A friend did an Insignia vertical a few years ago, about 8 wines vintages mostly in the 90s up trough 2001, and it was one of my all time best cab/bdx style experiences as they were terrific. I’m very happy to drink them but for me they aren’t worth the cost. Cheers.

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The older Insignias made by Craig Williams are some of the best Napa wines ever.

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I had one about 5 years ago and one of the best Napa wines I’ve ever had. We have one left that we’ll open soon.

Ahh the good old days.

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2001 being 20 years ago does qualify to be ‘old’, but not necessarily ‘old school’. I think it’s quite modern actually. 70’s to early 90’s are old school in my opinion.

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What was the last year that he made one?

By “old school” I meant older established producers.
Cheers

A good friend recently has the 2002 vintage, but found it like fruit soup.

I’ve had the 99 and 2001 and found them soft and milk chocolatey, lacking some edge and complexity. But pleasantly hedonistic and not as OTT as some current Napa cabs

Got it. Though, I do believe their winemaking style really changed starting in late 90’s.

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Never forget the purchase of this wine for $65 a bottle at Sam’s Club many years ago. Only had 9 bottles and made the mistake of trading them for some other wines! [soap.gif]

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I/m loving this thread. 2002 Insignia is a fun wine for me, as my wife and I drank it to celebrate our engagement and, at the time, it was easily the most expensive and hardest to find bottle I owned (I was poor and in law school). I’ve had a few since and enjoy it. It’s got a deep fruit backbone, but has serious structure. It may be densely fruited compared to wines from 96 and before, but not compared to the late 2000s on. With that said, I do think the 2001 and 2002 are more modern. 2004 is soft and more hedonistic. The 2013 I had recently was, sadly, an oak bomb. While not exceedingly dense and syrupy, th e wood dominated to the point of unpleasantness, and I have a fairly high tolerance for oak.

I am thrilled to have picked up some 95, 99, 01, and 04s this year from cases bought on release and stored perfectly. I’ve had them all before and have enjoyed every one. Seeing these notes on many of those wines is making me very optimistic.

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My favorite Cabs from Phelps were from the 70s and the 80s. Great wines. Aged beautifully. After that, for my palate, they went too much to the dark side.

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To the OP: CT average score is 93.7 ( in July and Sept 2021) and Vinous score is 95+( review in 2016). So no, the new guys on the block aren’t making “better” wines. Maybe they are making wines newer collectors/drinkers like but that is a separate issue. Buy some newbies, cellar them 20 yrs then you will have struck out or hit a home run.
I don’t have 20+ more yrs so I am very happy with 2001 and older Insignia’s right now.

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Interesting how tastes differ. I thought 2001 was great. [cheers.gif]

Very interesting. Seems like anything after 2004 would not be as enjoyable for me.

Totally agree. I do have some “newbies” aging in the cellar, but I always found it sad and “inconvenient” that one has to wait for so long in order to enjoy a good wine. I wish there was some process where wine would be awesome straight out of the bottle, but I guess that’s a topic for a different conversation. I have been tempted to purchase older vintages from stores or auctions, but always hesitated to pull the trigger since one never truly knows if these bottles were kept properly.