Including a splash of Backus Vineyard (8%), the 2023 Insignia is based on 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc, aged 21 months in 100% new French oak. Inky purple-hued, it offers a pure, classic, focused perfume of crème de cassis, melted crayon, lead pencil, violets, and white flower notes. It's full-bodied and has the vintage's pure, focused, incredibly elegant style, with ripe tannins and a great finish. I love everything about this wine, which is pure, balanced, layered, and multi-dimensional. It can be drunk today with incredible pleasure yet should hit maturity in a decade and keep for 30 years thereafter. There are roughly 12,300 cases produced. Drink 2025-2055.

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2023 Insignia shimmies out with energetic notes of freshly crushed black and red currants, wild blueberries, and black raspberries, leading to hints of red roses, pencil shavings, and fertile loam. The full-bodied palate is elegantly styled with bright, vivacious black, red, and blue fruit layers, framed by firm, fine-grained tannins and a lively backbone, finishing long and perfumed. The blend is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc.

The 2023 Insignia is a stand out in this vintage. It opens with an intricate bouquet of ripe black currant, blackberry, and blueberry, layered with notes of violet, graphite, mocha, fresh herbs, mint, cigar box, and hints of gravel. On the palate, it delivers a rich, full-bodied mouthfeel supported by finely integrated, polished tannins that lend a velvety, refined texture. The wine shows remarkable balance and depth, with waves of dark fruit, cocoa, and spice unfolding gracefully. The finish is long and elegant, leaving a lasting impression of harmony and concentration. While already captivating, the 2023 Insignia clearly possesses the structure and pedigree to evolve beautifully over many years.

A very good expression of Insignia and the outstanding 2023 vintage, giving classical aromas of blackcurrant, cassis and blackberry with layers of graphite, tobacco leaf, violet, dark cherry and chocolate, all wrapped in freshness and charm. The palate is full-bodied with finely integrated tannins, bright acidity and a seamless, layered mouthfeel full of power yet with restraint. Many years ahead in bottle, although delicious now. Drink or hold.

The exciting 2023 Insignia—a blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot and 5% Cabernet Franc, all aged in new French oak—is one of the best to emerge from the cellars at Joseph Phelps. Time in wood has been cut back slightly, meaning Insignia is now bottled in its second August following the vintage (after 20 months). The release month of September is unchanged, so it gets a full year in bottle before getting out to the public. Combining delicate floral and herbal elements with mixed red and black cherries underscored by notes of cassis, cigar box and dried spices, it shows impressive complexity allied to a plush mouthfeel that falls somewhere between silky and velvety. Medium- to full-bodied yet seemingly weightless, it's a joy to drink even at this young age, yet it should drink well for at least two decades. With 12,300 cases produced, at least finding some shouldn't pose the same problem as some of Napa's other top Cabs. -Joe Czerwinski

The 2023 Insignia is the first vintage made by Winemaker Ryan Knoth. It captures all the freshness and energy of this cool, late-ripening vintage, along with a new emphasis on vibrancy that is now a focus at Joseph Phelps. Vineyard sites are Yountville, Banca Dorada, Las Rocas, Barboza, Suscol and Home Ranch, plus a dollop of fruit from Backus, an estate site that had not been used in the blend for many years. Malbec was excluded, as it did not ripen ideally. Harvest stretched into November, another anomaly. Most importantly, Knoth reduced time in barrel to 20 months and also lowered toast levels, choices that exalt freshness. - Antonio Galloni, October 2026

This is impressive from first whiff, as waves of fresh boysenberry, blackberry and morello cherry preserves come spilling forth, inlaid seamlessly with hints of anise, cast iron, sweet tobacco, alder smoke and ink. Well-structured, with both tannic grip and the steady, percolating succulence of the vintage, this moves steadily through the lengthy, authoritative finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2028 through 2043. 12,300 cases made.