Tasting Report California Cabernet
James Laube's Recommended California Cabernet Sauvignons & Blends
JOSEPH PHELPS Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Backus 1999 — 93
Concentrated, with currant, mocha, earth, leather and black cherry. Focused finish with mouthcoating tannins.
New Releases
JOSEPH PHELPS Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Backus 2000 — 91
Dark, rich and concentrated, with a firm tannin and oak backbone supporting a core of earthy currant, blackberry and pencil shaving scents. Intense and vibrant, it needs short-term cellaring.
1993 California Cabernet Retrospective
JOSEPH PHELPS Insignia Napa Valley 1993 — 90
A dense, compact, earthy style that definitely needs decanting,with firm, chalky tannins wrapped around a core of earth, tar, leather, mulch and currant. Finished with mineral and earth flavors that start to grow on you. Can age another decade.
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Wine of the Week
I experienced a wine epiphany recently, and what a delightful experience it turned out to be.
What occasioned this wine-on-the-road-to-Damascus awakening was my discovery of Joseph Phelps Vineyards' Insignia. At a wine-tasting dinner in New York, several big names from France, Italy and California were being poured, but the Insignia 1994 stood out head and shoulders above the rest. This set me to ponder why I have never paid much attention to the wine before.
Sure, Joseph Phelps is one of those handful of great California wineries that were, so to speak, “present at the creation” — that’s the early 1970s, ancient history in California wine time — and who were responsible for the region’s meteoric ascendancy.
But to my mind this is a disadvantage. Their star status means these wines are often expensive, very expensive in some case, and so I tend to pass them by...[but] I chastised myself for not noticing before what a truly great wine Insignia is.
...There are toasty, almost sweet oak flavors, luscious ripe black fruits and amazing multilayered depth of complexity. It’s soft, luxurious and a pure delight to drink.
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