Joseph Phelps Insignia Vertical, April 9, 2009

Our April vertical tasting of Joseph Phelps Insignia produced uniformly outstanding wines and the 2005 vintage won by a wide margin. The fact that the 2005 beat out the older wines demonstrates the early drinkability of Insignia (and, perhaps, our penchant for younger, fruitier wines). On the other hand, our results correlated reasonably well with the scores from the Wine Advocate. The results, along with scores from the usual suspects:

1. 2005 (WS 92, WA 95) (7 firsts/1 second/3 thirds/0 fourths, 33 points)
2. 2004 (WS 94, WA 95) (1/4/1/0, 18 points)
3. 2002 (WS 96, WA 95) (0/2/0/3, 9 points)
4. 2001 (WS 90, WA 95) (0/1/2/2, 9 points)
5. 2003 (WS 90, WA 94) (1/0/0/3, 7 points)
6. 2000 (WS 92, WA 91) (0/1/2/0, 7 points)
7. 1992 (WS 94, WA 95) (1/0/0/0, 4 points)
8. 1998 (WS 92, WA 91) (0/0/2/0, 4 points)
9. 1999 (WS 94, WA 91) (0/0/0/1, 1 point)