JOSEPH PHELPS INSIGNIA
NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA 2023
There's never been a better era of Joseph Phelps’s Insignia than this one, and this mind-bendingly great 99-pointer from 2023 — a Napa vintage that Jeb Dunnuck declared “truly exceptional” — is one of their most exhilarating, most rewarding, most collectible releases this century.
Dunnuck called it "pure, classic, focused,” adding, “I love everything about this wine.”
His enthusiasm matches our own.
From the perfume that arrives before anything else, before you've even tilted the glass -- floral and dark-fruited and slightly mysterious — to the tannins that coat the palate and then quietly recede to the layers that unfold slowly over time and that cause you to stop mid-sentence at dinner, this is the Napa Cab that we all dream about.
Built, predominantly, of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, with Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc for rounding and softening, it aged for 21 months in 100% new French oak.
There’s a solidity, a gravity, to it that owes much to that oak regimen, but, and mercifully, and wonderfully, it exudes little of the heaviness that you might expect. It’s rich, but nimble, dense and deep, but graceful.
No one who has been following the Insignia story, or Joseph Phelps more generally, will find any of this to be even a little surprise.
If Phelps, today, is a standard-bearer, it’s in part because it got off to such a strong start. Phelps the man was among the valley's original visionaries, the kind of person who looks at a cattle ranch outside St. Helena and sees, somehow, one of the great wine estates of the next century.
And right he was. From the very beginning, Phelps insisted on estate-grown fruit and leaned hard into blending, an approach that felt almost heretical in a valley obsessed with single-varietal purity, and it became the foundation of everything Insignia is today.
The estate's current winemaker, Ashley Hepworth, has been with the label for nearly a quarter century now. That kind of continuity is hard to come by, in Napa or anywhere else, and if you want to understand the extraordinary consistency of these wines, that’s your starting place.
We encourage you to pour it solo, just to luxuriate in its charms and depths. Which is not to say that it won't reward a plate of food, most especially a properly aged ribeye, slow-charred and juicy and complemented by a zesty chimichurri.
Either way, you can’t lose.
This is one of the great Cabernets of our time, and a superlative showcase of a 2023 vintage that will be recalled in years to come as a legend.
Secure your bottles and cases today!
*Offer NOT valid in-store. This offer is made pre-arrival, with wines estimated to be delivered to your preferred store in Winter 2026 ( Dec. 21st - Mar. 20th, 2027). With the supply chain issues that we are seeing globally, there may be some unforeseen delays which could affect the ETA. All sale prices are the lowest available at Total Wine & More and ONLY valid through Concierge Sales. No further discounts or coupons may be applied. Offer not valid in KS, MI, NY, OK, or TN. This offer will expire on Thursday, September 24th, 2026.