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1999 Joseph Phelps Insignia

Not Currently In Auction

Latest Sale Price

March 24, 2024 - $210

Estimate

RATINGS

94Wine Spectator

Dark, rich and intensely concentrated, with a firm, tightly wound core of currant, black cherry, mineral, anise, sage and mocha-laced oak.

93+ Stephen Tanzer

Powerful but smooth and sweet, with superb, extremely unevolved dark berry flavors and a strong mineral note of graphite...

91Robert M. Parker Jr.

The core of this offering tends to come from Rutherford-grown fruit...offers a tight but promising nose of incense, spice box, black fruits, and vanilla.

REGION

United States, California, Napa Valley

Napa Valley AVA is the most famous winemaking region in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world. With nearly 43,000 acres of vineyards and more than 300 wineries, it is the heart of fine wine production in the United States. Winemaking started in Napa in 1838 when George C. Yount planted grapes and began producing wine commercially. Other winemaking pioneers followed in the late 19th century, including the founders of Charles Krug, Schramsberg, Inglenook and Beaulieu Vineyards. An infestation of phylloxera, an insect that attacks vine roots, and the onset of Prohibition nearly wiped out the nascent Napa wine industry in the early 20th century. But by the late 1950s and early 1960s Robert Mondavi and other visionaries were producing quality wines easily distinguishable from the mass-produced jug wines made in California’s Central Valley. Napa Valley’s AVA was established in 1983, and today there are 16 sub-appellations within the Napa Valley AVA. Many grapes grow well in Napa’s Mediterranean climate, but the region is best known for Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay is also very successfully cultivated, and about 30% of the AVA’s acreage is planted to white grapes, with the majority of those grapes being Chardonnay,