1980 Insignia

The still youthful-looking dark plum/ruby-colored 1980 Insignia exhibits a Provencal, peppery, garrigue note intermixed with a hint of Asian soy, good fruit on the attack and medium body. This wine will certainly hold for 5-10 years, but I do not believe more complexity or additional pleasure will emerge from this wine. It's interesting that this is the first of four straight vintages that were somewhat off-form for this cuvee. A cool early growing season followed by an unusually cool summer was broken by heat spikes in late September that pushed sugars much higher, causing some producers to panic and harvest immediately. Overall, this is considered to be an average vintage for Bordeaux varietals in Napa Valley. The 1980 Insignia is the first year where production exceeded 2,000 cases (2,450 cases produced), and the alcohol came in at 13.8%. It is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot. Going against the trend at that time, 93% of the grapes came from growers and only 7% from their estate holdings, including the Spring Valley Vineyard in St. Helena, the Harris Vineyard in Yountville, the Beckstoffer vineyards in both Oakville and Rutherford, the Eisele Vineyard in Calistoga (29%), and the biggest component part from the Reese Vineyard in Yountville, which accounted for 45% of the total. The 1980 was aged 15 months in French oak.