Sipping Fine Wine

8.9

Barrel aged 10 months sur lie! Medium lemon color with aromas of stone and citrus fruits with notes of warm baking spice. On the palate ripe apple and lemon flavors with vanilla and nutty toasty oak. Well balanced on medium finish ending, a bit buttery with slight oak and mineral notes. Drink now! — 23 days ago

Paul T HB

9.5

Needs a little air, great recommendation from @Somm David T
First mag of two — a month ago

Mark Osmers

9.2

Wine Spectator rated the ‘21 with an impressive 93 points and this Merlot was featured as #25 on the Top 100 wines of 2024.

flavor notes include blackberry, dark, cherry cedar, and that earthy Napa finish

I recommend this read to anyone who can find the 2021 vintage. Perhaps other years too. — 2 months ago

Anthony Cammarata Jr.

9.4

What a great refined wine. The 2018 Insignia opens with aromas of dark fruit, florals, and spice. On the palate, blackberry, mocha, and plum come through with a nice texture and tannins. The finish is long, savory, and elegant. Wow! — 2 months ago

with Daniel and Michael

Conrad Green

9.4

Beautiful fruit. Clean and polished. Inky notes, pencil lead, some tang. Savory and delicious — 5 hours ago

with Bex and David

DCH

9.4

Really impressed.
St. Innocent’s consistency of style lets terroir shine through their single vineyard series. Like a controlled experiment. 2021 Temperance Hill shows incredible levels of complexity and spice, while maintaining a great degree of balance and approachability. Put simply, it tastes great.

I haven’t had a chance to taste 2021 Momtazi, but this wine has similar levels of depth to prior vintages if memory serves, while being more easily appealing. I’ve tired 2021 Shea, but not side-by-side with this. While the Shea is an excellent wine, for my taste this is more expressive and interesting. — a month ago

Andrew Cullimore

9.3

Medium deep garnet ruby , quite thin garnet terracotta rim . This is quite classic and more austere on the nose after the 1990s , grafite , cedar, sweet spice , earthiness and mint. More dry and four square on the palate compared to the 1990s but enough stuffing to fill out. Cassis , plum and blackberry , coffee , grafite . Refreshing acidity , slightly grippy drier tannin. Sous bois , grafite , herbal character with good length and earthy cassis finish . This got better with time in the glass and probably should have been decanted . This shows there is some upside , from now , with time in the glass, and over the next 10 years. The wine that improved the most during the dinner , quite impressive . — 2 days ago

Tom Garland

9.2

Pop and pour. A brilliant medium gold color. On the nose: lemon, grilled pear, crushed stone, apricot, caramel, and honey. Taste: chalky, lean acid driven style with pear, steely minerality, green apple, saline, orange/lemon rind, and a medium plus finish. YUM! My favorite Napa chardonnay. — a month ago

with Brenda

Andrew Cullimore

9.3

Medium ruby garnet, quite thin garnet terracotta rim . Quite rich , with ripe red fruits , some tobacco , warm spiciness , cigar box , ripe cassis , sous bois , after a while touch of coffee. On the palate this also shows good roundness with ripe red and dark fruits, cassis , red plum , grafite , touch of earthiness . Balanced acidity and rounded sweet tannin . Quite juicy with a grafite edged finish . Pretty good length. This is at peak now . For now and over the next 5 -8 years. Quite generous and showy , ripe but balanced, a good showing. — 2 days ago

Paul T HB

9.7

California’s version of White Burgundy. Great older bottle from recent auction. — 2 months ago