2008 Fisher Vineyards 'Coach Insignia' Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

One bottle available. 565 cases made in total.

First, the thing everyone gets wrong: this is not Joseph Phelps Insignia. Different winery, different wine, different family. Fisher Vineyards makes Coach Insignia, and the name has nothing to do with the Phelps bottling that shares a word with it.

Where the name comes from

Fred Fisher, who founded the winery with his wife Juelle, is a descendant of the Fisher automotive family. His forebears founded Fisher Body in 1908, building coachwork for Cadillac, Buick and Oldsmobile; General Motors bought them out by 1926, and for the next seventy years every GM car carried a "Body by Fisher" plate on the door sill with a horse-drawn coach as its emblem. That coach is on this label. The Fishers bought their Sonoma mountain property in 1973, opened the winery in 1978, and launched Coach Insignia in 1984.

Where this bottle came from

No broker, no auction lot. Our rare bottles come from collectors we deal with face to face, most of them people who bought on release and have kept the wine properly since. Each one is inspected before we agree to buy it, and stored cold from the day it arrives.

In the glass

Stephen Tanzer, scoring it 93, found deep ruby and highly fragrant red and blackcurrant, dried cherry, anise and herbs, with oak spice and a floral lift, calling it sappy and expansive with fine-grained tannins and a late note of black cardamom. Antonio Galloni gave 92 and described a gorgeous, refined wine laced with expressive red fruit, flowers, mint and liquorice. Eighteen years on it is at full maturity.

Critic scores

• 93 points · Stephen Tanzer
• 92 points · Antonio Galloni

The details

• Producer: Fisher Vineyards
• Appellation: Napa Valley, from the estate's Calistoga fruit
• Vintage: 2008
• Alcohol: 14.7%
• Bottled: July 2010
• Production: 565 cases
• Format: 750ml
• Drinking window: now through roughly 2030

The 2008 vintage, honestly

A hard year in Napa. A savage frost in late March and April, then near-total drought, roughly an inch of rain between March and the end of September, summer heat spikes and uneven veraison, with brush fires burning in Mendocino and Sonoma. Yields were low and the berries small and concentrated. Tanzer's summary was that 2008 is not as consistently strong as 2007, 2009 or 2010, but that it produced many outstanding wines. This is one of the ones that came out well, which is a different claim from 2008 being a great vintage.

Serving and pairing

Decant ninety minutes ahead and serve at 62 to 64°F. Ribeye, lamb, or a hard aged cheese.

One bottle in stock. Packed for transit and shipped from Florida. Browse more Cabernet.