2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is just beginning to enter its early plateau of maturity. Savory herbs, plums, graphite, rose petal, lavender and sage all open up in an exotic, beguiling Cabernets that exudes personality. The 2005 has enough depth and structure to drink well for another 20 years, although it is not an especially big wine nor is it likely to improve materially from here. A second bottle, tasted six months prior, was much deeper, inkier and explosive. Either way, the 2005 is in the sweet spot today and will drink well for another 15 years or so, perhaps longer.

The elder statesman and brilliant winemaker, Englishman Philip Togni, who lives in splendid isolation high on Spring Mountain, not far from the Sonoma County line, has made this blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot from his steep home estate. Aged 20 months in about 40% new French oak (which seems like a smaller percentage than I recall when I was visiting him), the wine is dense ruby/purple, firm and slightly austere. Bordeaux-like, it has a nose of graphite, blackcurrants, forest floor and spice box. Medium to full-bodied, it still possesses moderate tannins that need to be shed, but offers outstanding purity and loads of personality. Togni was trained in Bordeaux, and there’s no question that he applies his classic winemaking style to the beautiful fruit he obtains from his Spring Mountain estate. I’ve been an enthusiastic purchaser of many of his vintages, starting in the mid-1980s and working right through most of the vintages of the 1990s. As impenetrable, backward and austere as they seem in their youth, theses wines are guaranteed to be hugely successful after about 15-20 years of bottle age. At ten years of age, the Togni 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is still a baby, and one of the youngest wines I tasted. While most 2005s are showing beautifully, with admirable freshness across the board, but this one is a baby to put to sleep for another five years.

Medium ruby-red. Wild nose combines black raspberry, blackberry, coffee bean, licorice, leather and smoked meat, along with hints of menthol and smoky oak. Then almost surprisingly lush and sweet in the middle palate, with ripe acids giving shape to the sauvage blackcurrant and game flavors. Turns more austere on the back end, finishing with firm-edged tannins and very good length. Philip Togni told me he thinned the vines heavily in 2005 and ultimately brought in less crop than he did in 2006 or 2007. He noted that he always tells his clients to wait at least five years to try his wines but that "we expect the 2005 to improve in bottle for 20 years."