The 2023 Philip Togni Vineyard Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is the ultimate secret handshake for those in the know. Philip Togni is a living legend, now 99 years old, whose pedigree stretches back to his formal Bordeaux training under Émile Peynaud and winemaking at Château Lascombes. After shaping early Napa icons like Mayacamas and Chappellet, he established his 10.5-acre vineyard at 2,000 feet on Spring Mountain. Today, his daughter Lisa directs this farmstead operation—a true family affair delivering small-scale, high-elevation perfectionism. If Napa Valley ever established an official classification, this dual 100-point icon would stand undeniably as a First Growth. 

While modern Napa often leans into ultra-extracted fruit and heavy oak, Togni remains the standard-bearer for classic mountain restraint. The stellar, slow-ripening 2023 vintage delivered a cool growing season that yielded grapes with massive structural power, fine-grained tannins, and vibrant natural freshness. Built as a classic Bordeaux-style blend dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon alongside Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, this benchmark bottle sits at the very top of the vintage. It has earned a perfect 100-Point rating from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate alongside 98 Points from Antonio Galloni at Vinous, confirming that the future of this legendary, cellar-worthy estate is brighter than ever.  

In the glass, the 2023 Estate Cabernet opens with precise, delicate aromas of violets, bay leaf, mixed red and black cherries, crushed rock, graphite, and dried herbs. The palate is "outrageously beautiful" and deeply concentrated, balancing rich cassis with firm, architectural tannins and a lingering, savory finish that guarantees decades of development in the cellar. For the serious collector, securing this allocation isn’t just adding an extraordinary dual 100-pointer to your cellar—it is claiming an enduring piece of living Napa Valley history.  

Cheers & taste well, 

Critical Acclaim:

100 Points, Wine Advocate:

“One of the top vintages I have had the privilege to taste, Philip Togni's 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate starts quietly, with delicate, pretty notes of bay leaf and violets, then steadily grows into a crescendo of mixed red and black cherries and cassis. This medium- to full-bodied wine is concentrated, rich and dense yet never heavy or overdone; it's tannic but without any harshness, exhibiting awesome length and elegance on the finish.” - Joe Czerwinski, July 2026

100 Points, John Gilman, View From The Cellar:

“The Togni family’s grand vin from the 2023 vintage is a magical young cabernet sauvignon. As is family tradition here, the wine’s octane is not listed on the label, but I would bet it is below 13.5 percent. The bouquet is quite similar to their 2023 Tanbark Hill, albeit with more depth and purity, as it wafts from the glass in a nascently complex blend of cassis, dark berries, coffee bean, cigar wrapper, a beautiful foundation of Spring Mountain soil, incipient smokiness, a touch of currant leaf and a refined framing of cedary new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full bodied, seamlessly balanced and rock solid at the core, with great soil signature, firm, beautifully integrated tannins, great grip and a very, very long, impeccably balanced, refined and utterly stunning young finish. This year the wine’s cépages is eighty-two percent cabernet sauvignon, fifteen percent merlot, two percent cabernet franc and one percent petit verdot. All of the varieties were co-fermented and the wine was raised in forty percent new casks this year. This is a simply perfect young cabernet sauvignon.” - John Gilman

98 Points, Vinous Media:

The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is outrageously beautiful. Graphite, lavender, crushed rocks, menthol and dark spice emerge with great reluctance. Then again, the 2023 was bottled just a few months before this tasting. It's a vivid, explosive Cabernet that will need at least a few years to be at its most expressive. Poor set lowered yields by about 25%, resulting in an unusually potent wine here. Captivating. - Antonio Galloni, November 2025