2000 Ca' Togni Napa Valley Sweet Red Wine
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Tasting notes
(for 375 ml.; 14.7% alcohol-low for a wine in this style-with 23% residual sugar) Medium dull red color. Knockout nose features prune, maple syrup, orange peel, violet and rose petal. Supersweet and fat with currant, rose petal and exotic spice flavors, if not quite as complex in the mouth today as on the nose. But this very thick wine possesses lovely fruit and superb sappy length. Best of all, this singular sweet wine is delicious already.
Critic scores
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Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
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One of Togni’s specialties is a sweet red wine made from the black muscat grape. The 2000 Ca Togni tips the scales at 14.7% alcohol, and has over 20% residual sugar, although it’s not the least bit cloying. An extraordinary perfume of flowers, raisins, plums, figs, incense, and Asian spice soars from the glass, followed by a sweet, gloriously pure wine that is relatively light on its feet. It offers a decadent glass of sweet wine that is best enjoyed as dessert at the conclusion of a meal. I have no experience with aging these wines, but given their extraordinary perfumes, I recommend drinking them during their first 4-5 years of life. As a postscript, I want to acknowledge a wine Philip Togni produced early in his career at Chappellet, the 1969 Cabernet Sauvignon. Recently, one of my dearest friends, Dr. Jay Miller, was feting his 60th birthday, and brought a bottle of this wine along with a collection of profound museum pieces. Togni’s ‘69 may be one of the greatest California Cabernet Sauvignons I have ever tasted. Every bottle I have had seems to get better and better. This 36-year-old wine tastes like a 14- or 15-year-old adolescent except for the extraordinary soaring aromatics of creme de cassis, spice box, incense, and cedar. In the mouth, it’s gorgeously fresh, full-bodied, super-concentrated, and revealing no signs of age. It is both a monument to California Cabernet Sauvignon and an homage to a feisty British-born winemaker who continues to turn out some of the world’s most interesting wines. Tel. (707) 963-3731; Fax (707) 963-9186
About the producer
Perched at nearly 2,000 feet atop Spring Mountain, Philip Togni Vineyard is one of Napa Valley’s most revered small, family-run wineries. Established in the early 1980s by legendary winemaker Philip Togni, the estate has earned consistent critical acclaim for its age-worthy, Bordeaux-style blends.