PHILIP TOGNI VINEYARD, Spring Mountain, Napa
After 60 (yes 6-0!) vintages in California, Philip Togni leads Napa’s camp of ‘old-school’ Cabernet producers. A student of Emile Peynaud at the University of Bordeaux in the 1950s, Togni earned his Diplôme National d’Oenologie and worked at Château Lascombes. In 1959, Philip arrived in California following a stint in Chile. He worked at Mayacamas (pre-Travers), Chalone (their 1st winemaker), Chappellet, and others through the 1960s & ‘70s. 1983 was the first vintage from Philip Togni Vineyard. The Vine has been honoured to offer our clients every vintage from 1997 onward.
By the early 1990s, Togni was focusing on his now iconic ‘Margaux-style’ Cabernet Sauvignon, crafted with varying proportions of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Together with his wife Birgitta and daughter Lisa, they produce exclusively estate-bottled wines from the 25-acre property where they have lived since 1975, 2000 feet above St. Helena on Spring Mountain.
Togni’s beautifully balanced Cabernets have become known for their ability to age for decades while maintaining poise, elegance and remarkable complexity. Every year, a small quantity of 10-year-old Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon is released to the mailing list clients, illustrating the ageability and drinking-timeline of the wine. Tanbark Hill is declassified in the style of a Bordeaux ‘2nd wine’ (ie. an Estate-bottled wine). With little or no ‘press wine’ included, it’s an earlier-drinking Cab suitable for restaurants. Ca’ Togni is a sweet wine (Black Hamburg) from a 1/4 acre parcel of old vines. Unfortunately, the vines providing Ca’ Togni have finally succumbed to age and virus, and had to be pulled out after the 2014 harvest.
Lisa Togni joined her parents full-time in 2000, after earning an MBA, and working vintages in Bordeaux (Leoville-Barton) and Australia, as well as sales & admin roles in California. Sharing Bordeaux experience and her father’s patient, long-view, generational perspective, Lisa honours one of California’s true legacies.
