Rowen Wine Company, Cooley Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, 2017

95 POINTS from Wine Enthusiast, people — on a Sonoma mountain Cabernet that most of the wine world hasn't even heard of yet. We made a call. We tracked down the allocation. We got as many cases as they would let us have, and we absolutely legged it before anyone noticed. ​ ROWEN Wine Company is the project that Rodney Strong's winemaker Justin Seidenfeld — named one of Wine Enthusiast's Top 40 Under 40, no less — has been quietly perfecting high atop the Cooley Ranch, a jaw-dropping 20,000-acre estate above Lake Sonoma in the remote northern reaches of Sonoma County. ​ Perched above the fog line on ancient red metamorphic soils, this is a place the winemaker himself called "the last great vineyard to be planted in Sonoma County." The 2017 vintage delivered a harvest of extraordinary ripeness — early bud break, sun-drenched days, and mountain fruit of absurd concentration. They didn't plant the first cluster for ten years. Worth every single second of waiting. ​ The result is a Cab of cassis, dark chocolate, black cherry, anise, and pencil shavings, with grippy tannins that linger for what feels like a very satisfying eternity. It drinks gloriously now and runs comfortably through to 2035 — which means buying more than one is practically a financial strategy.