2016 Teeter-Totter Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Napa Cabernet Courtesy of Benoit Touquette

It doesn’t matter that we’ve known winemaker Benoit Touquette for nearly a decade, or that he’s crafted a whopping nine 100-point wines from Napa authority Robert Parker. Wine Access members are what keep his Teeter Totter Cabernet on top—literally. In the past two years, it’s raked in heaps of five-star reviews, with phrases like “Buy Again!” and “Great nose,” tacked on for extra oomph. If you haven’t yet tried Touquette’s wines, today is a chance to get acquainted with his 100-point, peer-reviewed style for far below the standard price.

Teeter Totter is the bottled version of Benoit’s mantra: Great Napa Cabernet Sauvignon doesn’t need to cost over $100. The 2016 release is dark and dense, with over-the-top aromas of ripe black fruit, balanced by fantastic structure, fine tannins, and elegant balance—a masterful expression of great Napa terroir for under $100. That value proposition is no mistake, as Benoit has always endeavored to keep Teeter Totter’s prices grounded, and its quality through the roof. Mission accomplished.

When Benoit left his home in Bordeaux for the Cabernet epicenter of Napa, he was ready to work—and beyond long hours in the cellar, and 100-hour harvest work weeks, he positioned himself deftly alongside Andy Erickson at Ovid and Screaming Eagle, and chose a stellar mentor in Michel Rolland, the world-famous consulting winemaker whose name is on 100-pointers by Harlan, Bond, and Araujo. Benoit and Rolland remain close to this day: Can you read between the lines?

The 2016 Teeter Totter hails from a Napa vintage that is poised to outshine 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 as possibly the best this century, and it shows in this lavish Cabernet. This bottling will thrive in the cellar but deliver a ton of pleasure out of the gate today with its expansive, ripe fruit flavors and firm tannins. Benoit sources from some of Napa’s most desirable neighborhoods—Oakville, Calistoga, St. Helena, and even Pritchard Hill—and Teeter Totter proudly struts its luxury Napa heritage, at nearly half the standard price.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.10%
• 30 mins
• Now – 2028
• 85% Cabernet Sauvignon10% Merlot5% Petite Sirah
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork