If the name Benoit Touquette means nothing to you, then it’s safe to assume luxurious Napa reds aren’t your thing. The proud owner of no fewer than nine “perfect scoring” wines, Benoit is unquestionably one of the world’s, let alone Napa Valley’s, hottest winemakers of the moment. Of course, when you cut your teeth with legends Andy Erickson (of Screaming Eagle) and the most renowned consultant of contemporary times, Michel Roland, it all starts making sense.

Today, Benoit has his hands in a number of elite projects, most notably Realm Cellars, but Teeter-Totter just feels more personal, and impacts your wallet far less. It’s where Benoit is emotionally invested not only as a winemaker but as a proprietor, which gives him carte blanche when sourcing. This 2018 release is a premium blend of fruit from St. Helena, Calistoga, Rutherford, Pritchard Hill, and Oakville, but the specific vineyard sources remain undisclosed. Why? To prevent the wine from costing multiples more! To us, it’s very simple: Teeter-Totter is a masterful, opulent, cult-luring Napa Cabernet for a very ‘non-cult’ price. 

It’s hard not to talk about modern-day Napa Valley Cabernet without mentioning Benoit Touquette. If you haven’t guessed already, Benoit is French, born in Lyon. He dreamed of being a fighter pilot, but an imperfect medical test shuffled his career cards. After flirting with banking and road construction, he ended up on a bottling line in Bordeaux and never looked back. He earned Master Diplomas in both enology and chemistry at the University of Bordeaux, where he apprenticed at Château La Louvière and Château Couhins-Lurton (both in the Graves region). But Bordeaux posed its challenges for winemakers who did not come from a winemaking family, especially for those, like Benoit, who wanted to make exquisite, sought-after Cabernet Sauvignon. So, in pursuit of a “big break,” and unhindered opportunity, Benoit moved to the epicenter of American Cabernet.   

For anyone who has moved across the world, new places are tough, and as a winemaker, Napa Valley is a rare echelon. It’s a region defined by its connections, generations of winegrowing families, and hard loyalties. To walk in and make world-class Cabernet doesn’t happen overnight. But Touquette has overpaid his wine dues, working alongside the right people for a decade, slowly connecting the dots to Teeter-Totter and Fait-Main (his other label). In today’s wine, 85% Cabernet Sauvignon finds its groove with equal splashes of Zinfandel, Charbono, and Petite Sirah which serve to add an extra dimension of deep polish. All the fruit is hand-harvested and comes from sustainably farmed vineyards and the wine ages in 65% new French oak.

Today’s 2018 Teeter-Totter is a hedonist’s Cabernet that oozes lushness and power within dense layers of berry liqueur. Polish your finest Bordeaux glasses and decant the wine for 30 minutes after pulling the cork. An opaque, deep violet core extends into a vibrant ruby red rim with viscous tears clinging to the glass. The wine detonates with vanilla bean, candied violet, and warm baking spice that melts seamlessly into spirals of ripe black, red, and blue fruits. As with many of Benoit’s top-rated wines, it’s unapologetically luxurious but with a firm backbone that wards off any “jamminess.” Each full-bodied sip brings intoxicating notes like boysenberry, raspberry liqueur, Damson plum, and ripe black cherries, so if you typically enjoy those $200+ cult Napa reds, this will become your favorite find of the year. Drink now and over the next 3-5 years. Cheers!