2021 Teeter-Totter Cabernet Sauvignon California 750 ml

Benoît Touquette is one of Napa’s modern masters. The 100-point winemaker was trained by Andy Erickson at Ovid and Screaming Eagle, and by Michel Rolland. Now he crafts some of the most coveted $200–$400+ wines in the Valley for consulting clients and for his own Fait-Main project.

The 2021 Teeter-Totter Cabernet Sauvignon California delivers the full Touquette-luxe experience: top Northern California sites, Napa and Sonoma included, vinified with the techniques he learned alongside Michel Rolland and Andy Erickson. The wine is then treated to 70% new oak in elevage—which is absolutely unheard of at this price. 

When Touquette first left his home in Bordeaux for California’s Cabernet epicenter, he aimed for the top. So 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. Touquette and Rolland remain close to this day, and the latter’s influence shows in the high scores Touquette’s wines collect—and in this edition of Teeter-Totter.

Teeter Totter’s Cabernets have garnered the kind of critical praise that’s all but unheard of at this price. In describing the Jeb Dunnuck said Teeter-Totter can “easily compete with wine that costs 3–4 times its going rate.” Antonio Galloni of Vinous has called Teeter-Totter “just about as good as it gets” for value in Napa. 

2021 was a drought year in Napa, and the lack of water produced some of the smallest, most concentrated berries that winemakers had ever seen—and this definitely comes across in the glass. This is a deeply colored, beautifully concentrated Cabernet that you’ll be thrilled to have in your cellar.