2021 Teeter-Totter Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

The 2021 Teeter-Totter Cabernet is our favorite kind of outlier. It’s a bottle that brings together the expertise of 100-point winemaker Benoit Touquette, premium vineyard sources, and the kind of profound Napa opulence that would normally command $200+... 

…but it comes for a third of that. 

This Teeter Totter release—from a year “so great, you could just feel the excitement all over the valley”, in the words of Wine Bible author Karen MacNeil—has yet to be reviewed, but the last three vintages to earn scores from Jeb Dunnuck reeled in 94, 95, and 95 points, and the critic 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. 

Teeter-Totter Cabernet is an undisputed Wine Access favorite, and it’s easy to see why: It brings all of Touquette’s talents to bear—in the cellar, yes, but also in sourcing grapes from top Napa Valley sites in the prime AVAs of St. Helena, Rutherford, and Yountville.

When Touquette 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 garner—and in this edition of Teeter-Totter.

This is what we’d call a masterful expression of great Napa terroir and winemaking, and it’s unquestionably one of the greatest and most pedigreed Cabernet values out there.