Our intent here is to talk about an excellent value with respect to Napa Cabernet. Bear in mind that, given the typical price of Napa Cab, you can make a pretty good case for the $60-70 range as a legitimate value given that most Cabernets of this quality start above $90 and go up from there. The Teeter Totter label has behind it winemaker/owner Benoit Touquette who worked alongside Andy Erickson on iconic labels like Arietta, Favia, Hartwell, Ovid, and Screaming Eagle, as well as Chateau La Louviere and Chateau Couhins-Lurton in his native Bordeaux, and is currently the winemaker for Napa super-boutique Realm. The guy knows what good wine is supposed to taste like (he has made, thus far, 28 wines that have received 100 point scores) and that is an important perspective with any project. His name gives Teeter Totter gravitas and credibility, even though the label is quite playful.
Teeter-Totter is Benoit’s affordable Cabernet (again, by Napa standards…most of what Benoit makes has three-digit prices) but clearly the grape sourcing and winemaking speak of a higher plane. The blend for the Teeter Totter Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2021 is a little quirky, in this case 85% Cabernet Sauvignon blended with 5% Zinfandel, 5% Charbono and 5% Petite Sirah. You get the power and elegance of classic Napa Cab but with a somewhat boisterous fruit note courtesy of the ‘other’ varietals in this blend.
Suave, chocolaty, with abundant creamy cassis and plum fruit with notes of tobacco and cedar, this has been a 92-and-up consistently itself (94 for the 2019) through the 2019 vintage from Jeb Dunnuck, The 2021 (like many Napa producers, they didn’t make a 2020 version) reflects another excellent vintage in Napa that is more elegant but still with abundant sleek fruit. Put this in your ‘white tablecloth’ scenario and no one would guess you paid a mere $64.98.