2015 Cornerstone Cellars Benchlands Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

From Opus One, Scarecrow and Lokoya to This

When we offered the 2014 Cornerstone Cellars Benchlands Cabernet Sauvignon, the bottles disappeared—and we haven’t stopped hearing about it from Wine Access loyalists since. We leveraged our long-standing friendship with Cornerstone to get an allocation of the 2015—a marvelous effort from Napa’s sensational 2015 vintage. Released at $65, this is a fantastic deal at $50.

The producers on winemaker Charles Thomas’s resumé read like a flashing marquee of top names in California Cabernet—Opus One, Lokoya, Quintessa, and Robert Mondavi, among others—and his role at these powerhouses has earned him unqualified praise from the world’s most influential critics: Robert Parker calls Thomas “brilliant” and a “star winemaker,” and Wine Spectator simply calls him “one of California’s best winemakers.”

Together with 100-point winemaking partner Kari Auringer, the Cornerstone team forms one of the most formidable duos in Napa, and the 2015 Benchlands Cab is a ruby-hued jewel, bursting with flavors of blackberry preserves, vanilla, mocha, and spice—the kind of jewel you’d expect from two powerhouse winemakers and one of the top vintages in Napa history.  

Like Charles Thomas, many winemakers believe that winemaking begins in the vineyard. But few can back it up as he can, with experience at nearly every conceivable step between terroir and bottling. Thomas worked his way up the ladder at Robert Mondavi, eventually serving as assistant winemaker where he was instrumental in the conception and execution of an exclusive project called “Napamedoc,” which, after a 1982 name change, became known the world over as Opus One. After 12 vintages at the legendary estate, Thomas’s contributions to Cardinale, Rudd, and Quintessa have cemented his place in the pantheon of transformative winemakers.

Napa’s astonishing string of excellent vintages didn’t just continue in 2015—it ramped up. This is the kind of warm, abundant vintage that winemakers like Thomas and Auringer dream of during leaner years, and take full advantage of on the rare occasions when they occur. The duo sources grapes from some of the top vineyards in Napa’s low-lying hills, and bolsters the beautiful, ripe, and concentrated fruit with luxurious vanilla and exotic spice from 80 percent new French oak barriques. The result is a wine of exceptional power and grace that will be an asset to any cellar.