2015 Hartwell Vineyards Estate Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 750 ml

Benoit Touquette’s World-Class Napa Sauvignon Blanc

We worked hard to secure a small allocation of Benoit Touquette’s 2015 Hartwell Vineyards Estate Sauvignon Blanc. Until our small allotment you had to visit the winery in Yountville, or order the previous vintage by the glass at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro. Touquette — the author of eight Robert Parker 100-point wines in the past four years — was clearly inspired to make great Napa Sauvignon Blanc from his time with Andy Erickson at Ovid and Screaming Eagle. His careful clonal selections and decision to age the wine a combination of neutral oak, concrete egg, and stainless steel, results in a beautifully luscious Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc teeming with orchard and tropical fruit notes, and a whip-crack of acidity. Just $29.00 per bottle for this locals-only secret and a Sauvignon Blanc that will make your head spin.

Robert Parker noted that continued drought conditions in California yielded another “spectacular” vintage in 2015, with “extremely high quality,” wines across the board. When it comes to Sauvignon Blanc, at the juncture of Napa and Sonoma, where dense fog is an everyday occurrence, vineyards in Carneros reaped the rewards where vine-vigor, combined with the north coast’s coolest sites offer some of the greatest values on the vintage. In Touquette’s hands, Carneros Sauvignon Blanc has everything to be a great terroir — competing with the best in the world.  

In the Loire, competition would be Dagueneau’s Pouilly-Fumes, Vatan or the Cotat brother’s Sancerres, but we’d pit this against even Bordeaux’s whites from Classified Growths and New Zealand’s finest at double or triple the Hartwell’s modest price tag. We knew we had to get some of this wine to our users the second we tasted this Sauvignon Blanc. Don’t miss out on this.

Having honed his viticultural skills under Andy Erickson at Ovid and Screaming Eagle, Benoit Touquette sharpened his palate through the expertise of his mentor, Michel Rolland — the famed “Flying Winemaker” who has cranked out a bevy of 100-pointers for the likes of Harlan, Bond, and Araujo. If there’s any Sauvignon Blanc you lock into this year, it should be this one from a winemaker with such impeccable pedigree.