2016 Cornerstone Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Benchlands Napa Valley is sold out.

Sign up to receive notifications when wines from this producer become available

Wine Spectator: “One of California’s Best Winemakers”

Wine Bottle
    • Curated by unrivaled experts
    • Choose your delivery date
    • Temperature controlled shipping options
    • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

    2016 Cornerstone Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Benchlands Napa Valley 750 ml

    Sold Out

    Sign up to receive notifications when wines from this producer become available.
    • Curated by unrivaled experts
    • Choose your delivery date
    • Temperature controlled shipping options
    • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

    Member-Favorite Cab from Opus Alum

    Winemaker Charles Thomas’s resumé reads like a flashing marquee of top names in California Cabernet—Opus One, Lokoya, Quintessa, and Robert Mondavi, among them—and his role at these powerhouses earned him unqualified praise: Robert Parker has called Thomas “brilliant,” and Wine Spectator dubbed him “one of California’s best winemakers.” 

    Every single time we offer—and inevitably sell out of—a wine from Cornerstone Cellars, we’re treated to a months-long wave of emails from our members wondering when their next shot at bottles from this Napa favorite will come. 

    In past offers, this 2016 Benchlands Cabernet, a wine that Jeb Dunnuck called a “big, opulent fruit bomb done beautifully,” prompted a flurry of four- and five-star member-reviews.

    Thomas worked on this wine with Kari Auringer, who trained under vintner-consultant Celia Welch and collaborated with her on 100-point bottles. Together, Thomas and Auringer make one of the most formidable duos in Napa—especially when they get a wide swath of Napa Valley’s finest grapes, grown on sites in Rutherford, St. Helena, and Oakville.

    In the 2016 vintage, which Vinous called “extraordinary,” Cornerstone set out to craft a Benchlands bottle that represented Napa’s gestalt, and they succeeded wildly. They spared no expense with this wine, and that translated to careful sorting before fermentation and then a long, two-year stretch in 65% new French oak. Now, after nearly four years in bottle, it’s drinking beautifully.