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- 92 pts James Suckling92 pts JS
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2019 Courtney Benham Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
Everything You Want in a Napa Cab—Without the $100 Price
Courtney Benham has been one of our best deals in Napa Cab for nearly as long as Wine Access has existed—and their 92-point 2019 hailed from a stellar vintage that Vinous praised for having “big, bold wines that show the extroverted side of Napa Valley.”
Benham and 100-point winemaker Keith Emerson once again tapped vineyards whose fruit goes into bottles that usually command three-digit prices—necessitating some pretty strict NDAs.
One is a defining and legendary estate in the Stags Leap AVA, whose Cabernets helped put Napa on the world wine map. Another site, with grapes marked by dusty Rutherford tannins, is a favorite source for Duckhorn. Grapes from the third site, a Coombsville vineyard with volcanic, rocky soils, go into wines that cost up to $400.
We’ve speculated about what Benham and Emerson had to do to pull this rabbit out of their hat, but there’s nothing sinister going on here—just decades of hard-earned Napa experience meeting one of the brightest winemaking talents in the Valley.
Connections and long-term contracts are the fruit of Benham’s long career producing top-rated wines. Raised on a family farm in Bakersfield, he learned the wine business from his father. Since the 1980s, he’s been one of California’s savviest operators, racking up countless 90+ scores across multiple estates.
The Courtney Benham brand is a collaboration with Emerson, who earned his 100-point stripes with the 2013 Vineyard 29 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Emerson also crafts big, critically acclaimed mountain wines for Robert Craig that typically fetch at least $100 a bottle.