Winemaker Notes
This quintessential Cabernet highlights the expressive terroir throughout Napa, a perfect balance of mountain and valley floor fruit. Structured and fleshy, it is complex and fruit-driven through the mid-palate with perfectly integrated tannins, nuances of French oak, with distinct minerality, and an elegant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Courtney Benham Cabernet Sauvignon is lovely and complex. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers aromas and flavors of savory spices and ripe blackberries. Try it with a rare slice of prime rib. (Tasted: November 22, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
Covering the most vine acreage in the state compared to any other red wine variety, Cabernet Sauvignon produces as much wine in California as Merlot and Pinot Noir combined. The state’s diverse terrain and microclimates, as well as the freedom of its winemakers, allow for an incredible range of wine styles from this single grape.
California’s most famous region—and especially for Cabernet Sauvignon—is the acclaimed Napa Valley. While Cabernet is successful throughout the world, rarely has it achieved such merit as it does from the Napa Valley. At this point the two are so intrinsically linked that it is difficult to discuss one without the other.
Napa’s closest neighbor, Sonoma County, does an impressive job keeping up with Napa’s fame and glory. Alexander Valley, Sonoma Mountain, Moon Mountain and Knights Valley contribute to the lot of some of California’s top-rated Cabernet Sauvignon.
Lake County in California’s North Coast has become a focus for some of Napa’s more respected growers. From the Central Coast come iconic examples of classic California Cabernet; Lodi and the Sierra Foothills are great budget-friendly sources of amicable Cabernets.