Familiar Air Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 | 96 Point Sexy Powerhouse

If you haven’t yet tried Touquette’s wines, today is a chance to get acquainted with his 100-point, peer-reviewed style. The Familiar Air Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 is a beauty from the talent of 100-point winemaker Benoit Touquette, who’s also the genius behind the wines of Realm, Fait-Main, and others.

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This 96-point release is a full-bodied, ripe, sexy Cabernet that has powerful notes of ground herbs, graphite, earth, and both blackberries and cassis. As Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon goes, it’s a rocking value as well as a terrific wine. We have 15 cases to share of Familiar Air Cabernet Sauvignon 2016, which will cellar well for at least a decade.

Accolades and more Accolades

The Familiar Air Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 is a beauty from the talent of winemaker Benoit Touquette, who’s also the genius behind the wines of Realm, Fait-Main, and others. A blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot was brought up in 80% new French oak, it’s a full-bodied, ripe, sexy Cabernet that has powerful notes of ground herbs, graphite, earth, and both blackberries and cassis. As Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon goes, it’s a rocking value as well as a terrific wine.

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The Familiar Air Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 from winemaker Benoit Touquette blends 95% Cabernet Sauvignon from Calistoga and St. Helena and 5% Merlot from Oakville, aged in 80% new French oak. Very deep garnet-purple colored.  It gives lovely black cherries, black berries, cassis, and warm plums.  Plus with suggestions of cigar box, lilacs and Marmite toast with a hint of garrigue. The palate is medium to full-bodied, firm and grainy with lovely freshness and depth.  While finishing on a lingering mineral note. 168 cases produced.

Winemaker Benoit Touquette

Benoit Touquette wrote:  I never considered wine until being in Bordeaux working mobile bottling lines to pay for graduate school. The infectious passion of the winemakers I met, showing up day after day with the same fire in their eyes, blew me away. I switched my focus to enology and completed two degrees.   While then leaving France to intern with Andy Erickson and explore uncharted possibilities in Napa Valley. I worked hard, learned from everyone, and pushed myself to deliver the kind of winemaking I believe in. I’ve never missed a picking day, and I’ll spend as much time as it takes to get the wines right.