Our Top Under-$50 Red Blend of 2021
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2018 Durant and Booth Reserve Red Blend 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
Putting the Big Boys in a Corner
Star winemaker Stephanie Putnam wanted to take a walk on the wild side.
She envisioned a bombshell blend that would marry Rutherford dust with warm St. Helena ripeness and full-on Calistoga concentration. No rules, no mandates, except to get her hands on the darkest, most explosive fruit of the vintage: Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah, whatever it took to inch concentration up to 11.
Putnam’s collaborator at Raymond is Jean-Charles Boisset. A Burgundy native of sartorial flamboyance and live-wire energy, Boisset is thoroughly New World in his attitude—and since he shared her vision for the bottling, sourcing fruit was no problem. After consulting Philippe Melka, Napa’s 100-point wizard of masterful extraction, the 2018 Durant & Booth Reserve Red Blend was born.
This wine was originally destined for an iconic Chicago chophouse where it would be poured alongside four-inch-thick, $140 tomahawk steaks, but when we got hold of a sample, we had different ideas.
Those who love blockbuster Napa reds like Titus Andronicus and Delightful and Strange will cotton to this as a new all-time favorite Napa red, perfect for rib eyes off the grill or a winter pot roast. The marketing materials for this bottling will tell you about the 19th-century history behind Frederick Durant and Joseph Booth founding Napa’s famous Oakville Grocery, but don’t be fooled by the sepia-toned aesthetics. This wine is more hard-charging James Brown funk than old-timey fiddle, seamlessly layering currant, lavender, pencil shavings, and lilac over a core of bottomless dark fruit preserves.
Finished in French oak barrels, 25% new, for 10 months, it charges out of the gate, filling the air with lush aromas and taking the palate for a ride.