2021 Courtney Benham Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County 750 ml

Sonoma is home to a legion of legendary Cabernet terroirs: Alexander Valley, Moon Mountain, Knights Valley, Chalk Hill, Sonoma Mountain…the list goes on.

That makes it a veritable playground of potential for the team of Courtney Benham and Keith Emerson, who have two of the deepest contact-lists in California. For this stunning value, they’ve once again tapped vineyards whose fruit also goes into bottles that usually command prices several multiples higher than what this lists for—necessitating some pretty strict NDAs.

We’ve long 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 bottles. 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 scores of 90+ points 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, meaning his bottles typically fetch at least $100. 

The 2021 vintage is already gaining a reputation as a modern-day classic, though yields were down across the North Coast. A warm summer and drought meant that berries were small and sparse—not exactly great for the bottom line. But the combination made for wines like this one, which combines beautiful fruit, lively acidity, and a softly tannic grip.