2019 Paydirt Going For Broke Red Wine California 750 ml

“Headed your way. Blue shorts, gray tee-shirt. Not my winemaker uniform!”

Duckhorn alum and Coup de Foudre winemaker Kent Jarman gave us a heads-up text before we met up at Napa’s Oxbow Public Market, but we didn’t need it. There was no way we were going to miss him—especially carrying a bottle of the hedonistic 2019 Paydirt Going for Broke Red Wine, one of the most stellar portrayals of historic California terroir out there.

Kent’s partner at Paydirt is Patrick McNeil—the California wine-business veteran whose great-great-grandfather struck gold in 1848—and their dense, concentrated, so-pleasing-it-should-be-illegal red blend hails from a magical set of Golden State vineyards.

Two of the main sources of the Zinfandel—and much more—in this powerful blend are the Paper Street and J. Dusi Vineyards in Paso Robles. The Dusi Vineyard, planted and farmed by the Dusi family, who’ve grown the Dusi Zinfandel for Ridge and Turley for decades, supplies grapes for the family’s own wines, as well as stellar bottlings from Paso stalwarts Austin Hope and McPrice Myers.

The vibrant Primitivo grape also makes an appearance, courtesy of grower Jim Lewis, who works the sandy and history-rich Mokelumne River AVA in Lodi. And while the dominant Zinfandel component (often called the “Gold Rush Grape”) delivers black-cherry aromas and a mountain of depth and concentration, the Primitivo, Petite Sirah, Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Cabernet Sauvignon pepper the remainder of this blend with spicy allure.

This is a bottle that explodes with the bravado that defines California winemaking—and it will make a massive fan out of anyone who takes a sip.