100pt winemaker’s Zinfandel bargain
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2021 Courtney Benham Zinfandel Exploration Series Mendocino County 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
Benham Can’t Be Beat
The 2021 Courtney Benham Zinfandel Mendocino County is a concentrated, complex, richly spiced Zin grown in Mendocino County–home of some seriously ancient Zinfandel vines–and brought to the bottle by 100-point winemaker Keith Emerson. It delivers a level of fruit purity and richness that’s absolutely unheard of around this price level.
Courtney Benham, one of California’s savviest operators since the 1980s, is among the few Napa luminaries who can pull off vineyard sourcing like this. Raised on a family farm in Bakersfield, he learned the wine business from his father.
His connections throughout California—forged through his long career producing top-rated wines—means that he secures access to fantastic grapes for reasonable prices. That ability to leverage such industry connections into showstopping values has made his label a sensation among Wine Access members.
The Courtney Benham brand is a collaboration with Keith Emerson, who earned his 100-point stripes with Vineyard 29. Emerson also crafts big, critically acclaimed mountain wines for Robert Craig, meaning his bottles typically fetch at least $100. Benham and Emerson’s partnership has yielded a string of incredible bargains, and this bottle—with a luxurious, silky texture comparable to wines several times the price–fully displays the rare level of value this winery offers.