2021 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 the heads-up 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 Paydirt Going for Broke Red Wine. 

The dense, concentrated, so-pleasing-it-should-be-illegal Going for Broke has rocketed into instant-legend status, racking up raves and becoming one of the biggest California red blockbusters of the year. 

The 2021 takes the baton without breaking stride. A brooding Zinfandel-based blend sourced from some of the same vineyards behind icons such as Ridge, Turley, and The Prisoner, it’s cut from the same cloth as some of the most legendary bottles in California. 

The co-owner at Paydirt is Patrick McNeil, the California wine-business veteran whose great-great-grandfather struck gold in 1848. McNeil has been crafting some of California’s most sought-after reds for over a decade. Pair him up with Jarman, whose talents are normally reserved for his triple-digit-priced Cabernets from Domaine Curry and Kenefick Ranch, and you’ve got a team with a red-wine Midas touch.

The dominant Zinfandel component (often called the “Gold Rush Grape”) makes its mark with exotic berry-pie notes and a deep cherry core. Going for Broke has historically come from some of the state’s earliest plantings: sources like the Paper Street and J. Dusi Vineyards in Paso Robles. Planted and farmed by the Dusi family (who’ve grown the Dusi Zinfandel for Ridge and Turley for decades), the star sites supply the family’s own wines and have also been tapped by Austin Hope and McPrice Myers.