2020 Durant & Booth Cabernet Sauvignon Bourbon Barrel Aged Napa Valley 750 ml

Jean-Charles Boisset, a legendary figure on the Napa scene, is Burgundy-born and French to the bone. So when winemaker Thane Knutson, an Oklahoma native, approached him with the idea of aging wine in old American bourbon barrels instead of French oak, the idea initially struck Boisset as apostasy.

“When I heard about this, my first thought was: are you out of your fricking mind?” he said, pouring us a glass of the dark-ruby Durant & Booth Bourbon Barrel Aged Cabernet. As we took the first sip, we were similarly shocked, but for a different reason: In the glass was one of the boldest, richest, most muscular Napa Cabernets we’d ever tasted—and we’ve damn near tasted them all!

This exuberantly concentrated, vanilla-and-spice-laced Cabernet is the latest release that’s burnishing Durant & Booth’s reputation as a label unafraid to buck tradition and kick California intensity up a notch. Our last Durant & Booth wine, the explosive Reserve Cab from Stephanie Putnam and consultant Philippe Melka, sold out so fast it practically caused a server meltdown.

Bursting with the kind of sumptuous opulence you typically have to pay three digits for, this release packs power and punch like nothing else we’ve tasted in Napa for the price.  

Prior to holding the 2020 Durant and Booth Cabernet, the barrels had been aging bourbon for 12 years. Knutson and Boisset tapped growers in Calistoga, St. Helena, and Rutherford to get the strongest, most potent Cabernet they could find to stand up to the heady oak vessels. One glass of this and you’ll see how brilliantly they succeeded. 

We’re all for tradition, but when breaking with convention creates something this phenomenally delicious, we’re all in.