Harris Teeter Red Blends
🍷 Blind Red Blend Wine Tasting — California & Columbia Valley
🍇 What is a Red Blend?
Unlike a single-varietal wine, a red blend combines two or more red grape varieties, allowing the winemaker to use one grape for fruit, another for structure and tannin, and another for spice, color or softness. Common American red-blend grapes include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, Syrah and Petite Sirah. Typical aromas and flavors include blackberry, dark cherry, plum, vanilla, chocolate, baking spice and sometimes tobacco, leather or pepper.
🌞 California expression: California's warm climate and long growing season tend to produce ripe, fruit-forward blends with blackberry, plum and cherry, often accompanied by vanilla, chocolate and sweet spice, relatively soft tannins and a rich, smooth texture. This contrasts with traditional Bordeaux blends, which often emphasize Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc and can be more structured, earthy and tannic.
🌄 Columbia Valley expression: Wine #3 was the exception to the California theme. Washington's Columbia Valley has hot, dry summers but cooler nights and a large diurnal temperature swing. Cabernet Sauvignon commonly combines dark fruit with herbal notes, while Columbia Valley Syrah can be more savory and peppery. That made the black pepper, leather and wet-leaf characteristics Lynn and Scott found in Wine #3 particularly interesting—and quite consistent with the region.
🍷 Wine #1 — Z. Alexander Brown Uncaged Proprietary Red Blend 2024
📍 California, USA
🏡 Producer: Z. Alexander Brown Wines, Napa, California
📅 Vintage: 2024
💰 Price: $15.99
🛒 Purchased: Harris Teeter
🍇 Blend: The bottle did not specify the individual grapes during the reveal.
⭐ Lynn: 15/20 | Scott: 9/20 | Combined: 24/40
👩 Would Lynn buy it again? Yes — and she would bring it to a party.
👨 Would Scott buy it again? No.
👃👅 Tasting notes: Wine #1 showed a pretty, clear garnet color. The aroma brought out cherry, vanilla and an unusual cotton-candy sweetness, while the palate added plum, cherry and berry. Tannins were very mild and acidity was low. Scott found it lacking a real finish and described it as not particularly "wine-like," while Lynn was more positive and considered it a perfectly drinkable party wine.
Interestingly, the producer describes the wine as having blueberry, caramel, toasted oak, ripe dark fruit, black cherry and milk chocolate, with a fuller finish than Scott experienced in the blind tasting.
🍷 Wine #2 — The Federalist Red Blend 2023
📍 Lodi, California, USA
📅 Vintage: 2023
💰 Price: $17.99
🛒 Purchased: Harris Teeter
🍇 Blend: 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Zinfandel, 13% Petite Sirah
⭐ Lynn: 13/20 | Scott: 10/20 | Combined: 23/40
👩 Would Lynn buy it again? Yes — to bring to a party.
👨 Would Scott buy it again? No.
👃👅 Tasting notes: A nice dark color opened into vanilla, but Scott also detected wet leather/wet shoes and a noticeable alcohol aroma. On the palate, both found cherry and dark cherry, with cranberry also emerging. The tannins were mellow, with some of the tongue-tingling acidity Scott generally enjoys. Still, neither found the wine particularly exciting, and it ultimately received the lowest combined score of the tasting.
The winery's published blend helps explain some of those characteristics: Cabernet provides structure and dark fruit, Zinfandel adds ripe fruit, and Petite Sirah contributes color and body. The producer describes plum, blackberry, black currant, vanilla and baking spice.
🍷 Wine #3 — Ménage à Trois Limited Release Northern Seduction 2021
📍 Columbia Valley, Washington, USA
📅 Vintage: 2021
💰 Price: $12.99
🛒 Purchased: Harris Teeter
🍇 Blend: Syrah & Cabernet Sauvignon
⭐ Lynn: 14/20 | Scott: 13/20 | Combined: 27/40
👩 Would Lynn buy it again? Yes — and bring it to a party.
👨 Would Scott buy it again? Yes — to drink at home.
👃👅 Tasting notes: This was where the tasting noticeably improved. The aroma was much more interesting, revealing cherry, plum, leather, wet leaves and black pepper, along with a hint of hot pepper. Scott found it balanced and considerably better than Wines #1 and #2, although there was a slightly chalky quality on the palate.
The Syrah/Cabernet combination also fits the Columbia Valley particularly well: the region's Syrah is known for savory fruit and spice, while Cabernet frequently combines dark fruit with herbal character.
🍷 Wine #4 — Josh Cellars Legacy Red Blend 2024 🥈
📍 California, USA
🏡 Bottle identified Hopland, California
📅 Vintage: 2024
💰 Price: $12.99
🛒 Purchased: Harris Teeter
⭐ Lynn: 16/20 | Scott: 12/20 | Combined: 28/40
👩 Would Lynn buy it again? Yes — to bring to a party.
👨 Would Scott buy it again? Yes — to drink at home.
👃👅 Tasting notes: Very dark and clear, with black/red licorice, cherry and vanilla. The wine was balanced without excessive acidity or tannin. Most importantly for Scott, it moved away from the softer, candy-like character of the first wines and started tasting more like what he wanted from a serious red wine. Lynn also preferred it to Wine #3. Scott's main criticism was the relatively short finish.
Josh Cellars describes Legacy as a balanced red blend emphasizing rich dark fruit, toasted wood and freshly cracked pepper, which lines up well with the richer, more traditional red-wine character you detected blind.
🍷 Wine #5 — Ménage à Trois Midnight Dark Red Blend 2023 🥈💰
📍 California, USA
📅 Vintage: 2023
💰 Price: $10.00
🛒 Purchased: Harris Teeter
🍇 Blend: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon & Petite Sirah
⭐ Lynn: 15/20 | Scott: 13/20 | Combined: 28/40
👩 Would Lynn buy it again? Yes — to bring to a party.
👨 Would Scott buy it again? Yes — to drink at home.
👃👅 Tasting notes: Wine #5 became noticeably more complex. It offered forest floor, wet grass and other earthy aromas, followed by vanilla, chocolate, dried cherry/Craisin and eventually licorice. Both found the aroma pleasant, and Scott thought this was more complex than the preceding wines. It also delivered a notably long finish.
💰 Best Value of the Tasting: At only $10.99, Midnight tied Josh for second place at 28/40 while costing $2 less. At the reveal, you specifically identified it as the tasting's value bottle.
🏆 Wine #6 — Decoy Red Blend 2020 — WINNER
📍 Geyserville, California, USA
🏡 Producer: Decoy / Duckhorn
📅 Vintage: 2020
💰 Price: $19.99
🛒 Purchased: Harris Teeter
⭐ Lynn: 18/20 | Scott: 17/20 | Combined: 35/40
👩 Would Lynn buy it again?Yes — bring it to a party.
👨 Would Scott buy it again?Yes — bring it to a party.
👃👅 Tasting notes: The winning wine immediately separated itself through its licorice, floral, cherry and plum characteristics. More importantly, its texture distinguished it from the softer wines in the flight.
Scott particularly liked the way it attacked the taste buds and created a noticeable zing across the mouth, rather than producing the "soft and gummy" sensation he associated with some of the lesser wines. Lynn agreed that it was very good, and both returned to it during the final comparisons.
🏆 Why Decoy Won
Decoy won decisively with 35/40 — seven points ahead of the two second-place wines. Lynn gave it her tasting-high 18, while Scott gave it his tasting-high 17.
What really separated Decoy wasn't simply fruit intensity. 🍒 It combined cherry, plum, licorice and floral aromatics with a much more engaging mouthfeel. ⚡ It had the palate "zing" and attack Scott had been looking for throughout the tasting. 🍷 It avoided the overly soft, candy-like character found in some of the cheaper blends. 🥂 And most tellingly, both Lynn and Scott independently rated it as a wine they would confidently buy again and bring to a party.
🥇 Final Standings
🥇Decoy Red Blend 2020181735$19.99
🥈Josh Cellars Legacy $12.99
🥈💰Ménage à Trois Midnight $10.00
4️⃣Ménage à Trois Northern Seduction $12.99
5️⃣Z. Alexander Brown Uncaged $15.99
6️⃣The Federalist Red Blend 2023131023$17.99
The result produced two different recommendations: 🏆 Decoy was clearly the best wine, while 💰 Ménage à Trois Midnight was the best value, delivering a second-place score for almost half the price of Decoy.
