Lot 949 2019 Napa County Red Blend
Time to roll out the red carpet for our next release, Lot 949 2019 Napa County Red Blend is a red blend that’s here to knock out the competition. We love to talk about Red Blends from Napa because we also like to brag that we’ve got the category covered in spades. If there’s one thing we do well for Cameron Hughes fans, it’s whip up delicious red blends that over-deliver on the price point. Full stop!
When we scan the lists of some of Napa’s best red blends according to the bigtime critics out there—Food & Wine magazine, Wine Enthusiast, and Wine Spectator what we see of Napa blends is typical: no shortage of great wines—but all priced way over $40 a bottle! The other thing we noticed? We buy grapes from some of the same top producers mentioned! In one article alone, we could pick out two wines over $50 from producers where we buy grapes!
In our Napa County red blend – Lot 949 is a field blend of Petite Sirah, Grenache, Zinfandel, Mourvèdre, and Alicante Bouchet. It’s called a ‘field blend’ because the grapes all grow together in one field, which is harvested all at once to create one wine (rather than harvesting the varietals separately and then blending the wines together). In 2019, a “beautifully classic vintage,” grapes ripened to perfection, retaining bright, natural acids.
In the glass, this translates to bright red brambly fruit, wild herbs, spices, and remarkably soft and silky tannins. One sip of this wine is like biting into a plump, juicy, farmer’s market ripe strawberry! It can evoke long-lost memories of foods you don’t eat anymore — strawberry fruit leather, anyone? Channel that nostalgia with this big, delicious adults-only Red Blend. At only $25 per bottle, you’re getting a steal of a Napa County red blend that hits in all the right places for roughly half the price of its competitors.
Watch as Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes, and Wanda Mann, Wine Writer and Educator, walk us through a tasting and discuss this exciting release.
Tasting Video Highlights:
00:00 Intro to Lot 949
00:52 Red Blends
01:28 Color
01:54 On the Nose
03:29 The Palate
04:40 Food Pairing
05:23 Where in your Cellar?
Tasting Video Transcript:
Chris Lafleur says
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the CH Wine tasting room. I’m Chris Lafleur, your sommelier at large, and I’m here with one Wanda Mann, what are we going to be tasting today?Wanda Mann says
We are tasting lot 949 It’s a 2019 Red Wine Blend from Napa.Chris
Oh, I’m already excited. But this one is a little different from the other ones that you see out of Napa.Wanda
It is. Everyone knows Napa. We tend to think of Cabernet Sauvignon. Right. What’s interesting about this blend, there is no Cabernet in this blend. It’s five really interesting grapes. And I know there’s some Petite Sirah.Chris
There’s some Petite Sirah, a little bit of Grenache, a little bit of Alicante Bouchet. And I believe there’s also some Mourvèdre in there. So there’s lots of things to combine here and create an interesting amelioration of grape flavors and aromas.Wanda
Great. And what I love about a blend, again, I know winemakers love that opportunity, maybe to be a little more playful to experiment, and a blend allows them to do that. And also the challenge of the blend, right? Because you have all of these different grapes with different personalities, different styles, bringing different things to the wine. So I like to think of the blend as kind of as a musical group.Wanda
You have your basis, you have your drummer, you have your lead singer, but you need them all to come together in harmony. And a good blend does that well. It’s like your favorite rock and group.Chris
Absolutely. I love watching George Harrison do his thing, but sometimes I want to see the Beatles.Wanda
Exactly.Chris
And that’s all we have here. So let’s have a look, see how it’s developing. Oh, beautiful.Wanda
You always say the eyes drink it in first, right? So the beautiful ruby kind of shimmering in the glass.Chris
Mm hmm. It’s not quite opaque. I can see my hand through it. Oh, here’s a salmon. Me? No CO2, no sediment. Great. Here’s a uniform. Really elegant to look at. I love how deep that color is, especially in the light there. Oh, all right. On the nose.Wanda
Yes. Oh. Oh, that’s pretty. You know, I love the challenge of this wine, and I think this is a wine maybe that allows us to relax a little bit because we know it’s not Cabernet and maybe some of us aren’t familiar with these grapes that are in there. But you smell fruit, you smell red fruit, you smell some spice, you smell some brambly character.Wanda
So it’s very, very captivating in that sense.Chris
I love that you hit on that brambly character because I always associate that with Grenache and I know that’s in here. So I think we’re on the right path. And what I love about this, it smells so.Wanda
Deep. It does.Chris
It feels like the fruit is really concentrated. It doesn’t feel like quite overripe. It feels really crunchy. But being so deep, I feel like it’s going to unwind really well.Wanda
Yeah, it feels very lifted. I’m not getting a heavy it’s just like a very kind of nice fruit aroma dancing out of the glass.Chris
There’s there’s still some, like, Earth notes for me, like fresh turn, Dark Earth. I really like that. And I think there’s a touch of barrel, but the barrel to me is not driving the boss on this wine.Wanda
Absolutely. And I think, you know, often when we talk about aging and barrel, you know, suspect shift with seasoning, Right. So there are different degrees of how you use the barrel. And I think this was used in a very subtle way, this kind of cradle and bring it all together. But I like the fact that it’s not jumping out of the glass, just a very subtle, toasty note.Wanda
Yeah, just a hint of it.Chris
Like I get a little vanilla, like I need, like, the edge of my on the edge, my nose. Yeah, I want to say my palate. But we’re not there yet. We’re straining ourselves with grain.Wanda
Exactly.Chris
But it is there, and it just kind of rounds out the fruit. I think we’re teasing ourselves too much to not taste.Wanda
Yeah, we need to taste now.Chris
Okay.Wanda
It’s really impressive that balance between richness and freshness. It’s like really walking a tightrope in a nice way.Chris
Yeah. And I think some of the best wines do that. Like, you want to walk that line of like, is this going to be too ripe? Is it going to be slightly under ripe? And you get more interesting flavors and also you keep that energy to the wine. When you’ve got good acidity, the wine feels alive. It feels ready to jump out at you in the glass and it hits the palate in a way that feels electric.Chris
Yeah, and I love that I have a good wine.Wanda
Also, and often hear winemakers say, you know, they want us to finish the bottle, not just because we want you to buy another bottle, but because I think we’ve all experienced that you have a wine that you really excited about, but it’s so heavy on your palate. Finishing a glass becomes a challenge. So what started out as pleasure becomes a chore.Wanda
But this wine with that juiciness and that acidity, really, you want to keep going back. It’s not work to finish this.Chris
It invites you to pour another glass. So I guess that that tells us a little bit about what we’re going to do when we want to buy this. Yes. How many we need to get First off, what are you going to put this with if you’re going to have this at your dinner table?Wanda
I think it’s really versatile. That’s the other beauty of this, having some other roots. I love barbecue, but I think this will go great with pasta. You know, any type of meat dish kind of root vegetables. I love lentils. I make a lentil stew, actually. So and I think that will work really well. Has a little bit of smoked paprika in it.Wanda
And I think that would interact really nicely with the flavors here.Chris
Oh, yes, please. Yeah, I’ll come visit. Next thing you get this going. So just let me know. I’ll be there. Yeah, I fully agree. I especially like the barbecue now since you’ve got such a dense core. Yeah. And when I think of a good barbecue, I think about really rich sauce. That’s. That’s a perfect one for me, too.Chris
So we know what we’re going to put it with on the table. But where’s this going to fit in your cellar? What do you think, Wanda?Wanda
I mean, I think this is definitely an example where maybe someone who hasn’t started collecting yet. This is a great place to start because the wine is very drinkable and approachable now. But because of that acid in that structure, this can go several years. You’re the same. How many years do do you think?Chris
Hmm. I think if we were holding this in the wine cellar for like five years, like this is right now fall 2023, I think even by the time next year rolls around, this is going to be singing and really showing itself and unwinding all of the interesting notes that are ameliorated here together. You can probably go a little longer, but I think five years is where you want to give it at the start.Chris
So if you cannot wait, yeah, that’s that’s how long it’s going to be showing ideally. And also, you know, you don’t need to get just one bottle or even one case you can get a bunch now. So we’ve talked this up so much, you have to try it now. It’s ready to drink, get a couple of bottles and then open it again later.Wanda
Yes. It’s always fun to see that evolution is something I write about a lot. And, you know, many folks don’t have the patience. I think you can hold a few. I mean, I think, you know, it helps with all of our wine education to see that wine is this living entity that does evolve in the bottle over time.Wanda
So it’s fun to kind of track those differences.Chris
Yeah. And like, good wine doesn’t belong just with the special occasion. If the wine is good enough and you want to open it badly enough, a lot of things can become a special occasion. True? Yeah. You know, you got the mail today. Cool. Special occasion. Let’s open a bottle of wine.Wanda
Make pizza night a little fancy.Chris
Oh, that’s a great. Well, now I’m getting hungry, I think. Let’s get a pizza. I think this bottle and.Wanda
This one’s ours. They can’t.Chris
This. This last year.Wanda
There is.Chris
More. I had a couple. So we’re going. Okay, good. And with that, we’ll see you at the next class.Wanda
Cheers