Januik, Columbia Valley (Washington) 2021

 "Red blend" is generally not descriptive enough to understand the flavor profile of a wine.  Is the wine made from Cabernet and Merlot?  Zinfandel and Petit Sirah?  Grenache and Syrah?  Who knows?   But in the best cases the varietal components don’t really matter, as is the case here.   I tasted this wine not knowing the price and guessed it would ring up at twice the actual cost (or more), so this blend of 32% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Franc, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Grenache, 11% Malbec, 5% Syrah over delivers.  Showing a dense purple/black color in the glass, it looks like a densely structured wine.  The aromas are expressive of both the fruit and the winemaking with sweet black cherry, tart rose hip, mint, oolong tea and roasted hatch chili pepper backed by oak derived vanilla and milk chocolate scents.  This wine checks all of the boxes for complexity and follows with a rich and decadent texture maintaining focus and freshness, quite a feat!