This was part of a double-blind tasting with some family members, among six other red wines with no specified theme. This absolutely screamed "Pinot Noir" from the first sip, but from where? Had a little bit of that orange peel that I often get from WV. It did have substantial fruit presence, but had kind of a high-toned feel to it. Very attractive flavor profile So in the end, I went with 2018 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, $25 price point.
Really enjoyed this and thought it to be the best wine of the tasting, though we didn't do any scoring. If I were, I'd put this at 91 - 92.

This was part of a double-blind tasting with some family members, among six other red wines with no specified theme. This was the second wine in the lineup (following the 2017 Ojai Kessler-Haak) and this was also clearly Pinot Noir. The Ojai seemed to me to have some of that WV high-toned character and orange peel notes (so I called that WV Pinot) - this was more subdued and less vibrant with less depth, but no distinctive character that I could hang my hat on, though, it was clearly new world. I just was guessing at this point and went with 2018 Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir, $25 price point. We weren't scoring, but I'd put this at 87 - 88, a clear step down from the lovely Ojai (though I got the location guesses exactly switched!)

Really perplexed by how this is evolving. I threw this into a double-blind tasting with some family members, among six other red wines with no specified theme. This followed a 2017 Ojai Kessler-Haak Pinot and a low-end Oregon Pinot (first three in the tasting were Pinots just by chance). I identified the first two as Pinot (though the first I identified as Willamette Valley and the second as Sta. Rita Hills, amazingly backwards!), but this did not even enter into my mind as Pinot at all. Strong iron notes on the nose and palate, very dark color, dark fruit profile, strong tannic presence, medium acidity level -- I actually guessed this as a 2016 Central Coast Cabernet Sauv, but was not at all confident with the guess. In fact, not a single person of the seven involved in the tasting called this as a Pinot Noir. I ended up taking the bottle home for the next evening and still got very little Pinot character out of this, as the strong iron note and tannin had not at all subsided.
I actually think this needs years to unwind. Like 5+ years. Not that it wasn't interesting and enjoyable (to an extent), but I think this will be better after it relaxes a bit.

This was part of a double-blind tasting with some family members, among six other red wines with no specified theme. This was my brother's contribution and, at some point, he mentioned during the tasting that there was a Rioja in the lineup (not sure why he did that). I had previously guessed this as a Cabernet Sauvignon (due to the prominent tannin) on the first taste. I retasted after knowing this information and concluded that this was the Rioja and guessed Crianza level, 2017 vintage, $20 price point.
Quality-wise, this was not great, not even very good, as had hollow, woody character and not much else to offer. I guess this is a Naked Wines offering and is not one of the better ones, as I've had quite a few very good reds from them at half the price. If scoring, somewhere around 86 - 88.

This was part of a double-blind tasting with some family members, among six other red wines with no specified theme. After the first sip, I immediately identified this as a Napa red. I had previous knowledge of my oldest brother having been gifted a set of 2016 Stags' Leap Merlot/Malbec package, plus he has a very limited cellar, so I knew exactly what this was, so I guessed that this was the Merlot (we had previously drunk the Malbec already). The Napa character here was clear, but the quality of this Merlot was not that great - certainly not the depth or character of the Malbec. If scoring, 86 - 87.

I entered this into a double-blind tasting with some family members, among six other red wines with no specified theme. This had strong Cabernet Sauvignon character, prominent tannin, and had a pretty strong kind of a mint note that took me to Australia. I've had one bottle of this about a year ago, and I knew it was in the tasting, but I did not identify it as such. My final guess was 2016 vintage, Australian Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra, at a price point of $20. Not a bad guess actually - right variety, right price point, southern hemisphere, close on the vintage - I'll take it!

This was part of a double-blind tasting with some family members, among six other red wines with no specified theme. This was jammy, which placed me in the new world, plus I had not yet "found" one of the wines I brought, the 2014 Big Flower Cabernet Sauv from South Africa so that is what I guessed.
Was a little surprised at the reveal that this was from France, as it had no old world character to it at all. Yet, all seven of the tasters had this either as Cabernet or Syrah, so I guess that says something about having varietal character - not too bad for a $7 imported red. I found the quality to actually be pretty good for that money. We weren't scoring, but I'd put this at somewhere between 84 - 86.