Flux blend looks and tastes elegant

Occasion: This is your pre-Super Bowl winter warmer wine that'll wrap around your tongue on the palate and warm you from the inside out. A gorgeously packaged and attractive wine in both looks and feel, it can easily edge out wines that cost three to four times more from California, especially those from the Santa Barbara area. This wine is a classic so-called GSM blend and made by Mark Herold, who has a big reputation as a Rhone Ranger.

Wine: Flux California Red Wine

Grape: Grenache (68 percent), syrah (17 percent) and mourvedre (15 percent)

Region: California

Vintage: 2011

In the glass: Flux blended red wine is a deep purplish-black red color with a dense opaque core going out into a fine slightly violet-red rim definition with medium-high painted viscosity.

On the nose: There is a tremendous olfactory explosion of berry fruit character with crushed blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and Morello cherries and underlying notes of spicebox, black peppercorns, dark chocolate, tobacco and earthy minerals.

On the palate: This wine hits with a serious fruit force, dominated by black cherry preserve, forest berries, spiced cranberry, huckleberry sauce, cocoa beans, aniseed and blackened steak. The midpalate is balanced and while the tannins are powerful, they are also harmonious in mingling with the fruit, yet showing some rustic pepper character. The finish is excellent with some raspberry jam and Good Earth Tea, while lingering for at least 25 seconds. A thoroughly well-made wine that is drinking deliciously right now and for another four to five years to come.

Price: $18.99

Availability: Lee's Discount Liquor

Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears on Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.