Anti-Red Blend “Denial”

Wine: Anti-Red Blend "Denial"

Grapes: Zinfandel (20 percent), malvasia bianca (17 percent), cabernet sauvignon (16 percent), valdiguie (12 percent), other varieties (35 percent)

Region: California

Vintage: Nonvintage

Price: $8.99

In the glass: Anti-Red red wine is quite densely garnet red in color with a deep core going out into a light garnet-colored rim definition with high viscosity.

On the nose: There is an abundance of impressions that come at you from the bowl of the glass, but crushed rose petals, stone fruit, black currant, almost a sweet flowery component, then white pepper, spice and phenolics complete the interesting olfactory picture.

On the palate: The wine is pleasantly rounded, tasting like a hypothetical mix of a German riesling with a wine from the southern Rhone in France, sporting sweet, supple red and black berry fruit, apricots, cherries, cassis and a touch of spicy bell pepper. The midpalate is really pleasant, and there's good structure and softness right through to the lingering finish that has hints of rose water and sweet red currants at the same time.

Odds and ends: This wine is undeniably the strangest blended wine I have ever come across. Not that Randall Grahm from Bonny Doon hasn't given it his very best, but this takes the prize. A mysterious blend of 10 completely incompatible grape varieties have been mixed together in this mad wine that somehow comes out of this Frankenstein experiment smelling like roses, literally! The front and back labels are littered with references to the makers of this wine and their apparent disdain for the established wine industry. Now one might argue that if this wine is a runaway success then they themselves will have no choice but to succumb to the very establishment they seem to fight. Either way, the product definitely makes an impact on my palate, so they get kudos and a high recommendation. Anti-Red is largely a bastardized super Rhone-style blend, so it can handle anything in the meat department, such as a peppered filet. Drink it now through 2014. The bottle sports the smart screw cap, so you can save a glass for the next day.

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