Controversial name disguises good wine

A wine that will probably spark a lot of conversation is Bitch Grenache from Australia.

I don't know how this wine got past the normally stern Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which is the alcohol label approval equivalent of the FCC for TV and radio. More shocking is how the back label uses the offensive term more than 50 times, leading us to believe that the wine is made by a group of very angry men.

The label is a pretty feminine pink with a cutesy look to it, so there are things going on here that defy mind, body and psyche.

But the content delivers big time and is from one of the finest appellations in all of Australia. Better still, it's less than $10.

In the glass, Bitch Grenache is a light translucent crimson-red color with a bright red core going out into a fine, light-garnet red rim definition with medium viscosity. It almost looks like pinot noir in the glass.

On the nose, there are earthy berry notes, with crushed brambleberries, ripe Bing cherries, phenols, licorice root, loganberry fruit, black currant juice and minerality.

In the mouth, the wine attacks the palate with concentrated cherry liqueur, liquid black licorice, candied violets, chewy black currant drops, "hot" spice elements and earthy plummy fruit with underlying minerals. The midpalate is concentrated with lots of earthy fruit and phenol going into a long, super-ripe finish that reveals licorice, black cherry liqueur, raspberry coulis and earth notes.

This is one of the most unusual grenache-based wines I've tasted, especially in this price category. It can handle anything you throw at it in the food department, so try a blackened rib-eye steak generously sprinkled with Cajun spice. The wine will continue to develop during the next few years and should drink well through 2010.

Wine: Bitch Barossa Grenache

Grape: Grenache

Region: Barossa Valley, Southern Australia

Vintage: 2005

Price: $9.99

Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89016-0749, or e-mail him at gil@winevegas.com.