Revelation Cabernet-Merlot

Wine: Revelation Cabernet-Merlot.

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon (55 percent), Merlot (45 percent)

Region: Vin de Pays D’Oc, Southern, France

Vintage: 2010

Price: $4.99 per bottle.

In the Glass: This Revelation wine is a deep, opaque violet-red color with a fine crimson rim definition and high viscosity.

On the Nose: There are ripe crushed black fruits, creme de cassis, red berry extract, red plum compote, violets, red flowers, undergrowth, earthy minerals and phenols. It has no discernible notes of wood or oak, meaning it is a very clean and pure wine that delivers a nice palette of scents.

On the Palate: It is a rich and mouth filling almost chewy wine with layers of black fruit, creme de cassis, boysenberry sorbet, vanilla, cedar, spice box and herbs going into a great midpalate that is very well delineated and nicely balanced. It also has a lingering finish, punctuated by velvety tannins and yet more black fruit and touches of spice .

Odds and Ends: Tasting through a lineup from an always interesting selection of wines less than $10 from Trader Joe’s, I found this to be outstanding in both quality and price. It is not a super complex wine, but one that brings pleasure to the palate . Made as a classic Bordeaux-style wine, but in a limited run of 60,000 bottles for this cuvee by Negociants Badet, Clement & Cie and in the south of France where the ripening of these noble grape varieties is not an issue, the wine is a delicious example of a “generic” blended wine that results in an extraordinary value. Coming from the generally very successful vintage of 2010, it is worth mentioning that the Pays D’Oc, as it is called in southern France, is home to the world’s largest area of contiguously planted grape vines and therefore it gives blenders easy access to find the raw materials necessary to bring this to market for less than $5 per bottle. This is a wine that can easily handle a nicely grilled spice-rubbed tri-tip . Open at least one hour before consumption and it should be good through 2015.

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