Apothic Dark Red Blend California Red Wine

This bottle is sold as a red blend, and our record holds no list of the grapes inside. Its product page describes black cherry and plum with aromas of lightly roasted oak, suggests grilled meats and aged cheeses, and names no grape varieties. Gallo's brand page names none either. Our record holds no variety list from the maker, so we name none here.

The name on the bottle is a style rather than a grape, and that matters at the shelf: the name gives you the style, while the grapes behind it stay unconfirmed in our record. The 560 ratings we saw on August 12, 2026 averaged 4.47 out of 5, a little under the 4.71 median among the rated wines we track.

In our September 2026 checks the price ranged from $10.99 to $17.99.

Apothic's own product page classifies this wine as a 'Bold Blend,' and the brand behind it has more history than the label lets on: a wine-guide account traces Apothic to 2010, under E. & J. Gallo Winery out of Modesto, and to 'Apotheca,' the 13th-century word for the cellars where vintners stored and blended wine, the source of both the brand's gothic-lettered label and its stated philosophy of blending several grapes into one house style. Winemaker Ashleigh 'Ash' Ricchio, who joined Apothic in 2019, leads that blending approach across the lineup, though neither her page nor Dark's own product page names the grape composition behind this specific bottle.

Our call: buy it when you want an inexpensive red in the bold, black-cherry-and-plum style the producer itself describes; it sits among the least expensive reds we track and carries one of the larger rating pools in our coverage behind it. Pass if you go by shopper ratings or need the grapes named; the average sits below the middle of the rated wines we cover, and the blend stays unlisted in our record.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.