Rush Garner likes his name. And he likes wine.

A lot.

So much so that he's invested $50,000 in a custom-label wine with his name on it.

Rush Cabernet Sauvignon makes its debut this month and will be featured at the Corks & Chefs event that's part of the Magic City Art Connection in Linn Park next weekend.

Garner hopes that's only the beginning.

"I think people will remember the name Rush," says Garner, a 34-year-old who lives in Forest Park. "I designed my logo and felt like it would really stand out on shelves. A lot of people just reshuffle words like hill and river and stone or cliff. It's hard to remember those types of wines."

Garner, a wine wholesaler, developed his love for the grapes while earning a political science degree at the University of Alabama.

His grandfather, Samuel Garner, was dean of Alabama's business school for years and traveled frequently.

"When he got into his 80s and was attending those meetings, he invited me to go with him to handle his bags and that sort of thing," Garner recalls. "If we had a three-day conference in Florence, Italy, for three days, he'd go to his meetings, and then we'd take two weeks and drive to Paris. He'd let me pick out where we were going to stay and eat. He gave me carte blanche to arrange those things.

"That's where I first gained an appreciation for food and wine," Garner adds. "He insisted I order wine with every meal. It didn't take me long to get used to that."

After graduating from Alabama in 1993 and traveling with his grandfather for several years, Garner went to work as a wine wholesaler, forming his own company, Rush Wines, in 2002. The company specializes in California wines but sells wines from around the world. He started doing all the work himself with $250,000 in sales in 2002. Now, with eight employees, he's on track for $2.5 million in sales in 2005.

The bulk of Rush Wines' business is selling to privately owned restaurants and retail shops around Alabama. Most of Birmingham's independent restaurants, as well as V. Richards, Piggly Wiggly and Western Supermarkets, carry his wines.

"He's brought into the market several boutique labels previously unavailable," says Charlie Hayes, restaurant manager at Bottega. "We've enjoyed working with him."

Garner has wanted to create his own wine since Day 1.

"I've had to wait until I had enough cash flow to afford to do this," he says. "I would have done this the day I started if I could have."

He says that while there are many custom-label wines on the market, his is different because Rush wine is developed specifically for him from estate wineries in California. Most other custom-label wines use wine from a bulk market - meaning that one custom-label wine could be the same as another custom-label wine, just with another name.

"There might not be as much available, but we're interested in the quality of the wine over the quantity," Garner says.

Although there are other custom-label wines in the area - at Frank Stitt's Highlands Bar & Grill and Bottega restaurants, for instance - Garner says he is the only wholesaler to have put his name on a wine.

"It is fairly unique," says Hayes of Bottega. "We sell our house labels, but we also feature the winemaker on the label."

Garner worked with Spencer Graham, a California winemaker who has two labels of his own: Elizabeth Spencer and Burrton.

Garner sells Graham's wines, and Graham says the two share the same philosophy.

"It's extremely important that people feel like they're getting a really nice bottle of wine for what they're paying," Graham says.

In developing Rush wine, Graham sent sample after sample to Garner to taste.

"It took some back and forth, probably about two months," Graham says. "We wanted to fine-tune this as best we could."

The California winemaker says he's "tickled" with the final product, which is 87 percent cabernet sauvignon, 10 percent merlot and 3 percent syrah. Garner describes the wine as showing abundant cherry and raspberry on the front with a hint of chocolate and smooth velvety tannins.

"We drank two bottles of it over the weekend, a bottle on Friday and a bottle on Sunday," Graham says. "My criterion for the best wine in a tasting is that the bottle that's empty first is the best. It was the first one emptied."

Garner now has 728 cases of his cabernet sauvignon. He'll roll it out at Corks & Chefs next weekend, and the wine may be special ordered through any licensed wine retailer if you don't find it on the shelves. It'll be less than $15 a bottle, Garner says.