We don't always see a lot of Amarone grace Costco shelves, and we usually scoop them up when we do.
A quick search of the blog shows the last Amarone we tasted and reviewed was way back in Nov of 2022. It's a wine we'd love to see more of so this was a nice find today, and turned out to be a delicious wine as we hoped.
This wine was $21.69, which is a very good price for Amarone. Note the fact that it ends in $.69. As we've posted before, when prices end in a 9 and it isn't $.99, that means it's a special price given just to Costco (this applies to all Costco items, not just wine).
And because we're semi-wine nerds who have written a book about Italian wine, we have to point out the uniqueness of Amarone.
The grapes are allowed to dry out in a process (appassimento) where they become highly concentrated locking in intense flavor. Ripasso wines are made using these Amarone skins, hence why they are sometimes known as "baby Amarones."
OK, now on to the wine, which pours a medium ruby in the glass, and is a bit deceiving to the powerful fruit that is coming.
Aromas jump out of the glass, dried red fruit with cinnamon spice, light liqueur; fruit flavor of black cherry, plum and raisin; full bodied and mouth coating; some chocolate notes in the finish which is long and persistent.
A thumbs up from us and an easy 90 points. This is a great wine and a nice new addition to Costco shelves that we hope returns for future vintages.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 90 Points
Costco item number: 1806969
Availability: We buy our wine in Costco warehouses around the Atlanta area. The best way to locate wines near you is by using the Costco mobile app and searching with the Costco item number we listed above.
Alc. 15%
Max Weber says
15% ABV? Wow!
Richard Smalling says
My first ever non Sangiovese Italian was a Ripasso. I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ll be buying a few. Thanks for the heads up.