Here's a new one for us, but it's a wine we've seen lingering in the Costco aisles around Atlanta stores that we were curious to taste.
It's a Rhone style red blend from Santa Barbara County, and we typically like this style of wine. This blend consists of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Petite Sirah, and Merlot. The varietal breakdown wasn't given and we didn't find it online.
Costco's price of $18.59 is just ok. Wine.com offers it for $24.99 but Total Wine carries the bottle for $18.87. It's a highly rated wine, every year, consistently pulling down 90+ points from almost every mainstream critic.
We enjoyed it too, and it ended up being very on par with our expectations. It's a deep purple in the glass with vibrant spicy aromas; full in body, juicy fruit flavor of black cherry and blackberry; notes of anise and cigar box; good finish.
This is a solid red blend, Rhone in style and composition, but definitely more new world Rhone. We'd just like to see Costco's price be a little more competitive next to Total Wine, as they usually are.
But most red blend fans will find a lot to like here under $20.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 89 points
Costco item number: 986374
Purchased at Costco in: Atlanta, GA (Kennesaw)
Alc. 14.9%
