This is not only an excellent price on this particular bottle from Costco (it's $19 elsewhere online and probably more in other wine shops), but at $10.99 it's a bargain price for a Reserva Rioja. This is why I love Spanish wine; the quality to price ratio is off the charts right now.
Perfume and dried fruit on the nose, full bodied in the mouth with supple tannins given its extra aging; a dose of noticeable mint surrounding the dried fruit, plum and black licorice flavors. The finish is long and dry.
When buying Rioja, finding bottles labeled Reserva or Gran Reserva are usually good signs. Reserva means the wine has been aged for a minimum of three years with at least one year in oak.
Gran Reserva wines see extended oak and bottle aging for at least five years, eighteen months of which are spent in oak and then at least 36 months in the bottle [check out one of my favorite Gran Reserva wines from Costco]. What that means essentially is that you get a wine that's been aged in perfect conditions at the winery and is provided to you years later ready to drink.
Overall, this is a solid buy, on a caliber of wine you don't often find at this price. Fans of big reds would be doing an injustice to pass this up for $11.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 90 Points
Costco item number: 28751
Purchased at Costco in: Atlanta, GA
Alc. 13.5%
