Tinazzi Opera No. 3 Red Blend – Hot Stuff!

A very tasty and unique red blend in the world’s heaviest bottle, the Tinazzi No 3 Vinum Italicum Opera Rosso available at Costco.

40% Corvina Veronese from Verona, 30% Primitivo di Manduria from Puglia and 30% Nero d’Avola from Sicily, Italy. The wine is aged in 20 hectolitre French oak barrels for 24 to 36 months and has 3.5 g/L of residual sugar.

The Tinazzi Opera No. 3 has an SRP of $30 but Costco is selling it for just $14.99. This doesn’t appear to be a made-up SRP either as the average price on wine-searcher is $28. Imported by Orvino Imports & Distributing.

Speaking of the bottle, this thing is crazy heavy. As we discussed in our fifth Tenet of Reverse Wine Snobbery (How to avoid the wine industry’s marketing traps) some wineries apparently take a marketing study that showed consumers equated heavier bottles with higher quality to the extreme. In any case, let’s get on to the important stuff, the wine!

The 2016 Tinazzi Vinum Italicum Opera No 3 begins with pleasing aromas of red and black fruits plus tons of spicy, oaky secondary notes. The wine tastes full-bodied, flavorful and hot. There’s tons of spice and pepper in this one plus vanilla, chocolate, licorice, cola, coffee and more to go along with the raisiny dark fruit. It’s a bit over the top but quite good and will stand up to food nicely. Slightly chewy tannins lead into the dry, savory, spicy, and quite long-lasting finish.

An Italian critic gave this one 98 points (printed prominently on the bottle of course) which is rather ridiculous but this is absolutely a good value at only $15.

No Costco in your area? Check your local retailers for this wine.