Tinazzi Opera No. 3 Red Blend – Hot Stuff!

A very tasty and unique red blend in the world's heaviest bottle, we review the latest vintage of 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 around 3.5 g/L of residual sugar.

The Tinazzi Opera No. 3 has an SRP of $30 but Costco is selling it for just $15.89. This doesn't appear to be an artifically high SRP either as the average price on wine-searcher is $21. It is 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 2020 Tinazzi Vinum Italicum Opera No 3 begins with pleasing aromas of red and black, dried fruits plus licorice and 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 and tastes a bit sweeter than it actually is but is still quite good if you don't mind the high alcohol.

Slightly chewy tannins lead into the dry, savory, spicy, and long-lasting finish.

A rather notorious Italian critic who uses a completely different 100-point scale gave this wine 98 points (printed prominently on the bottle of course) which is rather ridiculous, but this is still a good value for around $16. Compared to the 2016 and 2018 vintages we previously reviewed, we found this 2018 vintage to be pretty similar.

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

And here's our review of the 2018 if you still have a few bottles left to drink:

The 2018 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. Overall it's similar to the 2016 but perhaps has a bit more balance.