I went to Costco and bought 3 wines, all huge, tasty, velvety, full of black berries, currants, licorice. You could have fooled the most pretentious wine lover that they were all worth over $100.
First place: Cline Ancient Vine 2005 Zinfandel for 11.99
Update on 7-28-07: I returned to Costco to buy more Cline Zin a few weeks later and this batch was mediocre. Talk about feeling burned. I must have got an inferior lot.
Second place (very close second): Rosemount Hill of Gold 2004 Cabernet for 11.99
Third place: Clos Du Bois 2004 Merlot for 9.49
Update: A month later I bought the Cline at Costco again and it was far less impressive. Bottle variation? Heightened expectations? I suspect the former more than the latter. Costco had sold out of the Rosemount Hill of Gold.
But if it's any consolation, I did have a similarly lovely wine at a restaurant--the Grgich Hills 2004 Zinfandel, which is actually 88% Zin and 12% Petite Sirah. However, it's close to 30 dollars a bottle retail and at least double the price in restaurants.
I don't spend a lot of money on white wine. For $2.99 the J.W. Morris Riesling and Gewurztraminer are both delicious, full of apples, vanilla, refreshing, not cloying. Perfect.
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