2017 Zenato Alanera Rosso

2017 Zenato Alanera Rosso

Vintage: 2017

Region: Veneto, Italy
Winery: Zenato

Varieties: 55% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 10% Covinone, 5% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon

Price: $11

Rating: 93 Points

My Rating: 93 Points

The Review: Today's wine is a really interesting Costco find that I was reluctant to try, but finally did (I feel like I've seen it elsewhere, but it's always at my Costco). And boy is it good... James Suckling, the critic who gave this a 93, is consistently handing out ratings that are too high for Italian wines (he owns a house there, so he's biased), but I think he nailed this one.

The Zenato Alanera (which translates to black wing btw) is unique in a few ways. First, it's made with a really odd blend of grapes. There are a few varieties that are indigenous to Northern Italy, your classic Cab and Merlot, and Corvina, a grape of legend. Corvina is famous for being the main grape in the wines of the Valpolicella region. In this region, there's a type of wine called Amarone della Valpolicella, which is made in the appassimento method. In this method, the grapes are harvested and left to dry out for a while, which concentrates all of the flavors and creates this wine that's turned up to level 100. As you can imagine, this takes a lot of time and reduces the amount of juice that can be pressed, which drives the prices of these wines wayyyy up. This brings me to my second reason that the Zenato wine is unique- about half of the grapes used in this wine were dried out for 45-60 days. The wine also spends a year in oak. So, there's this really interesting mixture of brooding power and more delicate finesse that comes together to create a flavor and textural wonderland. It's kind of a nice introduction to what a Valpolicella wine sort of kind of tastes like, without breaking the bank and diving headfirst into the appassimento style.

The 2017 Zenato Alanera Rosso opens with a powerful nose, filled with rich and dark black fruits like cherry, plum, and currant. There's a nice interplay between the fruit and some lovely earthy tones, as well as some cedar, game, and baking spice. The taste shows a really nice power as well, with the black fruit aroma being confirmed. There's plum and black cherry, but it's undercut by some brown sugar, baking spices, and a notable peppery-ness. There's also a nice little note of dried tobacco hiding in the background, which confirms some of the earthy tones we smelled. The body of this wine is full with well-structured, but well-integrated tannins.

I think the best thing about this wine is that it'll provide you an opportunity to taste something really interesting from a region you maybe haven't gotten to explore very much. Northeastern Italy is known a lot for Prosecco and Pinot Grigio, but there are also some really great reds being made there. And for the price, this is just overall a great find. Maybe if you like it enough, you can be one of those cool kids that drink Amarone a lot.

drink what you like,

db