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Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.99
The wine has a deep, rich purple color. Intense red fruits are on the nose, with black pepper spice and a touch of...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.94
12 bottles: $16.60
This wine shows aromas of red fruits (mainly morello cherries) and spices (licorice, grey pepper). On the palate, the...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $52.94
12 bottles: $51.88
Tightly focused and refined for a Zinfandel, this version packs in deep flavors of black cherry, licorice and roasted...
12 FREE
WS
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $21.87
12 bottles: $21.43
Dynamic and generous, this Zin combines old-school briar with sleek suppleness, serving up stylish flavors of...
WS
93
VM
90
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $29.93
12 bottles: $29.33
Lots of ripe black fruits (blackberries, black cherries) emerge from the 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Hauts De...
12 FREE
JD
93
WA
92
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $33.60 $38.40
Eye: Garnet core, pink rose rim. Nose: Kumquat, exotic spice, wild strawberries, raspberries, Rainier cherry. Time...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $26.93 $28.80
"Bambino" comes from a ten-acre block planted on Old Hill in 1998. This young-vine field blend is patterned after the...
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.73
Soft, ripe black forest compote nose; nice concentration of fruit on the palate. Good weight. Really well balanced in...
DC
96
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $11.94 $13.01
Grown on sunny slopes and harvested at the peak of ripeness, Syrah and Grenache grapes give the wine its deep ruby...
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $13.93 $14.73
Louis Barruol’s family acquired this estate in 1490, though its winemaking origins date back to Gallo-Roman times....
WS
90
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $36.93
12 bottles: $36.19
92-94 The 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape Cuvée Du Baron, which has not been bottled yet, should be terrific. It offers...
12 FREE
JD
94
JS
92
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $47.90 $49.00
12 bottles: $46.94
The deeply fragrant nose pulls you inexorably into this majestic Chateauneuf. So vibrant and refined for this amount...
12 FREE
JS
96
JD
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.94
12 bottles: $12.94
Vibrant and bright aromas of pomegranate, raspberry, fresh herbs and purple flowers all showcase the elegance of this...
WE
93
Rapid Ship
Red
12 FREE
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $99.94
Pour yourself a glass of this and spend an hour experiencing how it opens up in stages. At first there’s an...
12 FREE
JS
99
WA
94
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $29.90
12 bottles: $29.30
Darkly coloured. Lovely sense of freshness, florality and herbal detail. Fairly full and rounded, quite mature...
12 FREE
DC
93
JD
90
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $92.63 $99.60
Stunningly complex nose of dried flowers, beeswax and candied citrus peel. However, the interplay of richness and...
12 FREE
VM
95
JS
95
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $35.00 $40.00
Last of the 2020s from bottle, the 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape Matteo checks in as 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah all from...
JD
92
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $139.94
The tiny production 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape Pure is all Grenache brought up in a single foudre. It's slightly...
12 FREE
JD
98
WA
96
Sale
Rapid Ship
Red
750ml
Bottle: $18.90 $21.60
Charming and drinkable, this fresh red features up-front crushed cherry and plum notes, which are inviting on the...
WS
89

Cortese Nero D'avola Red Rhone Blend Zinfandel Rapid Ship

The Cortese white wine grape varietal has been grown in and around south Piedmont, Italy, for at least five hundred years. Its delicate nature and moderate acidity have made it a favorite with people around the world, and it is most commonly served alongside the excellent seafood and shellfish dishes of the part of Italy it is traditionally grown in. Cortese grapes are easily identifiable by their lime and greengage flavors, and their generally delicate and medium bodied character. Cortese wines are also notable for their freshness and crispness, again, making them an ideal match for seafood. Whilst colder years often produce harsher, more acidic Cortese wines, practices such as allowing malolactic fermentation can solve any such problems and still produce delicious white wines made from this varietal.

Italy’s largest island, Sicily, has a wine producing history that can put most other European regions to shame. It was producing quality wines before the days of the Roman empire, and even the Ancient Greeks were not the first to cultivate vines on the island. For as long as anyone knows, the key grape varietal of Sicily has been Nero d’Avola, the beautiful, deep blue skinned grape which produces the region’s characterful, powerful red wines. While in the past, Nero d’Avola was mainly used as a blending grape, due to its deep color and intensely full body, it is today being increasingly celebrated as a single varietal wine grape, and is perfect for those who like their wines boisterous, loud and strong.



Nero d’Avola is grown pretty much everywhere on Sicily, as demand for wines made from this grape have never been higher. Despite its power and body, it is quite a versatile grape - it can be aged in oak barrels, which produces a dense and dark wine which puts its intense characteristics to good use, but it is also often drunk quite young, which allows its jammy, plummy character to come forward. It is also used to make rose wines in some appellations of Sicily, demonstrating a softer side to this otherwise heavy, deeply flavorful grape.

The precise origins of what became known as the Zinfandel grape variety are uncertain, although it has clear genetic equivalents in both Puglia and Croatia. However, when it was brought to the New World in the mid 19th century, it became known as the Zinfandel, and has been consistently popular and widely grown ever since. These very dark and very round grapes have a remarkably high sugar content, resulting in relatively high levels of alcohol in the wines they are made into, with bottles often displaying as much as fifteen percent. What makes the Zinfandel such an interesting grape, though, is the fact that the flavors produced by this varietal vary considerably depending on the climate they are grown in. In cooler valley regions, the Zinfandel grapes result in wines which hold strong flavors of tart and sweet fruits; raspberry, redcurrant and sweet cherry, held in a very smooth and silky liquid. Conversely, warmer regions result in more complex and spicy notes, including anise, pepper and hedgerow berries.