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Masi's benchmark Amarone from sunset-facing slopes above Lake Garda: Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara dried on bamboo racks, then 24 months in Slavonian oak and Allier barriques. Baked plum, coffee and cocoa at 15% vol. About £54 in the UK.
Masi's own sheet keeps it simple: baked fruit, plums and cherries on the nose, coffee and cocoa on the palate, very well balanced. Across more than 14,000 Vivino taste reviews the crowd agrees, adding oak, tobacco and the dried fig that winter months on bamboo racks build in.
Baked plum and morello cherry lead, just as Masi's own sheet describes, joined by the raisin and dried fig that winter months on bamboo racks concentrate into the fruit. Vivino's crowd, with over 1,500 dried-fruit mentions across 14,000-plus taste reviews, adds prune; dark cocoa sits underneath.
Coffee
Cherry
Plum
Raisin
Tobacco
Leather
Liquorice
CocoaFull-bodied and velvety at 15% vol, with the glycerine richness Masi attributes to lightly botrytised Corvina. Coffee and cocoa run through the baked fruit, the house signature of Costasera, while fresh acidity and soft, well-defined tannins keep the dried-grape concentration in balance. Spice from the 80% Slavonian cask, 20% Allier barrique regime stays in the background.
Long, closing on liquorice and tobacco with a bitter-chocolate edge; the big Slavonian botti keep the oak imprint gentle rather than toasty.
The benchmark gentle giant of Amarone: 4.3 on Vivino from more than 114,000 ratings, with drinkers consistently logging chocolate, oak and tobacco. The 2020, scored 91 to 94 across four critic outlets, drinks now and should hold to around 2045; it sits below the Riserva and Nectar bottlings in Masi's Costasera range.
One live offer is tracked here: the 2020 at £54.20 from Millesima, in stock in 75cl. Costasera is among the most widely listed Amarone in Britain, and the 2020 carries critic scores of 91 to 94, so the price band is easy to sanity-check across merchants.
Six dimensions scored for this bottle: Costasera profiles as a cellar and occasion wine first, a £54.20, 15% vol DOCG Amarone rather than an everyday pour.
Benchmark DOCG Amarone that Masi ranks alongside Barolo and Brunello in the aristocracy of Italian wine, with consistent 91-95 critic scores and formats up to 5 litres: built for the big table.
Amarone DOCG mandates two years' ageing before release; Masi states 30-35 years of shelf life for Costasera and the Vivino-top-1% 1997 backs that up. The 2020 should run to around 2045.
Producer-listed matches run from red meat and game to aged cheeses, but 15% alcohol and dried-grape weight rule out light plates; a rich-table specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Soft tannin and plush baked fruit make it an easy red to like, and the Vivino crowd averages 4.3, but 15% alcohol, dried-fruit intensity and a £54 ticket make it a step up rather than a starting point.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.
A compact view of what the Amarone della Valpolicella denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
Compare tracked offers from verified retailers at a glance. Stock is shown only where the retailer exposes it. Logos, sale pricing, and the strongest offer are surfaced first.
A mild, dry spring pushed flowering into late May 2020, then summer swung between hot spells and heavy rain and pulled harvest slightly forward. Masi's selective picking showed: the 2020 Costasera took 94 from both Wine Enthusiast and James Suckling.
2020 was a roller-coaster season in Valpolicella: a mild, dry spring pushed flowering into late May, then summer alternated hot spells with heavy rain and brought harvest slightly forward. Selective picking paid off; Costasera 2020 landed 94 from Wine Enthusiast and James Suckling, 93 from Vinous and 91 from The Wine Advocate.
2020 was a roller-coaster season in Valpolicella: a mild, dry spring pushed flowering into late May, then summer alternated hot spells with heavy rain and brought harvest slightly forward. Selective picking paid off; Costasera 2020 landed 94 from Wine Enthusiast and James Suckling, 93 from Vinous and 91 from The Wine Advocate.
Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.
The disciplinare caps yields at 12 tonnes per hectare, allows at most 65% of the crop to be set aside for drying, bans vinification before 1 December and requires two years' ageing from the January after harvest. Costasera layers Masi's own regime on top: 24 months in Slavonian casks and Allier barriques.
Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.
Amarone della Valpolicella is in the DOCG tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Amarone della Valpolicella falls within Veneto , covering Verona. The denomination is further divided into 2 sub-zones.
The DOCG lets at most 65% of a capped 12 t/ha crop be set aside for drying and at most 40% of grape weight may end up as wine; Costasera's bunches rest on bamboo racks and cannot be pressed before 1 December.
80% of the wine spends two years in large Slavonian casks and 20% in Allier barriques, so Masi released the 2020 more than four years after harvest; capital sits in the cellar the whole time.
Amarone della Valpolicella is a DOCG: two years' minimum ageing from the January after harvest and a commission tasting before release, costs a plain Valpolicella never carries.
HMRC still-wine duty (£2.67 at up to 15% ABV, 2026 rates) plus about £9.03 of VAT means roughly £11.70 of the £54.20 Millesima price is UK tax before a single dried grape is accounted for.
Masi Agricola is a listed company bottling Costasera in formats from 375ml to 5 litres; that scale holds its flagship around £54, well under single-vineyard Amarone from boutique Valpolicella estates.
Dishes that complement this wine
Masi points Costasera at red meat, game, quails and well-aged cheeses; in the Veneto it also meets risotto all'Amarone. The matches below follow that lead, built on the wine's 15% vol body, soft tannin and baked-fruit depth.
At 15% vol with dried-grape concentration, Costasera has the body to sit level with long-cooked meat. Masi points it at game and richly flavoured dishes, and vino.com's sommeliers single out braised deer, wild boar and red-wine stews, where the wine's baked-plum weight matches the sauce instead of disappearing under it.
Try with: Beef stew · Venison Stew · Lamb shank · More pairings →
Costasera's tannins are soft but present, built on Corvina skins thickened by months of appassimento. Seared beef protein and char smooth them further, which is why Masi lists red meat first among its matches; a rare Fiorentina keeps the exchange on Italian terms.
Try with: Fiorentina steak · Ribeye steak · Sirloin steak · More pairings →
Masi's own sheet calls Costasera very good with well-aged cheeses, naming Parmesan, Pecorino and Gorgonzola. Crystalline salt in a mature wedge pulls against the wine's glycerine-rich baked fruit, and each salty bite resets the palate for the next sip of 15% vol Amarone.
Try with: Gorgonzola, pear, and walnut risotto · Aged Parmigiano · Piccante Gorgonzola · More pairings →
The earthy register drinkers log on Vivino, nearly 2,000 leather-and-cocoa mentions, bridges straight into porcini and truffle. In the Veneto the wine even goes into risotto all'Amarone; a mushroom risotto plays the same savoury notes without needing a bottle in the pan.
Try with: Porcini mushroom risotto · Truffle risotto · Radicchio risotto · More pairings →
Fifteen percent alcohol and dried-fruit extract give Costasera the cut to get through marrow and fatty roasting juices. Masi's guidance puts quails and rich roasts on the table, and ossobuco's marrow meets the wine's coffee-and-cocoa depth head on.
Try with: Ossobuco alla Milanese · Agnello Ragu Lucano · Steak and Kidney Pie · More pairings →
Capsaicin amplifies alcohol burn, and at 15% vol Costasera has more to amplify than most reds, so hot curries and Sichuan heat turn it harsh. Its dried-grape tannin also flattens delicate shellfish and white fish; keep even Masi's gentle giant away from the raw bar.
Skip with: Vindaloo · Sichuan hot pot · Oysters · Grilled sea bass · Pairing guide →
Masi states 30 to 35 years of shelf life, and the 1997 Costasera sits in Vivino's top 1% of all wines. The 2020 should hold to around 2045; formats run from 375ml to 5 litres and Masi lists old vintages of Costasera among its offer.
Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
A short splash decant softens the first-pour edge and opens the aromatics.
Amarone DOCG mandates two years' ageing before release; Masi states 30-35 years of shelf life for Costasera and the Vivino-top-1% 1997 backs that up. The 2020 should run to around 2045.
£54.20 is the lowest tracked offer for the current vintage and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 27 Jul 2026, 20:46 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino and Wine-Searcher, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.
Confidence · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumCostasera is 70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella and 5% Molinara, the traditional trio of the Valpolicella Classica hills. Masi credits Corvina with the wine's body, colour and morello cherry character, deepened by appassimento drying and light noble rot.
The grapes are dried on bamboo racks through the winter, and under DOCG rules they cannot be vinified before 1 December. After fermentation the wine spends 24 months in oak, 80% in large Slavonian casks and 20% in Allier barriques, before release.
Masi states a shelf life of 30 to 35 years for Costasera. The 2020 vintage drinks now and should hold to around 2045, and the 1997 sits in Vivino's top 1% of all wines, evidence that the wine genuinely goes the distance.
Masi recommends red meat, game, quails and richly flavoured dishes, plus well-aged cheeses such as Parmesan, Pecorino and Gorgonzola. In the Veneto it also accompanies risotto all'Amarone, and it works as an after-dinner glass on its own.
At £54.20 for the 2020 at Millesima it sits mid-band for Amarone Classico, and the vintage carries 94 from Wine Enthusiast and James Suckling, 93 from Vinous and 91 from The Wine Advocate. Few Amarone at this price show that critical consistency.
Costasera means evening slopes: the sunset-facing hillsides of Valpolicella Classica overlooking Lake Garda, where the day is longer and the vines benefit from the lake's reflected light and milder climate. Masi considers these the best slopes for high-quality Amarone.
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