For decades, I resisted getting a Costco membership. It seemed so superfluous; I was single and couldn’t possibly fathom needing to buy things in such large quantities. I am also naturally averse to crowds, so going to a packed warehouse with hundreds of people wielding massive shopping carts seemed like a particularly strange form of torture to me.
Then, I had a baby who eventually got to school age. My conversion started slowly at first: my mom offered to buy me a birthday present of a shopping trip to Costco to stock up on school lunch supplies. I hated the experience, but loved the savings and convenience of only having to do one shop for an entire semester of snacks. I went to Costco approximately once or twice a year with my mom for the next few years, still complaining vehemently about the crowds every time I went.
Then in 2020, I opened a wine school, and suddenly the immense benefits of getting a Costco membership became crystal clear when I had to buy a lot of super-premium wines for my classes, and I could either get them at a boutique wine shop at premium prices, or at Costco at significant (several hundred pesos per bottle) discounts. I caved, and bought my first membership. I sheepishly announced to my students the next day that I was now officially a grown-up.
Yes, Costco offers amazing value on wines of brand names we already recognize, but what about their Kirkland branded wines? There are strict rules for a brand to work with Costco to become a Kirkland label, and this (very long but interesting) article dives deep into the story. The key takeaway from the article? “Costco forces manufacturers to compete with a better version of themselves.”
So, what’s the quality level in the bottle? Does it match up with a sommelier’s trained palate? For this experiment, I set the parameters as being only wines from Europe priced at under $200 pesos/bottle. How would they measure up?
2015 Rioja Reserva DOCa: This wine is 100% Tempranillo, the flagship red grape variety of Spain. It starts off with a dusty nose like dry earth, along with black cherries, dark chocolate, fresh tobacco, and some mint. High acid, medium-plus body and flavour intensity, and powdery, medium-plus tannins. The wine has had about 3 years of oak ageing and has a spiced vanilla flavour that comes from this treatment. This also gives the wine great structure that keeps well even after the wine has been open for 48 hours. Good, well-balanced wine. (159 pesos)
2019 Friuli Grave DOC Pinot Grigio: I’m going to assume this wine is 100% Pinot Grigio, but the label doesn’t actually specify. Pinot Grigio is one of the eight most commercially important grape varieties in the world and enjoys immense popularity. I can only assume that’s because it’s generally so innocuous that it’s almost like drinking lightly flavoured alcoholic water. I had to strain to get the flavours out of this wine, but found some white flowers, pear, golden delicious apple, faint spice, and some more herbal notes, like pea shoots or a grassy meadow. It has bright acidity and is a simple, easy-drinking, unpretentious wine that would easily pair with a lot of foods as it won’t overpower them. The wine does lose its freshness quickly, so should be consumed in one day. (119 pesos)
N/V Asolo Prosecco Superiore DOCG: Back in the old days, we used to say that the grape to make Prosecco wines was called Prosecco, but people found that super confusing, so now they call it Glera. I have to say that although sparkling wines are my favourite type of wines, I have a real distaste for Prosecco. With that caveat in mind, the first thing that annoyed me about this wine was the extreme amount of frothiness. The bubbles spilled over to the point of ridiculousness, and it wasn’t because the wine wasn’t cold enough (it was) and I was even pouring it very slowly into wine glasses that I kept in the freezer. Anyways, once it settled down it had a rather muted nose but what I could detect was fresh & grapey, with some flowers, apples, and pears. The wine was off-dry (you could taste a tiny bit of sweetness). It mostly had a prickly apple taste to it, and it didn’t change my mind - I still don’t like Prosecco. (149 pesos)
2017 Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG: This wine is probably 100% Sangiovese. When I first smelled the wine, I had a hard time finding anything to write down, and a moment of panic went through me that maybe I’d caught the Covid and lost my sense of smell. I went back to the wine the next day and it had opened up to reveal sour cherries, dark chocolate, cedar box, and a bell pepper spice on the nose & palate. It had high acidity, great for pairing with tomato-based foods, medium-plus velvety tannins, and medium-plus body. The alcohol level was balanced and it only improved after being open for 24 hours. A well-made wine. (199 pesos)
2019 Côtes du Rhône Villages AOC: This wine is likely a blend of Grenache & Syrah, with a few other minor red grape varieties possibly tossed in. The first thing that jumped out at me when I smelled this wine was how overtly fruity the nose was, especially after the earthiness of the other reds from Rioja and Chianti. There were cranberry, cherry, and both fresh & cooked strawberry scents, along with leather, blueberries, overripe blackberry, vanilla, and fig. The wine had bright acidity on the palate with medium-plus tannins and a medium flavour intensity and finish. It’s a juicy, full-bodied wine with high alcohol. (169 pesos)
2018 Bordeaux Supérieur AOC: While there are a handful of approved grape varieties that could go into this wine, based on my tasting notes I would have guessed that the dominant grape here is Merlot, maybe with a bit of the Cabernets (Franc and Sauvignon) added into the mix. Turns out, the label says it’s 75% Cab Sauv and 25% Merlot, but for me it’s the Merlot that dominates the flavour profile. Plums, milk chocolate, black cherry, blackberry, cocoa powder, cassis and Christmas cake spice made this rich & mouth-filling wine a surprising pleasure to drink and in my mind was the sleeper of the bunch. It had medium-plus acid and tannins, full body, and a medium finish. It kept its structure for an extra day, which was an added bonus. A solid wine. (189 pesos)
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In conclusion, overall the Kirkland branded wines performed quite well, with several of them outperforming anything else you could buy in even a remotely similar price range. The only exceptions would be the two white wines, which were fine, but not exactly punching above their weight class.
One thing I want to point out about all of these wines is that they are coming from the higher quality tiers of France, Spain, and Italy’s strict wine laws, and that’s why I felt it was important to include this information in each wine’s description. A DOCG in Prosecco ranks higher than a DOC, and a Classico ranks higher than a basic Chianti. A Friuli DOC is better than an IGT Pinot Grigio, and a Villages wine from Côtes-du-Rhône AOC indicates it came from a better sub-region. A Rioja Reserva trumps a Crianza and a Supérieur has the potential to be better than a basic Bordeaux.
I’d love to see more of these bargain-priced European Kirkland gems in the future, maybe a dry Lambrusco Grasparossa DOC or a Beaujolais-Villages AOC? Let the daydreaming begin….