My wife and I became Costco members last year, and have been trying the Kirkland wines as they come into rotation. Our standout favorite has been the Barolo. The champagne is good for the price…although with the price increases, the value proposition is losing steam. And the Kirkland prosecco is solid.
However, the Bordeaux series is leaving a lot to be desired. The Paulliac was passable for a $20 bottle. The Margaux was a total let down, just not good at all. Just bland, boring, and hollow. And unfortunately, the Saint Julien suffers from the same issue as the Margaux.
The Kirkland Saint Julien is an odd, bland wine from start to finish. It has a sort of super-generic “wine” flavor that quickly dissipates after swallowing. Then, nothing.
No fruit. No wood. No earth. Just a little tannin and acid with a non-descript wine flavor.
I am convinced that Costco Wine Blog is an organized PsyOp…because they (inexplicably) rated this 93 points.
Hard pass.
by LegalGrapes
11 Comments
How long do you let each one decant?
To each their own; I am currently drinking the 2023 Margaux and find it to be an accurate representation of the appellation for $20.
Try the Napa cabs if you see them. I like the Suscol and it is also under $20.
The Italians have been a bigger miss for me (Barolo and Brunello, I’ll give the Chianti a pass since it was under $10)
I opened this bottle about 2/3 weeks ago.
It was garbage.
The only worse Kirkland wine I’ve had recently was the Gigondas.
This was the worst of the Costco French wines I’ve had. Rest were great.
Haven’t tried this yet but the most recent KS Pauillac was quite bad. I have been enjoying the recent Margaux and St Emilion and as solid Tuesday wines.
I stick to Rhône when it comes the Kirkland brand, although I was surprised by the Brunello (although I think part of that was that I had very low expectations)
Didn’t try it, but bought a bottle to lay down for awhile. It’ll either be an insta-drain, or not. Not a bad price for the experiment!
I have enjoyed some of the other Costco wines, but I have to agree about the various Bordeaux offerings. I don’t understand why they can’t find some better quality wines. I mean, charge a few extra dollars. And there is plenty of excellent and reasonably priced wine in Bordeaux. The wine buyer has really missed the mark on these.
Bought a couple of these the last time I came by. Opened one the other day. Not sure what you were expecting? First growth, second growth? I thought it was fine after about an hour; opened up, delicious with my dinner.
I know that the Kirkland brand gets a lot of love in the sub but for me its been hit or miss for a long time. People get drawn in with these miracle pricings of super inexpensive bottles from normally very expensive appellations, and in general many Kirkland products can be fairly high quality for their price, when you combine those two things people get really really into the idea of these miracle wines.
It’s pretty easy to forget that at least *part* of the reason why they were able to secure such low pricing for wines like this is that it basically comes from the leftovers, often from a specific producer but basically the stuff that they aren’t bottling under their own name, but instead basically contract out. They’re not going to be putting their best stuff into that. They might be putting some of their really really bad stuff into that.
I agree that the champagne is solid for the price and I’ve had a few very good Kirkland wines but pretty much all of the ones I’ve had have tasted like normal wines at their price point. Much of the time folks are thinking they’re getting like a $40 or $50 wine at $20, when in reality it’s just another $20 wine. At this point for me the ratio of duds to gems for Kirkland is like 70/30.
They do certainly have phenomenal deals on more serious wines from time to time.
On a tangent but ……
Whenever i see a Costco wine label, I ask myself “Why didn’t they have a different design for the Kirkland branding on the wine bottles?”
It just jars so badly.