Sommelier Tries Every Costco Wine

Over the holiday break from a well-known producer,

I bought a bottle for $39.

This is at 13.99, and this actually tastes better.

You need more?

Hey, I'm sommelier Andre Hueston Mack,

and today I'm gonna be tasting Kirkland Signature Wines

only sold by Costco.

Costco is the largest wine retailer in the US,

and Kirkland Signature have really, really, really, really,

really low prices.

But what do you get for those prices?

We're gonna find out today.

[upbeat music]

Kirkland Signature is a brand that's owned by Costco.

Costco doesn't actually make the wines.

Some of the top regions all over the world

are represented here, and they're made

just for Kirkland Signature.

At our closest store, we found a dozen or so of these wines,

and we're gonna give them a taste today.

Listen guys, I'm a professional.

I'm a professional here.

No bias, all of that goes out.

I'm gonna just be evaluating the wines for what they are

and how they move me today, especially this one right here.

Our first wine is Kirkland Signature

Cabernet Sauvignon from California.

This is 8.99.

So this is cellared and bottled by DC Flynt.

Costco has incredible buying power.

They can reach out to producers

to see if they wanted to make something

for their Kirkland Signature brands.

There's no funny business here.

This is kinda straight up,

happens all the time in the industry,

and so they're not trying to hide that.

So on the back here, it'll show you

who it's produced by, and who it's made by.

Can you actually get the wine

that's inside this bottle somewhere else?

This could be just a custom blend

specifically for Kirkland Signature and for Costco,

but we don't know.

So we look at the bottle,

a regular bottle with 750 milliliters.

This is 1.5 liters, so this is a double bottle.

In the industry we call this a magnum.

Think about that, 8.99 and this is for a double bottle.

So if you do the quick math of 750,

it's somewhere around $4 or $4.50, so extremely inexpensive.

We're gonna open this bad boy up.

This is like raspberry, blueberry,

a little bit of pencil shavings,

and I smell a little bit of VO5 hot oil hair relaxer.

I always get a little faint hint of salon here.

It has some tannin, so it's sucking the moisture

out of the sides of my cheek,

but it's not overpowering, overbearing.

Surprising enough, what I would say

about this particular wine

is that it actually tastes like wine.

I feel like when you get into this category

and this price point of wine,

say we basically call this $4, sub $5 wine,

it tends to be loaded with additives.

You know, the color looks real, right?

It's not this deep, you know, mega purple 13 color to it.

It doesn't taste filled with chemicals.

Like, it actually tastes like wine,

which I'd have to say is surprising to me.

This is like kinda softer Cabernets,

doesn't have a lot of tannin or structure to it in that way.

When we talk about structure,

when you think about Cabernet,

you think Cabernet's this big round, burly thing,

especially from California.

This is kind of not that.

Who would I recommend this wine?

Who drinks this wine?

Well, I mean, I think anybody who enjoys wine.

Is it a wine of consequence?

Absolutely not.

Not at that price point and not in the quality,

but if everyday sipper or drinker,

I think this is a great middle of the road kinda wine

as an intro into wine.

At least it's wine, so I think we're off to a good start.

So next up is Kirkland Signature Bordeaux Superieur 2021,

and this comes in at $6.89.

So I'm told that this is actually a seasonal wine

that they have at Costco.

So there's wines that are available all throughout the year,

and then there's some wines that they only make seasonal.

I was told that this was the last bottle of wine

that we could secure, and it was in a sock box

somewhere in the store.

Somebody was hiding it for later.

You know who you are, you know who you are.

So Bordeaux is a region located in France.

Generally the grapes here,

you can use up to five different grapes,

and it's probably one of the greatest

wine making regions in the world.

In the United States, wines are named after the grape.

So then the grape varietals

listed prominently on the bottle.

So Europe and the old world, it's named after the region.

So here you have Bordeaux, and you would have

to know a little something about wine

to know what grapes are used in Bordeaux.

The second part you see, Superieur,

and that's the designation,

and there are bylaws and things that they have to go by

in order to put Bordeaux Superieur on the label.

[knife clinking] [bottle clinking]

Wow, it smells like Bordeaux.

It smells like real Bordeaux, graphite, pencil shavings.

Wow, cassis, raspberry, boysenberry, fruity, not like jammy,

but there is this really great presence of fruit

followed by a little bit of dried mushrooms.

Man, this is my Larry David wine.

This is pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.

For me, it kinda fell a little bit short on the finish.

$6.89, I mean, I don't know what else to say here.

Like, you buy this wine.

Where I would expect a bottle of wine like this

to be priced outside of the Kirkland Signature brand

is somewhere under 30 bucks.

How do they produce a wine that costs $6.89?

Actually, the Costco motto is all about volume.

It's like the grocery store.

Grocery store works on very slim margins,

you know, under 10%.

Even if they're only making pennies

on this particular bottle,

the goal is for them to sell millions of bottles.

The old adage is that you take money to the bank,

not percentages.

And when you're that big,

that generates and translates to a lot of money.

So next up is Kirkland Signature Champagne Brute for $19.99.

Almost seems too good to be true.

So in order for it to be called Champagne,

it actually has to come from the Champagne region of France,

and there's a particular method that they use there

and certain grapes that they use.

There's several reasons on why Champagne is expensive.

It's the method in which it's made and the time.

And generally speaking,

the more times that you have a human touch,

the wine in production, touch the bottle after production,

the more expensive it's gonna be.

But what happens and what's special in Champagne

is that there's a secondary fermentation

that happens in the bottle, which creates the carbonation.

Time, labor-intensive, especially in a place

that, you know, I always try to tell people

it snows in Champagne.

When they get it right,

it's one of the most beautiful things in the world.

So we're gonna go ahead and open this bad boy up.

You wanna twist and keeping your hand on both

so you're gonna twist back and forth,

and you wanna go really slow.

You can barely hear anything.

Not that big pop that you see in the movies.

Toasty, briochey, doughy, chalky, mineral,

a little bit of marzipan, apple,

a little bit of stone fruit.

I'm a little lost on this particular wine

in the sense that it just doesn't taste

like Champagne to me.

You hit on some of those notes,

but it's very small bubbles, but it's not an effervescent.

It almost tastes somewhat flat.

It's not giving much.

What's missing from this is like,

what makes Champagne Champagne.

It's the bubbles.

And even when we pour, you can see the mousse,

so you can see that there's bubbles in it

but it faded pretty quickly.

It's really fading fast on the palate.

I would put this $20 with another $30

and get something a little bit more expressive,

and terroir driven, so to speak.

It's not gonna change.

As much as I want it to, it's not.

We can move on.

So up next is the Kirkland Signature

Asolo Prosecco Superiore, and this comes in at 7.99.

Prosecco is funny because it's been

a long cultural thing in Italian culture, but, you know,

once it makes its way across the pond here to America,

I believe this is probably one of the number one

name called recognizable sparkling wines in the world.

In every single country they have a governing body

or agency that overlooks wine, food.

Here what you have is called DOCG.

It's an acronym for the governing body

that hands down the laws

on how you can call this Asolo Prosecco.

You know, it comes from a certain region.

Here in America we have the AVA, in France they have AOC.

We're gonna get into this purple thing here.

[wine fizzes]

Some Prosecco. Look at that.

Just jumping out the glass to meet me.

Very fragrant, white flowers Muscat gummies

from Pearl River, Citrus.

It smells slightly confectionary like cotton candy.

So somewhat sweet on the palate,

not overly sweet or anything like that.

Almost reminds me of a fruit cocktail when I was a child.

You know, how you drink the juice at the end.

I would like it to be a little bit drier.

It's Prosecco.

Like, I think like what's there not to love?

There's bubbles, there's alcohol.

If you were gonna mix this with something,

then by all means go ahead.

7.99, drink it all day long if this is your jam.

But to me, it's just a little sweet,

and I think that's what attracts most people to it.

But for my taste, I would go to a different store

to find Prosecco.

All right, next wine is Kirkland Signature

Chablis Premier Cru 2021.

This is the most expensive still wine

that we're gonna taste today, coming in at 18.99.

And do I balk at that price?

I do not balk at that price.

Chablis is a serious wine,

and if they got anything close

to the seriousness of Chablis in this particular bottle,

18.99 is a steal.

Runaway with it. It's a steal.

So let's understand that Chablis is the name of a place.

It is in Burgundy, it's in the northern part of Burgundy,

and they're known for making Chardonnay.

So this is 100% Chardonnay.

What makes this region of Chablis special

is that it's all grown on limestone

and clay soils on this big old fossil rock,

and in parts it's really kinda

great minerality in the wine,

and so that's really what you're looking for

when you're thinking about Chablis.

Also what you see here is Premier Cru,

and Premier Cru is a designation

that's provided by the AOC, which is the governing body.

And so they go through and rank the different vineyards,

labeled just main regular Chablis.

That's like how you entry level.

Then the next step up would be Premier Cru,

and then the next step would be Grand Cru,

and that one's the highest,

and that's generally a single vineyard wine.

So the idea that they decided

not to just do a regular Chablis,

that they thought that they would do a step up in quality

and do a Premier Cru, that's reflected in the price as well.

I love that color.

It has like, this golden tinge to it.

It smells like a candy apple to me.

So it's apple, pear, there's a minerality

or kinda sea salt air that I get from it,

this freshness to it.

So pretty decent acidity, not like over bone,

but like there is this freshness

and brightness is a zip to it, or like a caramel apple.

It reminds me kind of like Halloween.

A flinty kinda stone, kinda wet stone thing going on.

They say gun smoke is a thing that you get,

and this is all attributed to the terroir.

So the soil in the air in this particular region

all contribute to those tastes

and those things that we're talking about.

That limestone and clay makeup with fossils in it.

The roots of the vine go down,

and those things are all being pulled from the soils.

When the French talk about terroir,

they're talking about it has a sense of place.

That's why all the wines are named

after the place, and not the grape.

This is pretty spot on.

It's tasty, it's good, it's quality Chablis,

and to boot, it's $18.99 cents.

And I'm sure this is the way

that people in France feel, right?

Because I'm sure they can buy the wines at this price.

But here in America, that's a reason to shout for joy.

All right, next up, Kirkland signature

Sonoma County Chardonnay coming in at $7.99 cents.

So we had Chablis earlier.

So both of those wines are chardonnay,

that's what they have in common,

but we'll shortly find out

that they probably are gonna taste different.

So Sonoma County, it is in northern California.

You have Napa that sits on one side,

you have Sonoma who sits on the other side of the mountains.

And to be honest with you,

Sonoma County is synonymous with Chardonnay.

When you think about typical American Chardonnay,

somewhat buttery oaky vanilla,

it's kinda robust round thing that's fun to drink.

Stelvin Closure here.

Doesn't smell very buttery or over the top,

but it does have the presence of oak.

Smells very pleasant.

How's the oak expressing itself?

So in this wine, do I smell the toastiness of oak?

Yes, but also what I smell is vanilla,

and that comes from the oak.

I smell a little bit of cinnamon and vanilla.

That also comes from oak.

It is somewhat sweet, we'll call it ripe.

So it is round, it is rich, it tastes like vanilla extract.

It's been my experience when, you know, it's like

that's been chemically induced on this wine.

I don't think that this wine spends a lot of time in oak,

but to me that feels out of place.

At that price point 7.99,

is it what people expect from Chardonnay?

Absolutely, and like I tell my kids,

don't yuck anybody else's yum.

This is what you like, this is great.

Like, we all start somewhere

and if this is what you landed on, this is great.

I applaud those people

'cause at least you know what you like.

The whole idea of me doing what I do

is not tell you what you like or dislike.

To me it's to help you find what you like.

I'm a tour guide, I know wine a little bit better than most

and I'm here to kinda walk you through

so you can figure out what you like or don't like.

I'm not [beep] on this.

If you like this, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

You found it.

And if not, you wanna do something a little different,

then you can continue to taste and sample.

[Producer] It's gonna be a great cut to you

with the three liter box.

[Andre laughs]

I love it. I mean.

So our next wine is

Kirkland Signature California Chardonnay.

This comes in at 13.49, and this is a three liter box.

So inside of this box is the equivalent of four bottles.

This puts this around $3 and some change per bottle.

So the least expensive wine per 7.50

that we're gonna taste today.

The cheapest wine in Costco.

Should I be scared?

Should I be afraid?

I don't know.

It is California Chardonnay, and so this is interesting

because you see it says California here,

so that's the designate.

So the previous Chardonnay that we tasted

could come from only Sonoma County.

This wine can come from anywhere in California.

The more specific you can be about it,

the more expensive it'll be, the more prized it'll be.

So it's all about location, location, location.

This packaging to me says this is about your daily drinker.

They wanna, you know, get effed up.

Eureka, this smells like chardonnay, matterized chardonnay.

So it smells reduced somewhat.

There's a hint of butterscotch, nutty like sherry.

No trace of fruit or anything like that.

It tastes like a caramel apple, so I get a lot of that,

and a lot of that is like the oxidation of Chardonnay.

So it tastes somewhat nutty, it has good texture

but it's just, it's not good. [chuckles]

It's not. It's not good.

When a wine is exposed to oxygen for a very long time,

oxygen is the enemy and it like,

starts to tear down and break down the wine.

When a wine tastes oxidized, it tastes like nutty.

And for me that's a flaw

because chardonnay's not supposed to be oxidized.

It's not something, you know,

it's not supposed to be oxidized.

And so that's a fault.

I would pass on this and yeah, I'd pass on it.

All right, so next up is Kirkland signature Pinot Grigio,

and this comes in at $4.99.

This comes from Italy, from Friuli,

so the northern part of Italy.

So this is cool climate Pinot Grigio.

Cooler climate just means

that slows down the growing process,

and it gives the grapes the chance to ripen phenolically.

A cool climate style wine means it's gonna be zippy,

it has acid, it has this kinda zip and pop to it.

It does have a screw cap.

In the industry, we call it Stelvin Closure.

Oddly enough, Stelvin Closure and bottle combination

costs more than the cork and regular bottle closure.

The cork is porous

and over time will let air in

to help slowly break down the wine.

Stelvin Closure doesn't allow that to happen,

and so maybe this closure isn't right

for some of those most prized bottles of wine.

But things that you're gonna drink tonight, yesterday,

right at this moment.

To me, the Stelvin Closure screw cap

is all about twisting the cap off

and getting the party started.

Vibrant fruits, a little bit of pear,

this is a little bit of lemon lime.

Tastes like Pinot Grigio, good acid.

I'm starting to salivate right now so high acid.

This is solid.

Acid's a good thing, acid's an amplifier.

The reason why you put lemon on seafood

is to kinda amplify the flavors of the dish.

If you start to salivate,

that means that the wine is high in acid,

the sides of your tongue will tingle.

That's where you accentuate acidity.

Acid comes from different types of grapes,

so this is Pinot Grigio is an high acid grape.

It's refreshing in a lot of ways,

and I think that's what makes Pinot Grigio Pinot Grigio.

This does have some quality of note.

This seems like it's been intentional.

Doesn't taste watered down.

4.99, it's kinda cool to have something in your back pocket

just easy drinking white wine.

I don't think anybody opens a glass of Pinot Grigio

and wants to ponder the, you know, civilization, right?

You know what I mean?

It's like good time talking, hanging out, snacking,

you know, this is a fun wine.

So next we have Kirkland Signature Malbec

from Mendoza, Argentina, and this comes in at $6.99.

What makes Malbec special,

especially from the Mendoza region,

is its relationship to altitude.

It is in the mountains, it's very high.

You don't want the grapes to ripen too quickly.

Being at a higher altitude, it extends the growing season

because it's a lot cooler, and you don't have a lot of sun.

I think you get cleaner fruit,

and you get a better expression of said fruit, right?

So there's a big old sticker here on the front,

and it says 90 points, and so this was rated

by a wine reviewer.

You know, it's so funny because I always think about

life is just a continuation of high school, right?

Just because he put 90 on here,

he might like something totally different than me.

I don't know how many points

I'm gonna give this sucker here.

Mm-hmm, very distinctive.

It has like this freshness of like eucalyptus

or somewhat mint or spearmint.

Cherry, dark cherry, black cherry, lots of fruit element.

There's a little black pepper spice, black cherry,

dark cherry that tastes like Malbec, right?

Like it is fruit forward, it's tannic,

it's got this structure, it's not like over the top.

What do you expect when you think about Malbec?

Like to me, I think there's that fruit element

like that you get in Cabernet,

but it's this herbaceousness that you get

that you don't really get in Cabernet,

and it's a little bit of spice to it.

Is this the best Malbec I've ever tasted?

Absolutely not, but at 6.99, like,

I don't think you go wrong here.

This is like a big warm hug.

All right, so next up is Kirkland Signature Sauvignon Blanc

from Marlboro, New Zealand.

This comes in at 7.49,

but what we do see here is the word Ti Point,

and that's the name of the producer.

Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand

has its own distinctive smell

that you put your nose in the glass

and you smell it, you know that it's Sauvignon Blanc.

Another thing, kinda weird thing

that's synonymous when you think about like Sauvignon Blanc,

you hear this term called cat pee,

and people are like, what?

Why would I wanna drink anything that has cat pee?

But it's a it certain smell

that when you smell it you recognize it, but it's pleasant.

It's a pleasant smell.

All right, Kirkland signature.

There it is. There it is.

You know, it has this really like,

heavy kind of grassy note to it that you can smell.

Underneath that there's kind of white flowers,

this kind of perfume, and you get lots of citrus,

little lemon lime.

It's a vegetable wine.

It's like drinking a glass of green peppers.

So you get like this bell pepper kinda note to it.

On the nose, it's kind of ripe and round,

and then what you really get is like, green pepper.

Where I've seen a lot of it drank and paired

is with salads with some type of protein on it.

I would like the wine a little bit drier.

There's this ripeness, those tastes like there's some RS,

some residual sugar in the wine.

There's sugar leftover after fermentation.

So when we think about the whole process

of how wine is being made, there's sugars from the grape.

So I always like to say like, you know,

yeast eats the sugar and poops out alcohol.

Any point along that process you can stop the fermentation,

and then you'll have residual sugar left over.

But generally what happens

is people ferment it 'til it dries.

So at 7.49, this is great.

I've seen stuff like this floating around for like 16 bucks.

So I think there's some value there.

It's funny, the vegetable aspect of it,

like that kinda thing seems somewhat jarring

if you're not used to it,

but I think it's what calls people, right?

It's what's pulling them in.

It's very unique and distinctive and a fun wine to drink.

So next up we have Kirkland Signature Gigondas,

and this comes in at $13.99.

And we have brought you another,

I'm told this is another seasonal drop.

I think some of you might be asking yourself,

why have I never heard of this word before, this place?

It's called Gigondas.

It is in the Rhone Valley,

and probably what you've heard of more frequently

is maybe something like Cotes du Rhone.

Gigondas comes from a specific place located

in the Rhone Valley.

They have a certain set of grapes

that they can use here that aren't that many.

The more specific you can get

about a particular area or wine,

the more nuanced it's gonna be,

and the more it's gonna speak of this place.

What you have to realize

is that Costco is a very serious buyer.

Being the largest US retailer,

part of your job is to educate.

This is the code of arms for the region of Gigondas,

and it's printed on the bottle,

and it's kinda marketing for the region.

Are you paying for that?

In some instance, yes, but I tell you

what you're not paying for in a lot of old world wines

and especially wine in Rhone.

Not paying for inherent land costs.

That land has been in those people's families

for over 400 years.

Like, they've already paid off the land.

Conversely, if you look at something like the Americas

or something like Napa, where it's a million dollars

per acre to purchase.

So it gets really expensive,

and those things are passed down to the consumer,

and it seems like better value wines that come from Europe.

All right, so we're gonna crack open to this.

I think the first thing I get is like iron.

I'll say this kinda weird, it smells like blood.

Cherry, it's a little bit of cedar, sandalwood,

it's a little minerality to it.

It's like pavement, like, on a hot summer day.

That is [beep] delicious.

That is really great.

It's full bodied, it's got this power.

It's very rustic, it's not refined or polished,

but that's what you want.

This is Gigondas, this is a shining example.

Like, this wine is great.

I wasn't expecting this.

I mean, I would have to say outta all the wines today,

I'm most surprised by this wine.

This is at 13 99.

Over the holiday break from a well-known producer

imported by Kermit Lynch.

I bought a bottle for $39, and this actually tastes better.

There's no shame in my game.

Like, I would pull out this wine and pour it for friends.

You know, as I reflect and kinda look back

at all the wines we tasted today,

there were definitely varying degrees of quality and value,

but I was surprised.

My relationship with wine is not about monogamy, right?

Not at all.

It's like, I wanna taste everything,

even if I don't like it,

and I think your taste in wine will evolve

as you kinda start down this journey.

You know, it's so funny, we had some friends

over for the holidays and all I had cold was this box wine

that somebody had sent me.

So I put it in this $200 decanter,

and bought it to the table while in the kitchen.

And that was the wine

that they could only talk about the whole time.

So we had like wines from 1988,

we had all these different wines,

but they're like, That white wine was so great.

It was pretty tasty,

but I didn't have the heart yet to tell 'em.