A Wine Columnist Walks Into a Costco—and Finds the Bottles Worth Buying
To consistently make wines of quality priced in the single digits is no small feat. After tasting her way through Costco’s Kirkland Signature wines and tracking down the talent behind them, our wine columnist offers this can’t-miss shopping list.
BIG VALUE At Costco, our wine columnist found wines of real quality at unlikely prices. She tracked down the winemakers and the rest of the team involved to find out how they do it.
Lettie Teague
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Lettie Teague
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March 8, 2024 at 1:45 pm ET
HOW DO YOU make a wine that’s both cheap and good? “Razor-thin margins” are the words I heard over and over recently as I talked to the talent behind Costco’s Kirkland Signature wines.
Founded in 1983, Costco began producing its Kirkland Signature wines a couple of decades ago. The first two wines, an Australian Shiraz and an Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, debuted in 2003 with just 206 cases in total produced.
A Champagne soon followed. The work of winemaker Manuel Janisson for the past 20 years, the Kirkland Signature Brut Champagne is a soft, appealing blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. It sells for $19.99 a bottle—astonishingly cheap for a real Champagne from the Champagne region of France.
I said as much to DC Flynt, of MACH Flynt Inc./DC Flynt MW Selections, who imports the Costco Champagne and sells it to distributors—among many other wines, including other Kirkland bottlings—from his base in Louisiana. “Costco works on extremely tight margins,” Flynt explained.
Savings Begin at the Vineyard
Unlike big Champagne houses that spend big money on marketing, Costco doesn’t market its own-label wines. Flynt further cited the “stable” availability of Champagne grapes due to long-term growing contracts held by Janisson, who makes 150,000 cases of Kirkland Champagne annually, and COGEVI, the cooperative Janisson is part of.
Flynt imported Janisson’s own Champagne Janisson & Fils for years before the creation of the Kirkland Champagne. The importer described his role as “a liaison” between Costco and winemakers and wineries, helping to develop and distribute Kirkland wines and also tasting sample wines before the final wine is determined with members of the Costco corporate wine-buying team.
To find her top bottles, our wine columnist tasted her way through the current selection at Costco—which is vast. See, for instance, this Costco store in Kyle, Texas, photographed on its opening day in March 2023.
Longstanding Relationships With Winemakers
Lee has made the Kirkland Ti Point Sauvignon Blanc for more than 10 years. His 2023 Kirkland Signature Marlborough New Zealand Ti Point Sauvignon Blanc ($7.49), an easy-drinking Kiwi that’s easily the equal of peers that cost three times as much, impressed me with its zesty, zippy character.
Glenn Hugo of Girard Winery in Calistoga, Calif., is another winemaker who works with Flynt in the production of Kirkland Signature wines. Hugo produced his first Kirkland wine in 2010 and has since turned out an array of wines for Costco while keeping his day job. At Girard, Hugo makes wines that cost many multiples of their Kirkland counterparts. The 2021 Girard Rutherford Napa Valley Cabernet costs $120, for example; the Kirkland Signature Rutherford Cabernet, $18.99. He finds satisfaction in producing wines at both ends of the spectrum.
Hugo is also the talent behind the 2022 Kirkland Signature Russian River Valley Sonoma County Pinot Noir ($11.99). Although this was Hugo’s first vintage, this Pinot has been in the Kirkland lineup for 10 years, growing from an initial production of 15,000 cases to 120,000 cases today. It’s a pleasant red with real Pinot character, marked by crisp red fruit. Its gentle notes of oak come from aging six to seven months in tanks with French oak staves. (At $1,000 or so apiece, new French oak barrels are too pricey for the production of a $12 wine.)
A Unique Collaboration
As with all Kirkland Signature wines, the Russian River Pinot Noir is a collaboration between the winemaker, the Costco wine team and an importer and/or wholesaler/broker (in this case, Flynt). Prior to bottling, Hugo sends Flynt and several Washington state-based members of the Costco team several samples, which they taste and discuss over Zoom. This usually happens a couple of times before the final blend is determined, said Hugo. (Before the pandemic, the team often met in person in California.)
The 2021 Kirkland Signature Premier Cru Chablis ($18.99) is made by Pierre Brissy of the highly regarded Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard, with fruit from Premier Cru vineyards (Vaillons, Vau Ligneau, Montmains, Mont de Milieu, Les Fourneaux, Vosgros).
Released in late fall/early winter, the Chablis, now sold out, is one of many seasonal offerings from Costco, available for just a few months. A rosé is due to appear in stores in April. According to a MISA spokesperson, that wine, produced in much larger quantities than the Chablis, should be around a while.
A winter release that can still be found in some stores, the 2021 Kirkland Sonoma Old Vine Zinfandel ($9.99) was made by Zach Long and produced at Vintage Wine Estates. He noted that this lush wine comes from many of the same old-vine vineyards as Zinfandels that cost several times its price.
Not all the Kirkland Signature wines I bought impressed me, of course. But, overall, I give lots of credit to Costco for its rigorous attention to both quality and price—and for knowing the wines that their customers like. Aside from the Kirkland Chablis, which I shared with self-confessed wine snobs, I tasted most of the wines with friends who like wine but consider it an adjunct to the meal. Not all of them were Costco shoppers, but the wines we tasted might have inspired a few to apply for membership.
OENOFILE / The Kirkland Signature Wines to Buy at Costco
1. 2021 Kirkland Signature Bordeaux Superieur, $6.89. Some 75,000 cases are produced annually of this soft, attractive Cabernet-Merlot blend, a joint effort of Vignobles Gonfrier in Bordeaux, Dallas-based importer MISA and the Costco wine-buying team.
2. 2023 Kirkland Signature Marlborough New Zealand Ti Point Sauvignon Blanc, $7.49. A zesty, zippy, easy-drinking Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc “on par with brands that sell for three times the price,” said winemaker Jeff Lee. Indeed, a very good deal for the price.
3. Kirkland Signature Brut Champagne, $19.99. Produced for the past 20 years by the same winemaker, a member of the oldest cooperative in Champagne, this pleasantly soft, rather round and fruity Champagne is an appealing drink—and rather stylishly packaged, to boot.
4. 2022 Kirkland Signature Russian River Valley Sonoma County Pinot Noir, $11.99. This pretty, bright-red, cherry-inflected red with notes of vanilla and spice is sourced from a wide variety of vineyards across Sonoma’s Russian River Valley by winemaker Glenn Hugo.
5. 2021 Kirkland Signature Old Vine Sonoma Zinfandel, $9.99. This lush, ripe (but not too ripe) Zinfandel is made from vines with an average age of 45 years according to winemaker Zach Long. A seasonal release, but with 50,000 cases in production, it’s still widely available.
