Costco’s Kirkland Offers Up Two Affordable and Delicious French Wines

Two of Costco’s Kirkland wines getting high ratings? Wine Spectator gave two of its French wines scores of 89 and 91, respectively. This was something we had to investigate seeing that we’re always on the look out for good, affordable wines. So today we went to Costco to return an item and decided to go find these wines so we could put them to the 2HollywoodWinos taste test.

The wine section in Costco isn’t huge but it has some solid selections. From standard fare like J. Lohr and BV to lesser known and oh-so-good wineries, such as Grgich and Round Pond. And like Trader Joe’s, Costco has it’s own Kirkland label.

The two highly rated Kirkland wines are French: One is the 2010 Cotes Du Rhone Villages, which retails at $10 a bottle. It received the score of 89. Pretty good for a $10 bottle. The second is a 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee de Nalys that retails for $20. It obviously received the second score of 91.

We popped both open tonight and conducted a side-by-side comparison as we watched WALL-E, which just happened to be on TV. It’s a great night of wine and movies, which is the best way to be a wino in Hollywood! For our thoughts on these two wines, keep on reading below.

Steve Says

Honestly, for some time I’ve been reticent to try the house brand wine from Costco-Kirkland. Memories of similar but unequal store-branded foods have obviously tainted my perception. But this time, by my surprise, I noticed that two different bottles of said brand were reviewed positively in The Wine Spectator so I just had to have a look or I should say, a taste myself.

I started with the 2010 Cote Du Rhone Villages since it is the lighter of the two. First off, upon opening the bottle, it had a curious yeasty nose (Jane said it smelled of baked bread). Within a few minutes the yeastiness did dissipate. Up front it comes at you with a pretty big sweet blast of strawberry and a  medium body. The overall wine is pretty on par with others at its price point – $10.00. I normally wouldn’t seriously consider a wine at this price but since WS gave it 89 points I thought it merited a closer look. Not surprisingly it is lacking in personality and depth but actually it is a respectable bottle to go with something like a nice pizza. I might buy it again for a low key occasion. 3 stars of 5.

On to the 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee De Nalys. This bottle is a great example of why to spend more on a bottle of wine. It will set you back twice the price of the Cote Du Rhone, but it is worth it. It shows a deeper color with a rich mouthfeel and bigger body. I found a slight vineyness on the nose and just a subtle hint of smoke. It is a satisfying glass exhibiting a humble complexity that makes is a pleasure to drink. This one will definitely make it into our Costco basket again! It is a good solid daily drinking bottle. 3.5 of 5 stars.

Jane Says

I enjoyed both wines. The Cote du Rhone is a great daily bottle or the perfect third bottle to open at a dinner party. The Chateauneuf-du-Pape is smooth and well-balanced and worth the $20 price tag. All in all these are two good wines for how much they cost. I’m not sure they are the gift-worthy as they do say Kirkland on them. It’s one thing to buy Costco bottles for yourself or for a party you are throwing but it’s another to buy a bottle as a gift that is clearly from Costco. Gifts should have a little more mystery to them. But as value wines, they are great bet. So the next time you’re in Costco, definitely give the Costco brand a try. They are worthy.

Cote du Rhone 3 out of 5

Chateauneuf-du-Pape 3.5 out of 5