For fans of Rhone wines, and particular those into Gigondas, you must have been as surprised as I was upon first hearing that Kirkland was producing a Gigondas bottle. I learned from a reader, and that was followed up by many more readers, hoping for a review, and all the feedback so far is pretty positive.
Gigondas is an area in Southern Rhone that produces wine primarily made up of the GSM grapes, as this bottle is. It consists of 85% Grenache, 10% Syrah, and 5% Mouvedre. I always view Gigondas as sort of a baby Chateauneuf-du-pape, even though the latter includes many more grape varietals. But Gigondas is typically bargain central in my book. (this wine was even made by a famous Chateauneuf winemaker, Guillaume Gonnet)
Side Note: I've written a book you can download for only $1 that dives in even more and covers many of the top regions for French wine.
This bottle follows in that value path at only $14.99 at Costco. Now $14.99 might not seem inexpensive, but considering wines from this region rarely drop this low, it really is a score to find this one at Costco.
Tip to enjoying this one though, give it a little time, a little air, and a decant can help jump start it. I also tried it closer to a (slightly) cellar temp of around 60 degrees and found the wine to be more pleasant in that range, but that could just be personal preference.
Out of the bottle, it's a big juicy, fresh Rhone red and it comes on strong. After a little time to chill out, it becomes more interesting. Spicy and earthy on the nose, this wine is full in body and loaded with dark cherry, dark chocolate, dark, plumy fruit.
It finishes a little quicker than I hoped and loses some of its intensity, but overall, not a bad buy at all here for the price.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 87 points
Costco item number: 1134102
Purchased at Costco in: Atlanta, GA (Kennesaw)
Alc. 14.5%
srh says
THANK you for reviewing this! My notes (along with [currently] a half dozen or so others) are on cellartracker, where the response has been favorable. Personally, I'd liken this more to a [very] SERIOUS CdR than the other 2 Gigondas reds I've tried. But, since those were also ea upwards of 50% more expensive...
http://www.guillaumegonnet.com/ is the Winemaker's website, where it's interesting to compare the notes of his own '15 Gigondas to the back label of the COSTCO version. Just speculating, of course, but do you think he sold his lesser barrels / juice from younger vines to COSTCO to increase exposure to / strengthen his own production?
Editor says
Hard to say for sure but I guess that's possible. Thanks for sharing all the info and research.