We always love to see the newest vintage of this Kirkland classic arrive in warehouses.
Ironically, just a few months ago we saw an unexpected restock of the 2015 vintage in stores around the Atlanta area, which disappeared pretty fast. It goes to show, you just never know what you will find at Costco.
Good news for this 2016 vintage is the price has stayed the same, at the unbelievably low $8.49, which makes this still rather simple, DOCG Riserva Chianti hard to resist. It is once again produced by Villa Cafaggio, as indicated on the back of the label.
The wine pours a pale garnet in the glass and you can see through it; dusty nose with dried red fruit; flavors of black cherry, anise, pepper with a super dry finish that is very lasting. The finish is pretty impressive for such an inexpensive wine.
In our review of the 2015 vintage we said the wine was "clean and light," and that's exactly how this one felt too. It's a pretty simple wine, easy to just throw back without paying much attention. Perfect for a Wednesday night Italian dish, or pizza night. The nice long finish helps.
Overall, while our tasting notes for the 2016 vintage are similar to what we said about the 2015, I'm going to drop the wine down one point from 88 to 87. That's just how it hit me this year.
But this remains a great price on a very drinkable wine. Give it a minimum of a 30 minute decant too. It was a little closed right out of the bottle.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 87 points
Costco item number: 944010
Purchased at Costco in: Atlanta, GA
Alc. 13%
Don Dunn says
Would love to try many of these Kirkland wines you review. Unfortunately the Costco in Charlotte seems to have stopped bringing in the Kirkland selections with a couple of exceptions.
Edward Estrada says
Do you deliver?
Dan R. says
I do disagree!
Poor quality wine, and perhaps, I am wrong, you article promoting wine that isn’t selling well?
Editor says
Thanks for sharing your opinion. We are 100% independent of Costco with zero investment in what sells and doesn’t sell. Just trying to find and share wines we enjoy.
Dan R. says
To Editor :
I am sorry , my response was pointed at mostly taste, color and taste.
I just hope I do not offend you or anybody else .
Sincerely I appreciated your fast comment, and special honesty!
Thank you and keep your good work .
Sincerely
Dan R.
Kevin Knox says
At the risk of echoing Dan R. in the comments above while I'm not saying in any way that your evaluation of these wines isn't independent, I think you're seriously off in your take on this Chianti.
On the strength of your review I bought half a case and no amount of trickery I can come up with makes a silk purse out of this sow's ear. The wine is thin, bitingly acidic, sulphury upon opening (though that fault does dissipate somewhat with an hour or two of aeration). Volatile acidity as well - the classic cheap Italian wine fault and certainly not expected in a Chianti Classico Riserva.
Decanting for 2-4 hours makes little difference because this wine not only lacks the stuffing to have a bright future ahead of it, it possesses the faults that assure it a dismal present. At $4 a bottle it would be seriously over-priced. I compared it with the consistently wonderful Santa Cristina Toscana Costco often has had for less than $9 a bottle and the latter wine tastes like a $20-25 Super Tuscan by comparison.
A rare Kirkland fail and an even rarer total fail from Costco Wine Blog in my estimation.
Editor says
Kevin, thanks for sharing your thoughts and I’m happy to share them at the end of the review for others to consider as well.
Rob Manie says
hate to say this but have to totally agree with Dan and Kevin, very thin and acidic even after decanting for few hrs, not much substance.. donno about 2015 but this 2016 is not worth the 9 bucks and would dare to say not even worth even half of that.