Here's one of our favorite Kirkland wines coming in right on time with the latest vintage. Fall is usually when this Brunello hits stores, and right off the bat we have some good news with the price staying at $19.99.
Long time readers may remember this wine had crept up to $27 in prior years, and then started coming back down. We really like it right here at $20, which is an amazing price for any Brunello, even more so for a tasty one, as this bottle usually is.
Looking back over our notes, we've tasted every vintage of this Kirkland offering, dating back to the awesome 2010 vintage. Here's a look at the scores over the years.
2010 – 92-93 points
2011 – 86 points
2012 – 87 points
2013 – 88 points
2014 – 88 points
2015 – 89 points
2016 - 91 points
Trending the right direction as we feel this bottle has finally stabilized close to 90 points after that dip almost a decade ago. And that's where this new 2017 vintage will land for us.
The wine is a medium garnet in color with a lovely nose of red fruit and spice; it is medium plus in body with good acidity right off the bat; nice flavor profile with cherry and raspberry; clean finish. Really tasty juice once again.
We're going to say this is just a small notch below the 2016, and believe it or not we ran into some 2016 bottles just a few weeks ago and opened one, so it is super fresh in memory.
This is still a favorite and a great buy. We're going to bring the rating down to 90 for the 2017 and recommend Brunello and Italian wine fans give it a shot.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 90 points (a Costco Wine Top Pick)
Costco item number: 1472194
Purchased at Costco in: Atlanta, GA (Cumberland)
Alc. 14.5%
Sue Baker says
Is this Brunello from the same producer Fattoria dei Barbi in Montalcino?
Mike says
Does anyone have any idea how corporate Costco distributes these wines (esp. Kirkland Signatures) to the local Costcos? The wines reviewed here never seem to reach the Costcos I am familiar with (in MI and VA)!!
Tony Souza says
@Mike, We have the same issue in HI. I spoke to one of the distributor reps in the store one day who I knew from a past life. His comment was that as far as he knew they got shipments from Costco Distribution Centers and had no choice over what came in. He is not a management guy so he pay not be privy to all the details of how things work but I am guessing he is likely right. I have noticed that stuff which is on this site one month sometimes suddenly shows up 6 months down the line. And, sometimes something that blew out of the store suddenly shows up again 3-4 months later in small quantity suggesting stuff gets buried on pallets or possibly moved from different stores if not selling. Just on my island, the inventory varies from one store to another suggesting there is some focus on putting inventory into areas of higher income or lots of tourist buyers. Qualitatively, our best store seems to be in Lihue, Kauai based on spending time over there for Thanksgiving. Population there is not generally wealthy but there are lots of tourists that are in there buying lots of booze and wine for their visits.
Hans B says
The KS Brunello is our second favorite KS wine (St. Julien is first). We found the 2016 vintage to be outstanding and we are aging the few bottles we still have. We also liked the 2017 and it could probably use another year for the tannins tone down. Very good.
Jennifer Okawa says
Live in Houston Texas, picked them up at Willowbrook Costco, they were both defected, my guess is shipment and temperature climates. Would have loved to enjoy!
Richard Lavin says
You call it "medium garnet" color; I would have said "flimsy mahogany". The wine has little body, a dull mix of subdued flavors,and a short finish. I would never have identified it as a Brunello; in fact, I think it's a fake. Should I try to return it? The twenty bucks aren't all that important; I've poured pricier wines down the sink. But Costco should know they may have a problem with this supplier.