Winery: Chateau Montelena Wine: Calistoga Zinfandel Costco Notes: The woodsy, briary character of old vine Zinfandel is quite prominent but with time unmasks beautiful notes of lavender, cassis, and fresh mint. Supple tannins are present throughout the amble between earthiness and minerality. Left Coast Tasting Notes: Color: Medium to light ruby color, a little lighter …
Other Red
We have back to back reviews of Tuscan bottles that Costco carries for under $10. And both turned out to be really good finds. A new friend, Christopher Lochhead of the excellent “Follow Your Different” podcast, requested a few Tuscan wine reviews from us, so here they are. We just posted about the Banfi Centine …
It’s great to see the latest vintage of this bottle hitting Costco stores. This one is a reader and personal favorite, delivering amazing quality for under $10. Costco’s price remains only $8.99, which is the same as the prior vintage we reviewed. Online you will find it around $10-$12, and this one is pretty widely …
The Napa Red Blend is back, 2019 vintage now, and there are a few changes with this new vintage that readers started pointing out to me last week. Thankfully, the price is not one of them. This wine is once again priced at $10.99, which is pretty fair for a Napa Valley red blend. Albeit, …
This is always a popular Kirkland bottle among readers, and a wine we generally have enjoyed as well. It’s arriving a little late this year at least in the stores around us. It usually comes in around spring time according to our tracking. The price has stayed consistent at $9.99 which is great news. This …
If I had to name my number one wine region for high quality red wines at super reasonable prices right now, it would hands down be Portugal. There are a lot of other regions, many not too far from here, that still deliver great wines for the money, but Portugal remains perhaps the one that …
Here’s an interesting wine from the Sierra Foothills, an AVA known for its Zinfandel that is located on the Western edge of the Sierra Nevada mountains. There are eight counties within the region, one of which is Amador which might sound familiar as it’s among the more well known and we’ve seen a few wines …
Here’s another interesting Costco wine find – a single vineyard Cabernet Franc from Mendoza, Argentina. This wine also appeared in Wine Enthusiast’s 2019 list of “Top 100 Cellar Selections” (in spot #88, recommendation to drink until 2030) and the outlet rated the wine a nice 92 points. Suckling also went 93 points on it. Retail …
Here’s a fun Costco wine find that we felt drank way above its pay grade. Penfolds is a mega Aussie producer, and they make a lot of great wine. Bin 28, which was first produced in 1958, is the earliest of their Bin series. This wine received 90+ points from almost every critic, and after …
It seems like people around the wine world are talking a lot about Chianti Classico at the moment. I know one of my favorite wine writers, Eric Asimov from the NY Times, is a huge fan of them right now. We’ve always enjoyed them as well, finding a lot of quality at great prices, so …
Here’s a fun new Costco wine find that I’ve heard about from multiple readers who have already found it and enjoyed it – the “Hello Summer” mixed wine multi pack that contains 12 375ml bottles from around the world. Sound kind of familiar? If you were a fan of the Costco Wine Advent Calendars we …
Outside of a new varietal or region of Kirkland wines making a debut, this is one of the Kirkland bottles I look forward to the most every single year. The fact that I love Chateauneuf wines coupled with the fact that you generally cannot purchase good ones, if any at all, in this $20 price …
Here’s an interesting red blend from the Jumilla region of Spain. It was $9.99 and the Costco placard displayed a nice 93 point rating from Wine Spectator. I love Spanish wine, so why not give it a shot? The blend is 80% Monastrell, 15% Syrah and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon; retail price seems to be closer …
Here’s a name you might know (Gerard Bertrand) but a region you might not (Tautavel). This makes for an interesting combo to explore. I first purchased this wine last year from Wine.com for $16, which was also my first experience with a wine from Tautavel, and I really enjoyed it. You’re always pretty safe in …
There are a lot of places throughout Europe to find good red wine values. A few of my go to’s are Rioja/Ribera/Toro in Spain, Chianti/Barbera in Italy, Rhone/Cru Beaujolais in France. And Portuguese wines definitely fit the bill. They consistently overdeliver at very reasonable price points. The challenge is that they just aren’t prevalent enough. …