This new addition to the Kirkland wine family started appearing in stores a couple weeks back, and finally hit my store in the Atlanta area. It was also featured in the latest issue of the Costco Connection magazine.
A Prosecco Rosé almost seems like a no brainer given the wine community’s current love for bubbly wines and Rosé. But this is actually a fairly new development in the wine world. We did find the La Gioiosa Prosecco Rose ($8.99, 88 points) at Costco last year right before Christmas, and that was one of the first bottles we had seen.
I thought I’d dig into the story a bit because it’s kind of interesting (skip down four paragraphs if you want to get to the tasting).
In Italy, most (but not all) wines have a band across the top; in this case the band says DOC, which is short for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, and that means “controlled designation of origin.”
There is also DOCG, or Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, meaning Guaranteed. This was created in 1980 to signify the highest quality wines because there are over 300 different DOCs and people felt the quality wasn’t always consistent among them.
So the regular Kirkland Signature Prosecco is a DOCG, which is pretty rare for its modest $6.99 price tag. More often DOCG Proseccos cost twice that or more.
Up until about a year ago, the Prosecco DOC prohibited rosé versions of Prosecco but that changed with the creation of a Prosecco Rosé DOC. This came with new rules that stated Prosecco Rosé must be still be produced from a majority of white Glera grapes, but also can include 10% – 15% of Pinot Noir, known as Pinot Nero in Italy.
You’ll also note the Prosecco Rosé carry a vintage designation (2020 for this one), whereas the standard Kirkland Prosecco and most others do not.
So let’s get into the wine, which I thought was really delicious.
It pours a pale salmon color in the glass with light red fruit on the nose; nice mouthfeel with gentle effervescence; red fruit flavors, predominantly strawberry with peach, a touch of cream; pretty dry throughout with a good finish.
This bottle is easy going and just a perfect summer sipper. Maybe a hair better, or at least more enjoyable in my opinion, than the standard Prosecco from Kirkland, but both remain incredible value buys for $7.
This is a welcome addition to the world of Kirkland wines.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 88 points
Purchased at Costco in: Atlanta, GA (Kennesaw)
Costco item number: 1521870
Alc. 11%
