There’s some history behind this wine, and the copy on the back label gives a nice overview if you are able to read that from the second image below.
But in short, Buena Vista was established in 1857 and is considered by many to be the first premium winery in California. I’ve been meaning to pick this one up to taste it and finally pulled the trigger on my last trip.
This is not an inexpensive wine but Costco’s price of $32.99 is more than fair for a wine of this caliber. The retail seems to be around $50. This time of the year, when you’re perhaps more likely to splurge on a fine wine, you couldn’t do much better than this in the price range.
Definitely decant. The wine was a little tight on the initial pour, but we came back to it 45 minutes later and it was right where we wanted this to be.
Deep ruby in the glass, ripe fruit, cigar box, earthy aromas; the wine is medium plus to full body; mostly dark fruit, black cherry, blackberry, plum flavors; a little dark chocolate. Nice acidity and sticky tannins lead to a dry chalky finish.
Overall, this is a clear winner among Napa wines, and a solid choice from the region for under $40. Great vintage too. The 2016s from Napa to drink really nice right now, with room to run.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 90 points (a Costco Wine Top Pick)
Costco item number: 33795
Purchased at Costco in: Atlanta, GA (Kennesaw)
Alc. 15.0%
Robert R
Wednesday 5th of January 2022
Picked up 2 bottles of the 2017 at Coscto in NC. No 2016.
Sean
Friday 14th of January 2022
@Robert R, My Costco in Westlake Village in California had 2018 vintage. It was a bit too young to drink IMO
Joe R Roberts
Friday 17th of December 2021
There's a back-story here in that the historic label (and facilities) of Buena Vista were purchased by the Boisset Group---- the family for several generations has produced wines in Burgundy. The current generation is adding new properties and then aggressively marketing them---- thus the result you see. In my local Costco this summer there was a $12 Chardonnay discounted to $8 that I purchased just to try. Well, the best thing I could say is that it was probably worth the $8 but not anything more.
Edgar
Thursday 16th of December 2021
Didn't see any of that today on my visit to the Mall of Georgia Costco. Did pick up the KS 2019 Gigondas. Grabbed 4 bottles @ $14.99 ea. Laying them down for a few months before tasting if I can wait that long.
srh
Wednesday 15th of December 2021
I find Buena Vista VERY confusing with respect to their different labels 🙄 , Will's comment above likely being for a different bottling, as this particular one seems to be $50 sugg retail. [ https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3304073&searchId=81E4BEBF has a bunch of different consumer Tasting Notes, though even Wine-Searcher is confused when they try to link to vendors selling THIS particular bottling.] 🙁
Will Morris
Wednesday 15th of December 2021
Buena Vista has a very nice Cab at some Trader Joe’s in California for $8. A great value