2023 Kirkland Signature Pauillac Bordeaux

It's hard to believe this is actually here, a new vintage of a Kirkland favorite that was discontinued several years ago.

At that time, it was our favorite, and a reader favorite Kirkland bottle. That was before the Brunello, Barolo, Suscol, and many of our other top picks.

A picture of some of the old Kirkland Pauillacs proudly graces the featured image of our most popular story, The Definitive Guide to Costco's Kirkland Signature Wines.

But this run ended back in 2018 with the final Pauillac bottle, the 2015 vintage, which was a delight upon its release, and maybe even better 7 years later when we pulled one from the cellar.

We think everyone, ourselves included, figured it was gone for good. Until a week or so ago, and reports came in about a new 2023 vintage hitting stores. We were stunned, and didn't believe it until we saw the label.

Holy smokes it's back. Someone up there (at Costco) loves us.

We hit the search feature in the app every day, and sure enough it didn't take long to pop up in a nearby Costco, and we bought some.

The label is almost identical, as is the description on the back of the label which is almost word for word the same as the 2015 vintage.

The big question: the price? Well get this, the new 2023 vintage is actually $1 less than we paid for the 2015 vintage back in 2018. Today's price is $21.99, which is beyond stellar for wine from Pauillac, which is one of the top regions in Bordeaux, and a personal favorite to this blog.

This is all very interesting to us Costco wine nerds but we're starting to get long in the tooth, so let's dig into some tasting notes on the new vintage.

The wine is a medium to dark ruby in the glass; vibrant nose of pencil shavings, tobacco, cedar; medium plus in body; nice red and dark fruit flavor of cherry, blackberry; tight tannins which are keeping the wine a bit closed right now.

There's high potential here, but it might take time to unlock. The finish is on point, nice acidity, dry and lasting.

This is pretty much exactly what we were hoping for. The only downside is that this wine is a baby right now. If you want to drink it now, let it breathe for a while.

If you have the time and inclination, which is our plan, put a few in the cellar and forget about them.

We'll be writing about this wine in a few more years, and will probably stock up on a few more as we find them on subsequent trips. This is fine Bordeaux at an unbeatable price.

CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 92 points, for now (a Costco Wine Top Pick).

Costco item number: 1036433 (same item number as previous vintages)

Availability: We buy our wine in Costco warehouses around the Atlanta area. The best way to locate wines near you is by using the new Costco mobile app and searching with the Costco item number we listed above.

Alc. 13.5%