The Kirkland Napa Valley Red Blend is back, and the price has stayed the same at $10.99, which is pretty hard to beat for Napa juice. The last vintage we reviewed was the 2016 about a year ago, so not sure if the ’17 snuck past us, or was skipped.
The wine this year is comprised of 47% Merlot, 44% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot and 2% Malbec. This is a little more Cab heavy blend compared to the last vintage we reviewed which included 24% Cabernet Sauvignon (and 67% Merlot).
My initial impression of the wine was similar to year’s past, and the tasting notes are virtually identical (and I didn’t read the last review notes before tasting this one).
This wine pours a medium to deep ruby in the glass; not a lot on the nose, a little dried fruit; medium to a medium plus in body. I found it to be rather light on flavor which is not too unexpected from this bottle.
Cherry fruit and pomegranate with dark chocolate notes; a little white pepper into the finish that wraps up quick. This wine is pretty light on the essentials here but commensurate with the price. Very similar to year’s past.
I think this one is ok as a mid week dinner or pizza night wine. And as I’ve noted before, this is a bottle we’d like to see a little more from. Nothing memorable for the new vintage, but if you’ve enjoyed it before, this vintage is right in the same ballpark, and our rating will stay the same at 86 points.
CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 86 points
Costco item number: 333110
Purchased at Costco in: Atlanta, GA (Woodstock)
Alc. 14.5%
John Ratynski
Saturday 31st of October 2020
I opened the bottle of KS 2018 Red Blend yesterday and I totally agreed with your comments. My wife prepared some smoked salmon canapes so I poured KS 2018 RB into decanter and opened a bottle of 2019 Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc form Marlborough ($13.89 at Costco). Very impressive wine from NZ, much more refined than any SB from NZ that I had. Very dry, lots of gooseberry ... yummy. You should try it. My wife continued with SB and I got back to KS 2018 RB after about 1.5 hours in decanter. The wine opened up very nicely and it shows a lot of promise. Maybe you should try decanting it for 2 hours and trying it again. Much different than the initial sample. I had a bottle of 2016 KS Red Blend (you are right, I bought it in December 2019 - what happened to 2017?) so I opened it to compare. I decanted it right away and gave it a little time. An hour later I tried it and in my opinion the wine is great for a $11 bottle, still can use another 2-3 years in a bottle but it is a great value beverage! In summary, I am planning to buy another 6 bottles of 2018 and let it mature for the next 5 years. BTW, we didn't finish all 3 bottles yesterday...just saying. Love your reviews!!! Regards, John Ratynski