Everyone loves Costco. The merchandise is top notch and the prices are great. Thankfully, this also applies to their wine aisle, which offers a great selection of varietals from all over the world at excellent prices, just demanding to be properly explored.
Now, there’s a resource to learn more about the wines you will find at Costco – so you can find extreme values, enjoy the remarkable selection and perhaps be compelled to try new wines that you may have overlooked before.
Enjoy. Andrew, Editor
NOTE: This site is 100% independently written by wine lovers that are obsessed with Costco wines. It is not affiliated with Costco Wholesale Corporation in any official way. Please read our review and sample policy.
About the Ratings
We are rating wines on the commonly used and widely accepted 100 point scale.
Staff
Founder/Editor
Andrew Cullen [Contact editor]
Contributing Reviewers:
Erin Hayes
Josh Linder
Lance Manion
TJ Cohen
Costco Wine Cartoons are created by Doug Pike.
Site problem FYI: The Pinot link just sends you back to the home page. The other wine links seem to work. Hope that’s helpful.
https://costcowineblog.com/category/pinot-noir/
Thanks for the note. That category is actually just lacking new Pinot reviews which I am really glad you pointed out. I know what I need to buy on my next trip. Thanks for letting me know.
I haven’t seen any yet, but Ritual Pinot Noir from Chile rated 94 points by JS for the 2013 and 92 points for the 2012. Selling for around $20 online.
Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet 2012 is available at Bellingham Costco for $9.99!. Rated 92 points by WS. Will pop one open and provide my 2 cents tomorrow.
The Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 is exactly what you would expect from this very consistent producer in an excellent vintage. I had this wine in the trunk of my car so was cold to start. The restaurant I brought it to must of had the ac blasting, which did not help the wine warm up. It took almost an hour before I could give this wine a fair shake. After it warmed up a bit the cherry and black berry was very apparent. Smooth and supple from start to finish. There is a bit of backbone from the Cabernet. It finished off with medium sweet cocoa, which is classic Columbia Crest. Very approachable now for a Cabernet, but I am sure a 6 months to a year in the bottle would round off an already balanced wine. In the tradition of this website 91 points with an additional bonus point for extreme value. There is a lot to like about Washington wines and Cabernet has been proven to be world class here. I would buy this wine by the case at this price.
Hi!
This message is for Erin Hayes. I accidentally stumbled upon this blog tonight when I was googling a brand of wine that I bought recently from Costco in the Atlanta area. I was delightfully shocked to see that you are also in the Atlanta area. What is your favorite CostCo location here? I mainly go to the Brookhaven or Cumberland locations. I see that you visited the Alpharetta store. Never been there. Have you ever tried the KS Meritage? Solid, big, strong wine for under $10. I also like the KS Zinfandel.
Yes, I am fan of both the KS Meritage as well as the Zinfandel. I frequent the Cumming, Buford, Alpharetta, & Gwinnett Costco’s the most. I would like to get out to Brookhaven, Cumberland, & Kennesaw locations eventually to see how the selection varies. Other editors to this blog frequent those Costcos since they live closer to them. Thank you for reaching out!
As a wine lover I enjoy reading your blog. However, I have a difficult time finding most of your recommended wines at my local Costco. I live in San Diego which has a Costco in La Jolla and Mission Valley but I rarely find your recommended wines at either location. Not sure why this is, but very frustrating! Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you.
Hi Nancy, first off thanks for reading the site and I’m glad you enjoy it. You do point out the number one challenge we face though which is availability of the wines.
Because we are independent of Costco we don’t have any more information on distribution than anyone else. A lot of what we hear is through the comments on this site.
And it really runs the gamut. I’ve mentioned before that wines we purchased in the Atlanta area popped up in Tokyo but not in neighboring states like FL or TN.
I wish there was a better answer but the best thing to do is to keep checking. A lot of Kirkland wines we review should be near you, if not right away, hopefully soon.
Again, wish I had a better solution. Thanks for following us and for writing in.
Andrew
The reviews tend to be spot on – certainly helps in my buy decisions. I have been very pleased overall with the bottles I have purchased based on your recommendations. That said – My local Costco here in Colorado brought in a few cases of the Kirkland 2013 Chianti Riserva. Approx 15% of the wines I enjoy are Italian. Erin picked this one as an 88 rating. I tried two bottles over a week’s time. $8.49 is a great price point for sure – but even at that level – I have found a number of Chianti Riservas in the $10-12 range which are far superior for just a few $$more. I have also enjoyed several Chianti Classicos in the $8-9 range which also are superior to this Costco offering. I beieve an 84-85 rating tops IMO.
I had the wine last night,and enjoyed it with a pasta/bean dish. While it is short on up front fruit (especially compared to new world red) it demonstrated good flavors associated with Chianti Reserva including a decent finish. My rule of thumb,or wineglass, if it’s under ten bucks and tastes of “place” it’s a find.
is there a better way to search for some of these wines when you go into a costco besides just trying to browse through the hundreds of labels
Hi, there used to be a search tool on Costco.com that allowed you to search different warehouses for their merchandise including wine, and it was awesome, but they pulled it down a few years back. Not really any other good way. I know some readers will call their warehouse and ask about the wines by item number which is why we always try to include the item number at the end of reviews. Wine, like all things at Costco, is a hunt. I hope you find some wines that you enjoy. And let us know when you do.
Very disappointed today to go to Costco in Charlotte ,with intent to buy 6 of the higher rated Kirkland wines based on 2019 reviews, and to find they did not have any of those wines in stock . IN fact they only had a Columbia Valley Cab in stock. Almost seems like Costco is pulling back on its Kirkland brand wines. I asked the clerk to check inventories like for the Cotes du Rhone and she said it had been deleted from this store and most in the Southeast. Very strange.
Hi Donald, I hear what you’re saying and have not seen as many Kirkland wine offerings around my area too (especially compared to prior years). The Columbia valley Cab is a good one though. I heard the new Gigondas is out if you like Cotes du Rhône. We will keep reporting on them as they appear. Hope that we see an influx soon. Thanks for the note.
New to the site as I was looking for information on Kirkland wines. We’ve been known to pop into local Costco stores while traveling to see the regional and seasonal selections. As noted by some, the wine selections vary substantially for lesser known labels, and specific regional wines tend to stay that way. The Costco stores in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria will have some central coast wines mixed in, the Santa Rosa Costco Napa region wines. In talking to small vineyard owners, it’s the same influence affecting all other Costco products: distributor commitments and marketing.
That said, really appreciate the info, as it did help when visiting Tennessee recently and grabbing wine for use there.