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« Think For Yourself | Main | Old Hippies »
Tuesday
Oct302007

Coteaux Costco

costco champagne 016 I just tossed almost fifty bucks down the toilet. It’s my fault, I should have known better, but as they say, a sucker is born every minute. Today that sucker was me.

I ventured into Costco to buy big chunks of food to prepare for some events where a lot of very hungry people would be “consuming mass quantities” and, while on my way to the food department, passed the wines. I could not resist taking a spin to see what was what. There it was, their private label French Champagne, under the elegant Kirkland label, going for only $22 a bottle. I mean, how bad could it be? It was real French Brut Champagne and had been selected by a real M.W. named D.C. Flynt. I guess being an M.W. is not what it used to be.

How bad could it be? The answer is pretty bad. First of all there was the ugly brown color, followed by the the insipid taste and oxidized aromas. On top of that, it didn’t even have many bubbles left. In my opinion, this is one of the worst rip-offs I have ever tasted and don’t understand how any reputable merchant can sell such a wine. You would be better off with a bottle of $6 Spanish Cava than this terrible wine. No, that’s not a glass of Fino Sherry pictured here, it’s a glass of Kirkland Champagne about to be poured down the drain.

Perhaps this was a decent wine when our M.W., D.C. Flynt selected it, but somewhere along the way I think this wine has been so abused by bad storage and bad shipping conditions that it’s certainly not worth $22 a bottle or, for that matter, $2 a bottle.

I was a sucker because I let myself be conned into buying a wine from Costco. If you buy wine from a store where not a soul in the store has a clue about the wines their selling you get what you deserve. I got two bottles of undrinkable Champagne and I deserved it. Costco tosses in some famous names to make themselves look like a serious wine merchant and a lot of people get taken in by this ploy. For example they were selling wines like 2004 Ducru Beaucaillou today, but you have to ask yourself how those stacked up bottles were treated before you lay them down for a decade only to find out that, like me, you were a sucker too.

I can’t think of a worse place to buy wine than Costco.

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Reader Comments (17)

I have never seen wine being sold in a Costco. New York lawmakers must be more wine savvy than those in other states which allow wine to be sold in warehouse discount centers.
November 2, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterSusan
Costco is the nation's largest wine retailer.
November 3, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterCraig Camp
Rather than out it down the drain, why not take it back to Cosco and demand a refund for a wine not fit to drink. Maybe they will also have a look at their stock and if it is all like this take it off the shelf. Not informing them means many others will be doing the same thing as you - putting it down the drain.

November 6, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterPaul Verdich
I was watching Wine Library TV and on yesterday's episode Gary Vaynerchuk tasted the Cotsco Barossa GSM and the Cabernet Sauvignon from California and found them to be worth seeking out, but found the Chateauneuf de Pape a pass.
November 7, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterSusan
There are a couple of reasons I did not return the wines. First, the distance involved as I don't live near a Costco. Second, I don't think they care. Sure they'd take the wines back, but unless hundreds of bottles are returned they'd just ignore my return. Let's face it, most people are drinking these bottles.
November 7, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterCraig Camp
Craig!

Way to go, just say what you think! Yes I was looking at the Kirkland Napa Cabernet with the same thoughts glad I did not relent, hey but the Vodka is good.
November 8, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterMark V Marino
I laughed hard when I read this posting. In fact I just bought a bunch of wine at costco, and have been pretty proud of myself for getting some good deals. Maybe I should re-examine that. It was not Kirkland stuff. but still. It would be interesting to buy two bottles of the same stuff, preferably something several years old, one from Costco and one from a 'reputable' dealer and taste them blind side by side.
November 9, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterErrol Craig
I certainly don't mean to say that every wine at Costco is bad, but storage for them is obviously an issue.There is also the fact that they are all about quantity and sometimes even they may buy too much. That means extra time in poor storage conditions. To be fair I have purchased Trimbach Riesling from them that was fine.
November 9, 2007 | Registered CommenterCraig Camp
I and friends have tried some of the various Kirkland wines and have found the to be good to excellent. All the other wines I've bought there were fine, none corked or otherwise bad. The Kirkland Champagne, if Champagne it was, may have been an aberation, but if you had been able to return them I would bet you would have gotten satisfaction from an outfit that here, at least, everybody likes to the nth degree. I've shopped in 6 of their stores at various times, and have always found Costco more than willing to go out of their way to get me what I want, and all here agree.

I'd note that I prefer Parker's ratings and usually go by them when I buy, with the WS second, and we've drunk a lot over the years. I've also found that some of the "better names" sometimes come out with putrid wines, and some wines of lesser price, say about $8 to $10 are always lousy, year after year, despite being "names" that consumers recognize and believe to be good because of the recognition factor..
December 5, 2007 | Unregistered Commenterfred krongold
I shop at Costco and buy their wine. You can get some great deals. In their 'top shelf' section the wine is stored properly tilted in bins. In Chicago area you can buy Chilean Sena, middle of the road Brunello, good Amarone, even good deals on Beaucastel Chataneuf, to name only a few. Then the cheaper stuff set up in pallets is worth a peruse. I buy Jadot's Maconais Villages unoaked chard for $9.99, where it is normally 12-13 elsewhere.

The Kirkland Barossa GSM by Burge was really hyped by a wine guy there who was really knowledgeable (some Costco's actually have wine people on weekends). But it was surupy without any complexity. He thought it was going to turn into something great but i doubt it.
March 31, 2008 | Unregistered Commentermitya51
I agree on the Kirkland label Champagne that I bought from the costco website, but it was still better the the famous Yellow label.
May 4, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJ Larse
Are those Cameron Hughes Wines any good from Costco??
October 29, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAaron
I agree with the voices expressing what is tantamount to common sense . . any Costco member knows that Costco is concerned with quality and if you got a bad bottle of wine, then take it immediately BACK . . you would have been refunded your money. Second, Costco spends LOTS of money paying wine producers who in turn, hire experienced Wine Handsellers that work in-store to inform, to educate and to serve their customers . . . for the most part these people are knowledgeable and do a good job of assisting prospective wine buyers . . it is NOT fair to say Costco is not the IDEAL place to buy wine . . .the Costco owner is a wine collector and is careful about what is on the shelf . . mostly ALL Costco wines are good. As with people, there is always one bad one . . a hasty generalization is not good logic. I will continue to buy wine at Costco.
November 11, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterD Spin
Craig,
I would never buy a bottle of Champangne at Costco with the kirkland label for all the above mentioned reasons-unless of course a friend whose palate i respected recommended it. Thanks for the post, however, because every once in a while, like you were, I am tempted.
November 11, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterRamblin' Wino
Just popped by from tv wine library, after watching the costco review. I will agree its a shame to buy bad wine let alone champagne. But on the flip side I would of taken it back. Now I live in NS Canada, and the only place to buy wine "legally" is registered wine providers and the NSLC, they all have a policy to return any wine that is corked or otherwise bad for a full refund. As well the smaller shops will actually open a bottle in the store to see if its the whole batch or just the one bottle no matter what the price. These smaller shops is where I do most of my wine hunting because of this great bonus.

Anyhow sorry for the ramble, on a final note thank your for your heads up on the costco champagne, it is much appreciated. And thank you for the delightful read.

oh ya here the link to the tv wine library episode with costco wine
http://tv.winelibrary.com/2007/11/06/costco-wine-tasting-episode-345/
March 31, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJason W Arch.

I worked for D.C. Flynt at Cafe Margeaux. His head is so big he needs a helicopter to transport him from venue to venue. He makes Mr. Obama look like a piker when it comes to ego. I wonder how much Costco paid him to bless their mouthwash??

October 4, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterCraig Mooney

I don't think you're being entirely fair Craig, perhaps you should have brought it back for a refund instead of getting a hot head and being so derisive. With the steps Costco takes to manage their wine business, I seriously doubt they'd refuse to hand your money back and apologize. In my opinion their champagne is great, especially for the $22 standard price and the occasional marked down price I've seen at $14. To be fair, I'm 18 so the quantity of champagne I've had to drink is small compared to all of you, but the quality of the champagne I've had over the past few years is remarkable, my family generally never purchases champagne below $200 a bottle. In fact, my aunt owns a custom walk-in wine cooler and frequently buys her wine at $250 a half bottle. She purchased the Kirkland champagne in bulk for Christmas because she read some reviews and saw the 90 point review WS gave it, we just started drinking it a few hours ago and she thinks it's great, especially for the low value.

In summary, I think you just got a bad batch, I'm drinking it now and it's great.

December 25, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterNick P

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