Costco FTW: Red Wine Time (Kirkland Signature wine reviews, Kirkland Signature Malbec, Kirkland Signature Gigondas, Kirkland Signature Brunello di Montalcino)

Episode Transcript

Episode 15: Costco FTW! Red wine time 00:00

Hello! And welcome to the Wine Pair podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and wine-pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are the Wine Pair.

For those of you who are new to our podcast, what we do is talk about some wines that should be easy for you to find and reasonably priced - that means under $20 - and we taste them and rate them to help you maybe find some wines that you might like, and avoid wines we think suck. And, we also talk about stuff other than wine just to keep it interesting. We release a new episode every week on Sundays, so we hope you’ll hit that subscribe button and keep coming back for more! And if you like us, rate us!

What We Are Talking About in This Episode 01:34

Ok. In today’s episode, we continue our series on Costco, called COSTCO for the win, or FTW - not to be confused with Fuck that Wine which could have the same initials but won’t - and in this series we discuss why we love to buy wines at Costco, and we’ll give you our honest opinion on what we think of some of the Kirkland Signature brand wines. From time to time we will also look at other wines that you can pick up at Costco that are not Kirkland brand, but we thought it would be fun to check out those wines, taste them, and give them a try.

We visited Costco a few weeks ago, in part to get wines for this episode so I was super excited to go!  and I picked up three red wines that are Kirkland Signature that we have not had before, and fit under our parameters of being reasonably priced - and that means under $20. One of the wines we chose just snuck under that price point at $19.99, but hey, it made it, so we are going to drink it! And, because they are Kirkland Signature brand wines and should be available at your local Costco, we are pretty sure they also fall under one of the other parameters of our podcast, and that is they should be relatively easy to find. 

What is also fun about these wines is we are going to be trying a couple of types of wine that I have not had before, or at least can’t remember having, so this is both fun and educational for us - and hopefully for you. We have a Gigondas (jihh’ - gon - das), a Malbec, and a Brunello di Montalcino. I have definitely had Brunello, but I have not had a Gigondas before that I can recall, and I will be honest, I am a little worried about it because it is a Rhone style blend - sometimes called a GSM because the three varietals in it are what, Carmela?

• G stands for? Grenache
• S stands for? Syrah
• M stands for? Mourvedre

And I really am not sure when I have had a Malbec - I know it is not recently, like in the last 10 years because it is not a style of wine that I generally love. But!!!! We’ll talk about each of these in a bit and let you know what we think. And we’ll be open-minded!!!!  Again, for a short cut, these are all red wines, and all of them are from outside the US. I will also say at the outset that the Brunello is going to be too young. We really should not be drinking it at under 10 years old or so, but we have opened it up and let it breathe and we’ll see how it does.

Broader Topic: Different types of Costco shoppers  06:08

But, as we like to do, we are going to take a left turn and talk about something that is only tangentially related to the topic today. And today, we are going to talk about shopping at Costco in general. We mentioned this in our last podcast on Costco we talked a little bit about what we like to buy, but then spent most of the time talking about coffee and Starbucks. So this time, we are going to talk more about Costco itself. 

Now, when you go to Costco, or a person goes to Costco, I feel like there are two basic modes - there is focus mode - where you are going because you really know what you want to buy, maybe what you need to buy, and you are very focused. And then, there is the other mode, which is adventure mode and that you are kind of going there to see what’s available. You may have a general sense of what you want to buy, but you are open to be being surprised! 

Of these two modes, which of these do you think is me, and which do you think is you, Carmela? 

• Ok. I want to talk about a few other things.Two carts at Costco
  • The last time we went to Costco, you kind of hurt my feelings - do you remember why? 
  • You asked me if we should get two carts. And that kind of hurt my feelings
  • I like to shop together
  • You have a really bad habit of leaving me
  • Why do you hate shopping with me?
• And, now we are going to play a little game I am calling - I know what you like.  Let’s guess for each other
  • Joe for Carmela
    • Look for items for your baking business (Talk about LoveBabyCakes) - so large quantities of flour, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla, cooking spray. Sometimes cocoa, sometimes chocolate chips, but did I miss anything?
    • Look for some home staples - laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, plastic garbage bags, food waste bags, plastic wrap, disinfecting wipes, anything I missed?
    • Some basic food items - usually extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, romano cheese, and sometimes canned tomatoes
    • We tend not to buy a ton of fresh foods or baked goods, mostly because the quantities are too large. 
  • Carmela for Joe
    • (wine, clothes, underwear, sometimes pre-packaged foods, snacks - nuts, beef jerky, Keto chocolate clumps)

Brief overview of the Costco Kirkland Signature wines we are tasting  15:06

Ok, let’s get back to the real topic of today’s podcast - the Costco Kirkland Signature brand wines. When we were looking for wines at our latest trip to Costco, I was really hoping we would find a good variety, but there were a couple of things that I debated pretty hard before I selected these wines. I was REALLY tempted to grab the Kirkland Signature Cabernet Sauvignon that I found - it was a really good price at like $7.99, but it was a magnum. For those who are not quite familiar with that term, that means it is the size of two bottles of wine, or 1.5 liters. Now, for the price, that was fine, but I was just not sure that we should buy a bottle that size when we are buying a wine I usually hate. Maybe the next time we go back, we’ll try it, but I just found these normal sized wines, so I thought we would get them. I mean, a magnum is a lot of wine. It is basically a party wine. It’s not a wine you are going to crack open on a Tuesday night for a weeknight wine. Right?!?

I also contemplated buying a boxed wine, which again would have been a fine price, but it was a Chardonnay I believe, and it was BIG and I couldn’t bring myself to buy a big box of wine to just taste a glass when I know we are probably going to hate and likely not to drink it again. So, I think we need to either try those when we have a guest we can gift the wine to, or before we are going to have a big party!

Anyway, let’s get to tasting so we can see what we think.. Are you ready?

A few really quick notes about these wine styles that come from the interwebs that I will go over as fast as possible:

• A Gigondas comes from the Gigondas village or area in the southern Rhône valley of France. The wines are usually very Grenache heavy, with up to 80% of the wine being Granche and at least 15% Syrah and Mourvèdre. It is often compared to a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, which comes from an area really close to Gigonda, and the red wines are typically bold, forward, ripe and relatively high in alcohol. Not my favorite!
• A Malbec is a single grape varietal made from Malbec - surprise, surprise - and originated in South West France, but has become very famous as a wine coming from Argentina. It is like THE Argentina wine, and Mendoza, where this is from is like a really famous region for Malbec in Argentina.  The Malbecs from Argentinathat we get here in the US tend to be rich, ripe, jammy and juicy. For some of you, that may be perfect, but for me, it fills me with dread. The tend to be somewhat like a Merlot, and they are supposed to be very dark in color. 
• A Brunello di Montalcino is made from Sangiovese Grosso grapes, which are a larger version of the Sangiovese grape that makes up Chianti wine, and come from an area around a village in Tuscany called Montalcino near the city we both love called Siena! It is considered now to be one of the great wines of Italy and the world, and can be very expensive, which is why it is fun to find one in with the Kirkland brand. They must be made from 100 percent Sangiovese and aged for at least five years and two of those years have to be in oak. They also tend to be pretty high in alcohol, and are high in tannin and also acidity. 

And, after we taste and review these wines, we are going to compare the tastes and smells we think experienced with those of what would be expected from the so-called experts

Wines and Ratings in this Episode  18:49

Wine: Kirkland Signature Malbec

Region: Argentina, Mendoza

Producer: 

Year: 2020

Price: $6.99

Retailer: Costco

Alcohol: 14%

Grapes: Malbec

What we tasted and smelled: Leather, black cherry, wood, smoke, vanilla, plum, pepper, dried herbs, pleasant, a bit tart, a bit jammy, fruit forward. Party wine, and good with food.

Rating: Joe  7 Carmela  7

Wine: Kirkland Signature Gigondas

Region: France, Gigondas

Producer: 

Year: 2019

Price: $14.99

Retailer: Costco

Alcohol: 15%

Grapes: Grenache 85%, Syrah 10%, Mourvedre 5% 

What we tasted and smelled: Musty, black cherry, cherry jam, dirt, grass, dried herbs, oregano, smoke, mint. Flabby, insipid, bitter. Vinegar, dried grass. Bad wine. Avoid it. 

Rating: Joe 2 Carmela  2

Wine: Kirkland Signature Brunello di Montalcino

Region: Italy, Montalcino

Producer: 

Year: 2016 - so actually still young

Price: $19.99

Retailer: Costco

Alcohol: 14.5%

Grapes: Sangiovese Grosso

What we tasted and smelled: Cherry, sour cherry, smoke, Twizzler, flowers, leather from a nice Italian shoe, tart, red licorice, wood. Too young. Not ready yet - needs to sit for 5 more years.

Rating: Joe  6     Carmela   4

Taste profiles expected for Malbec, Gigondas, and Brunello  38:10

Taste profiles expected

• Malbec
  • Red plum, blackberry, vanilla, sweet tobacco, cocoa, black cherry
  • Coffee, leather, black pepper, dark chocolate
  • Full bodied, medium low acidity, medium body
• Gigondas
  • Wild cherries, strawberry, blackberry, cassis
  • White pepper, licorice, earth, forest floor
  • Garrigue - lavender, juniper, thyme, rosemary and sage
  • Leather, mushrooms
• Brunello
  • Sour cherry, dried oregano, aged balsamic, red pepper flake, brick, fig, sweet tobacco, espresso, and leather.
  • Wild berry, licorice, star anise

What is the wine we are finishing tonight?  

Outro and how to find us 41:29

Ok - thank you for listening, and hey, if you like what you are hearing - give us a review on whatever podcast provider you listen to us on, or on our website! That would be super awesome, and help us continue to grow our listeners and spread our wine pair love all over the universe!, And, we would just love to hear from you. We’re still pretty new at this podcasting thing, so please, tell us what you like and what you don’t like, tell us about some wines you want us to try, tell us if you want to be a guest on our show. Or, just tell us about a wine you love or you hate and we’ll chat it up. You can visit our website at thewinepairpodcast.com and leave a voice message or send us a note. You can comment or reach out on Instagram or Pinterest at thewinepairpodcast. You can reach out to us at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and we would LOVE to hear your comments. And we hope you’ll subscribe and follow us and tell all your friends and family and enemies and loved ones and everyone!

Thanks for listening to the Wine Pair podcast, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine