Kirkland wine. Yes or No?

Have been into Costco while my youngest has a climbing lesson.

There are various Kirkland branded bottles of popular wines e.g. Chianti, NZ Sauvignon Blanc, champagne etc etc.

The Kirkland brand also adorns 48 packs of bottled water, bog rolls, pants and cheap sets of free weights.

So, do the buyers at Costco know anything about wine? Are there any decent Kirkland bottles to take home and smugly serve your wine buff mates?

Don’t seem particularly cheap, so could find alternatives in the supermarkets easily enough. Is Kirkland stuff worth a punt?

Any recommendations or any ones to avoid?

I imagine it is all bulk imported (think gigantic wine boxes) stuff rebottled here. Massive industry UK rebottling. Not necessarily bad wine.

Is it going to be any worse than [insert supermarket here] Best?

I’d say not, from past experience.

Kirkland food products tend to be pretty good and they use to allow you change any unused ones if you weren’t happy. Not sure if it’s still the case.

Surely you buy it by the (US) gallon?

I’ll be honest, whenever I go in our local Costco, I’m surprised by how much space is given over to the booze, then I remembered half the customers will be stocking up for some sort of catering business, meaning you’ve probably already drunk plenty of Kirkland ‘Shiraz’ and never know about it…

Used to work in Costco, the time my supervisor dropped a pallet of Port….

My dad loves wine. He paid for the wine at our wedding.

We had a taste test for prosecco.

The Kirkland one was the favourite. My dad horrified! Despite being parsimonious with the pennies he clearly was angling for the posher stuff.

We had 0 complaints and loads of compliments on the prosecco. Although. That could just have been some people having loads and a very merry time.

The Kirkland stuff is generally something pretty decent rebadged.

The Kirkland vodka for example is Grey Goose, and some of the coffee is Starbucks.

If you look on the label it’s sometimes I really small print what or where it’s come from.

Don’t seem particularly cheap, so could find alternatives in the supermarkets easily enough.

I think it reveals about how much of a loss leader booze is for the supermarkets. Compared to blogroll and bin bags where the bulk packs size is a huge saving, for booze the price is pretty much the same, sometimes actually more than the supermarkets. The only reason to buy drink from Costco is if you were in the business of having to buy a van load of booze for events etc as supermarkets have lots of variety but only hold 3 o 4 bottles of each (and would probably refuse to sell if you tried to buy in wholesale quantities)

We’re currently going through the Costco (own label) supplier approval process. The buyers know their onions. It’s very strict and thorough. The product will be best quality for best price, essentially.