Kirkland Signature Chateauneuf du Pape - A Costco QPR Champ!

A high end wine available under $20 thanks to Costco. The Kirkland Signature Chateauneuf-du-Pape!

A Southern Rhone blend of 70% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Cinsault and 10% Mourvedre from Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Rhone, France.

The Kirkland Signature Chateauneuf-du-Pape is available for $19.99 exclusively at Costco. It is imported by Misa Import.

Today's Costco pick is a wine we've covered and recommended several times, but with this latest vintage Costco has changed the producer. The wine was previously made by Domaine de Nalys, which was even displayed on the front label. That has now been replaced with "Cuvee du Terroir des Papes" and the back label indicates the new winemaker, Guillaume Gonnet, who makes a number of wines under his own label, including several from CdP.

Let's check out how this one compares.

The 2018 Kirkland Signature Chateauneuf-du-Pape offers a rare treat to drink a wine from the renowned Chateauneuf-du-Pape region for less than $20. It begins with an exuberant aroma full of red and black currant, red cherry, licorice, nicely integrated spice, some nice touches of flowers and herbs and a hint of a meaty note. Tasting the smooth, medium-bodied wine shows that it has good complexity. After a couple hour decant blackberry, black cherry, leather, licorice and spice all combine seamlessly in your mouth. A nice earthy streak mid-palate leads into the dry, spicy finish.

It may be $19.99 but it's truly a bargain for Chateauneuf-du-Pape! We found it to be a bit more earthy and meaty than the previous wine but still a great value. And while we didn't recommend aging the previous blend for any significant amount of time, this one is still pretty young and needs a few hours to open up. It strikes me as having more aging potential than the wine from the previous producer.