The last time I was at Costco, I picked up a bottle of Kirkland "Grandmere" Amador County Zinfandel. I thought I'd check it out as an inexpensive wine. I think it was about $10/bottle. My guess was that as a private label, this wine was probably made by Renwood, the only winery I am familiar with that calls some of its zin vines by the name "Grandmere". If it was Renwood, I knew it would likely be good, so I took a chance.
I opened the bottle last night and shared it with some friends. Gotta say, this was a tasty wine, especially, relative to what it cost. It was fruity, lightly tannic and was an overall, well-balanced and pleasant zinfandel. Those who tasted it along with me, including Doug, who doesn't even like red wine that much, enjoyed it. This bottle had the characteristics that make many zins crowd pleasers.
After some online research, I found that this Kirkland, is indeed, produced by Renwood, a company with a good reputation for zins. As a matter of fact, in a recent blind tasting I hosted, another Renwood zin ran away with the first place prize! Next time you are at the warehouse, pick up a bottle, I think you will find it exceeds $10 worth of pleasure! xoxoSusan
Susan Brown Uncorked 
When I was in Asia last month, I saw an interesting documentary on Costco(!), and in it was a segment that focused on the head wine buyer. It was fascinating. Costco is the largest seller of wine by volume in the US, so they have a lot of leverage. They even talked about the private label product and how meticulous they are in selecting the winery who will produce the p.l. product. I’ll see if I can track the video down for you. Cheers!
I saw the same segment, but here in Sacto. It was on CNBC; Carl Quintilla was the journalist. (we watch alot of money shows 🙂 Well worth your time!
On it!
Hi Susan. I’m taking a Double Chocolate Bundt Cake w/Ganache Glaze to a dinner party this weekend, and wanted to bring a late harvest Zin to go with (instead of going the port or vin santo route). Looked for a late harvest Seghesio Zin but could not find it.
Asked around a bit and found these at available at my regular haunts, and wondering if you’d recommend anything in particular out of this list (they’re not all late harvest, actually):
Tobin James Late Harvest Zinfandel 2009 ($15 1/2 bottle)
Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel 2012 ($9.99) – may have tasted this once upon a time, but don’t recall TJ Grand Reserve Zinfandel 2012 ($12.99) – might be worth a try??
Robert Hall Syrah 2011 ($11.99) – never would have thought of this (I’m not a syrah/shiraz fan, tho)
Easton Zinfandel 2012 ($13.99) – never heard of it
Open to any other suggestions. Just trying to stay local instead of running around too much, but there are a couple other places I could try.
Woops, that was TJ Grand Reserve Zin 2012
I would give the Easton a try. They do a nice job out if the foothills with many of their wines. His Zins get nice reviews. Let me know what you think!
Thanks, Susan–I’ll let you know!