Master of Wine: Outstanding Under $10 Red Wine

In today’s video, Bob Paulinski, Master of Wine tastes and talks about an outstanding Tuscan red wine value from Costco. The wine is not available year-round and the offering may vary by location.

The wine is the 2021 Kirkland Signature Chianti Classico Riserva for $8.99. To give you a better idea of the value on this wine, I did a bit of shopping at other stores. As expected, the base level, generic Chianti was often at a higher price versus the Chianti Classico Riserva from Costco. It makes no sense as base-level Chianti comes from lesser favored vineyard sites with higher allowed yields, lower ripeness requirements and often some white grapes are included in the blend which is often attributed to increased quantity but not quality.

Next, comes much more interesting wines at Chianti Classico level, this an iconic representation from the region. This level is termed as ANNATA, although it’s rarely used on the label). The vineyard sources are from superior sites compared to the base-level Chianti. The yields are lower, the fruit must be riper, the wines receive longer aging before release, and no white grapes are permitted in the blend. At this level, the wines are typically found in the mid-teens and quickly bump up into the $20 plus range.

As for Chianti Classico Riserva, this is a much more serious wine. This is the level that corresponds to the featured wine from Costco. The yields are lower than basic Chianti Classico, the fruit must have a higher degree of required ripeness, along with increased aging requirements, in this case, two years in barrel and 3 months in bottles before release. In terms of pricing, wines at this level are commonly found starting at around $25, and quickly climbing from there.

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today’s video is about one of the best under $10 wine values that I’ve had all year long in this video I’ll provide a bit of background information on the wine along with the tasting as well hi I’m Bob palinsky master of wine I’ve spent more than 40 years in the wine trade and I post YouTube videos as often as I can it’s always fun wine shopping at Costco the mix is routinely changed up and the values can be very good but occasionally one stands out as being extra special that’s exactly what I found with the 2021 Kirkland Signature kante Classico Reserva for a crazy price of $88.99 to give you a better idea of the value on this wine I did a bit of shopping at other stores as expected Bas level generic keante was often times priced higher versus the keante Classico Reserva from Costco this makes no sense as base level keante comes from less favored Vineyard sites often times with higher yields and a lower level of grape ripeness often times some white grapes are used in the blend this is often attributed to increased quantity but not quality from the drab base level of keante we move up to the much more interesting levels of keante Classico this is the iconic representation from the region The Vineyard sources are from Superior sites compared to base level keante the yields are lower the fruit must be riper the wine receives longer aging prior to release and no white grapes are permitted in the blend at this level the wines are typically found in the mid teens and quickly bump up to the 20 plus range now we’re getting into keante Classico Reserva an increasingly serious wine this level corresponds to the featured wine from Costco the yields are lower than basic keante Classico the fruit must have a higher degree of required ripness along with an increased aging requirement in this case it’s two years in barrel and three months in Bottle prior to the wine being released the latest release from Kirkland Signature is the 2021 vintage a Very Good Year in Tuscany in terms of quality but not overly plentiful in terms of volume as a side note I was not not a fan of the 2020 vintage from Costco a couple of factors came into play the wine was Source from the different supplier versus the 2021 and some wine Estates in Italy were hard hit with production challenges in 2020 due to the impact of covid in terms of pricing wines at this level are commonly starting at around $25 and they quickly climb from that point [Music] the closure used for this wine is very common in today’s wine world this is called an Al glomerate cork you can see it’s all these little tiny bits of ground up Cork there is very little risk of this imparting any type of problem to the wine something like TCA for instance uh you see one side is the Kirkland Signature logo and the other is K Classico Reserva as for the color on this wine this is very typical of what you would find with kante classical Reserva for a couple of reasons the main grape Variety in this is sanasi which inherently is a thinner skinn grape variety it does not impart a lot of color into the wine and also this wine spends extended time in barrel and what that does is it lends a gentle slow oxidative character which also reduces the color of the wine so when you look down on this the core is certainly not deep there’s some fade as you get out to the edge of the glass this wine looks exactly as it should oh yeah this smells really good uh the predominant character here is very reminiscent of morel Cherry it’s those smaller dark skinned bit tart cherries oftentimes are used for cooking that character just jumps out of the glass but in addition to that there’s more of a a red raspberry characteristic a little bit of a cedar wood Savory Spice note bit reminiscent of Asian 5 Spice and often times with sanjio oasy based wines and certainly in this case it’s present there’s a bit of an heirloom tomato characteristic but the aroma is very pronounced there’s good Purity good intensity I mean it really smells inviting right out of the gate all that appealing characteristic from the aroma carries through to the pallet that red fruit character is there the Savory Spice note very good presence on the pallet you can tell the fruit is ripe there’s a skilled hand in making this wine from start to finish all the pieces come together I see on the back label it shows the alcohol level at 135 now there is no alcoholic heat whatsoever in this wine the structure of it can support it with no issue whatsoever there’s also a raised acidity level and that’s very typical for wine sanio vasy based wines from Tuscany they tend to have lifted acidity makes the wines much brighter and fresher on the back pallet there’s very good length the Wine’s not thin or washed out in any way when you swallow it the presents carries right through to the back pallet and with tannins there is some tannin here but I don’t think this is a wine that would benefit from long-term aging he kept it a year or two no worries but the wine is drinking beautifully at the present time this is an excellent example of a keante classical resera swine is Rock Solid from start to finish classically proportion has a strong sense of place it ticks all the right boxes do I think it’s one of the greatest kante Classico reservas that I’ve had no but in terms of value for the money you just can’t beat it and to find this wine for under $10 it’s really rather shocking now if you’ve not yet subscribed to my Channel please consider doing so right now also hit the like button and definitely hit the notification Bell that way you’ll be kept up to speed on all things happening here if you have any questions about this wine or any others at Costco please post it down below I do my very best to follow up on each and every one I’m going to be drinking something interesting tonight I hope you are as well and please stop back again before too long cheers