(2) Kirkland red wines from Costco. Malbec, Pinot Noir & Sauvignon Blanc

Actually, I put those wines in the bag several days ago So you don't know? I forgot what they are It's very convenient, it's very good for blind tasting that you have poor memory Exactly Otherwise, it's cheating If you've got a good memory, it's cheating If your mind is healthy, you're a crook Crook? I'm not Therefore, your mind is not healthy So the fifth one? These two are easier This is your classic Marlboro Sauvignon Blanc Particularly wine No. 5 It's a fruity style without being frivolous It's just a really, really nice wine for what I presume is not a lot of dollars Yeah I really like this No. 5 Very nice one What is the typical characteristics of Marlboro Sauvignon Blanc? We always used to talk about cat's pee They talk a little bit about kiwi fruit I think this is lovely Yeah, this one shows really moderate acidity Nice volume, fresh fruit Whoever did this did a really good job Because I'm presuming we're drinking wine in the $9 to $12 range If I had to think about Kirkland, you know, one of these is perhaps made in much larger volumes than the other one And so I would say perhaps the second one is the Kirkland wine But I think the previous one is better Okay, shall we see? Yeah Duck Hunter Sauvignon Blanc 2019 It's from Marlboro, as you said $10 Which is what I said I said $9 to $12, yeah Great quality for the price The standard and the quality today of $10 Marlboro Sauvignon Blanc It's outstandingly good And do you think that this one is outstandingly good? What do you want for $10? I think it's really a lovely wine If I had paid $10 for that, I would think it was a really good buy Wine No. 6 is not quite as good It's got a deeper green to it It's got more body, more acidity It's trying to make a stronger statement For the second wine, which is obviously the Kirkland wine I don't think $10 is a bad price for that either I just don't think that it's as good as the previous wine Then let's check Okay Yeah, it's Kirkland Marlboro Sauvignon Blanc 2020 And it's $7 It's only 70% of the price I think that that's a good wine for $7 So we are okay with these two Sauvignon Blancs? Absolutely And with these two Pinot Grigio? Yeah But not with these two Chardonnay? Throw them back So we are going to do two sessions with Kirkland wines And today, it's the first session Oh, okay And we still have four more wines It's the same pattern Okay, so but now they're red wines Yeah, they're red wines Okay Alright New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc was much more expensive It was Yeah Most times, I would prefer to drink South African Sauvignon to New Zealand Why is it so? Because I find I get more complexity and nuances at the same price or better But they're not always as reliable as the New Zealand Sauvignons It's already the first week of February We might get a couple of cold days, but it's over At the most, and this doesn't feel like winter to me No, no, not at all It doesn't feel like winter to me Actually, almost the whole winter No, for me, this has been a cold winter Yeah? By California standards, right? We're not talking about New York or... Korea Something's wrecking Oh, well, whatever That was that glass That glass that you're holding Really? Yeah Okay Now, you don't hear the noise Right now, I don't You ready? As ready as I'm going to be Alright So what do you think about No. 7? The flight was not easy for me No I thought 7 and 8 were Pinot Noir Sort of very fruity wine, the first one Does Burgundy really make wine like that? Well, I know because I've done it But I was less convinced of that I thought the first one was better than wine No. 8 Yeah, for me too They do this maybe New Zealand, Oregon, Burgundy And it started to come down to a toss-up for me Between Oregon and Burgundy And so now I have to decide between the two Alright, it's the time of judgment I'm going to go with Oregon on this Both of them have relatively high levels of VA I don't think these are cheap wines We're not talking about $6, $7 Languedoc Pinot No It doesn't taste cheap No I think these are good wines I like wine No. 7 a whole lot more I really like the wine Me too I'm ready to buy this Let me see No. 7 It's Willamette Valley Vineyards, whole cluster, Pinot Noir 2019, obviously Oregon like I said Yeah, it's Oregon $16 $16, there you go I tasted a beautiful $16 Pinot from Burgundy the other day But it doesn't have this kind of friendly drinkability I wrote down I was ready to buy this one at $17 There you go It's a beautiful quality for the money Yeah, it's beautiful Okay, congratulations, Willamette Valley Vineyard Whole cluster fermented Yeah The whole cluster gives you the fruit However, one has to be extremely careful Even if the grapes are beautifully phenolically ripe The stems might not be perfectly ripe You will extract harsh green tannins Second one's unbalanced It's bitter and harsh Yeah, it's bitter It's astringent Yeah, it starts off well, but it's bitter and harsh So the first one is quite a lot better It's complex, highly identifiable But it's a little unbalanced A little ungenerous At the $16 to $17 price point I would like to see the person that prefers this wine It's just not there No I'm not saying that this is terrible value for $16, $17 But this one is so much better Yeah, yeah So No. 8, it's Kirkland Willamette Valley Pinot Noir The vintage 2018 And $15 Yeah, I'd much rather pay the $16 for the previous wine It's just $1 difference, right? Yeah But in terms of quality... It's mind-bogglingly different, right? Yeah, yeah We did this blind, so let the chips fall where they may Vive la Willamette Valley Vineyards Vive la Willamette Valley Vineyards, good job! Are both these wines available in Korea? I have no idea Of course, the Kirkland wines are available Oh, they are? Yeah Okay, let's move on Alright, No. 9 There's a beautiful sweet red fruit, red black fruit nose on these wines You sense ripe grapes, you sort of sense plump grapes Ripening under a warm sun, but not a too hot sun You know that it doesn't cost $5 But you know it doesn't have the complexity to cost $105 No You were talking about ripe... what? Ripe plum? Yeah, plump Plump? Plump, comfortably fat Ah, I see I feel like I'm gonna get ripe here under this sunshine It's hard There's some tannin to this one, big tannin Yeah So when I got tannin like that, I thought to myself, that kind of tannin, Nebbiolo! But then I'm thinking, no, Cabernet Sauvignon can do that kind of tannin, too Syrah can do that kind of tannin, too Of course, Nebbiolo always does that kind of tannin But the best producers of Nebbiolo make tannin that is tighter-knit than that Yeah, finer, right? Finer, finer grain But then, we're not talking about really expensive No So, you know, cheap Nebbiolo But now, then the color doesn't really work So now, niente Not... not Nebbiolo, okay? Stop nagging me, it's not Nebbiolo Uh-huh, right Jeez, you're a pain in the arse Me? Me? You're trying to convince me it's Nebbiolo It's not, okay? Right I also bought some expensive Kirkland wine It was in the 30s or something like that I don't remember if I put those wines here for the first session or for the second session I'm sort of struggling with the wine I'm tending in the direction Color, tannin, relative austerity And in terms of quality, what do you think about...? The quality is good It's not great, but it's good Both of these? Both of them I think the second one is better No. 10, I think is better Because even though it's got more or less the same level of tannin There's more fruit pushing it Ah, I see No. 10 is more tannic than No. 9 It is, but there's more fruit to support it Okay, so it feels like me supporting you No. 9 is more minerally The overall quality between the two of them is very close So now the question is, what is it? I've decided that it's Bordeaux blend The second wine is the better wine But they're both good And they're both worth minimum $15 to $21 Okay, in my case, I preferred No. 9 to No. 10 But just a little bit Is it Bordeaux? I have no idea, Peter! I forgot! I told you, my poor memory is really helpful for perfect blind tasting It's Malbec Malbec! Okay, well, it's Bordeaux variety at least Uh-huh, Kirkland Malbec in 2019 It's $7 $7, fantastic value Yeah, it's great That's a fantastic value This one is really great Yeah, as I said earlier, I think it's a decent value at double that Yeah, good job! Kirkland Malbec, finally! So this is also quite tannic A little bit on one side No. 10? No. 10 And the acid's a little harsh The color's very, very deep No. 10, it's Piatelli Vineyards Malbec from Argentina as well 2019, and it's $10 I thought it was the better wine You didn't, right? You preferred No. 1 I preferred No. 9 to No. 10 But the difference was very, very little It was very close Yeah, it was very close I think both of them are lovely wines for the money Yeah You can see why Malbec is a Bordeaux variety, right? Gets you right in that sort of bready, yeasty kind of area Yeah, you said it felt like a Bordeaux grape variety It certainly does $7 for that wine, the Kirkland wine, awesome value Nobody can be upset with that Yeah And the Piatelli at $10 is also an excellent value So shall we show what we liked? Didn't we like them all? No, no! I thought we liked them all You didn't Your memory is worse than mine I liked them all because they have alcohol in them Alright, I agree with you With that opinion, I totally agree Now, there were some obviously better than others Yeah So... We did like those two Yeah, Pinot Grigio, both of them we liked We're not going to be showing the French Chardonnays No They were pretty disappointing And then two Sauvignon Blancs The two Sauvignon Blancs were nice Yeah, both of them were very nice And then one Pinot Noir One of the Pinot Noirs, yeah Yeah, from Willamette Valley Vineyards And then Kirkland Malbec, it was great for the price And then Piatelli Vineyards Malbec So we have 7 winners out of 10 Very successful! So these guys are doing a good job So what do we learn from this? You don't have to pay $100 to get good wine No There was no great wine here But everyday drinking wine, and even slightly better than that, a plenty You want a decent Sauvignon Blanc And you go for either of those Sauvignon Blancs And somebody says to you You should be spending $50 on a Sauvignon Blanc It's kind of crazy That's really, really nice So look at how much wonderful drinking is to be had at reasonable prices Yeah That's why you and I do this, right? Yeah, exactly Is to say to people, let's democratize the whole thing about wine Do you really have to pay $350 a bottle to get any good wine? And your friends who come to your house and say You didn't spend $350 on that bottle, you wasted my time They're full of it Because it's our job and our passion To go out and to find wines at very, very reasonable prices that make you happy Yeah, even... And I don't mean from the alcohol perspective No Even the birds are agreeing with you, aren't they? Even the birds are agreeing with me 7 out of 10 wines at very reasonable prices And all of them, Jay and I can heartily recommend, right? Yeah