The Wine Pair Podcast

Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Vs. Costco Kirkland Signature Series: 2022 Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon

• The Wine Pair • Season 1 • Episode 164

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This is our first ever head-to-head battle between Trader Joe’s and Costco wines, and what a doozy it was. A true battle of equals - the same year, same price, same varietal, same region, same specific area, and same top tier of each retailers’ private label wines. Plus, these wines are from Oakville in Napa - one of the most revered wine growing areas in America. And our verdict? Well, we’re not going to give it away here, but let’s just say the final winner came down to the final bell. A TKO rather than a true knockout. Both Costco and Trader Joe’s have an exclusive tier of their private label wines - Diamond Reserve for Trader Joe’s, Signature Series for Costco - and they both charge a premium for them, but the real question comes down to this - is the higher price worth it? We also dig into how these wines are made, and by whom, so you can get a sense of whether or not you want to seek them out. Let’s get ready to rumble! Wines reviewed in this episode: 2022 Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03, 2022 Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

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Show Notes

Episode 164: Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Vs. Costco Kirkland Signature Series: 2022 Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 00:00

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

If you are new to our podcast, here is what you can expect. If you love wine and want to find great wines at affordable prices, and you want to expand your wine horizons, and you want to have some laughs and fun while doing it - then you are in the right place! Each week we explore a different wine varietal, style, brand, or region of the winemaking world, and learn about what makes them worth knowing about. And then we taste 2-3 of those wines that are reasonably priced to let you know if they are worth your hard earned money. If that feels like your vibe, then we are super happy you are here.And, we are proud to say that Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining.

Ok, Carmela, this week we are going to do something I am super excited about, and it’s something we have never done before. Now, we have done several episodes on Trader Joe’s wines, where we compare various tiers of Trader Joe’s Reserve wines - Grand Reserve, Platinum Reserve, and Plain old Reserve Reserve - to other similar wines that are have the same approximate priced to see which we think is a better value for the price. AND we have done many Costco Kirkland Signature Wine Challenge episodes where we try a Kirkland Signature wine and compare it to similar wines that are similarly priced to see which we think is a better value. 

However, we have never done what we are going to do today, and that is compare the two top tiers of Trader Joe’s Reserve wines and Costco Kirkland Signature wines head-to-head to see which one is better.  And the two wines are

  • 2022 Trader Joe’s Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03
  • 2022 Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon


Now, here is why this is going to be really interesting. First, as I mentioned, both of these wines are the top tiers of the respective retailers private label wines. So, a couple of months ago, I found one of the rare and very coveted Trader Joe’s Diamond Reserve wines, and I snagged it because I knew I wanted to do an episode on it. Diamond Reserve wines are said to be very hard to find and they are supposed to fly off the shelves, so just finding one was kind of fun. In fact, Trader Joe’s says there are very few wines that make Diamond Reserve status. Then, about a month ago, I was at Costco, and I found a similar wine of theirs in the top tier - called the Kirkland Signature Series - and so I snagged it, too. And then, when I got home, I realized just exactly what I had done.

When I say these are similar wines, I am not joking around. In fact, in almost every way they are same except in a few areas

  • Each wine was $19.99
  • Each wine is a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa, California
  • Each wine is from the specific Oakville area of Napa
  • Each wine is from the 2022 vintage
  • Each wine also comes in a black label, which I find interesting


This means that we have a super intriguing head-to-head going on. Same year, same wine, same price, same varietal, same specific area, and same top tier of each retailers’ private label wines. So - oh my God!

What is different, or at least what we think is different, is that we don’t know the winemaker, the wine production, or how similar these wines are in terms of vineyards, so we are going to dig into that a bit more in the next section. 

The other thing that is different about these wines, which is a little telling, is that one of them, the Trader Joe’s wine, is 15% alcohol, and the Kirkland Signature wine is 14% alcohol, so that can often tell you some important things about the wine production and vineyard conditions.

Are you ready to hear these fun facts, Carmela, of why alcohol content can tell you things about a wine you may never have known?

First off, alcohol content in wine is based on a few things, and one of the main ones is the amount of sugar in the juice at harvest. Sugar, afterall, is what is converted by yeast into alcohol, so the sugar content matters a lot. What can impact the amount of sugar, you ask? Several things:

  • How much direct sun the vineyard gets matters, because more sun exposure means more sugar in the grapes. This is also why warmer climate wines tend to have higher alcohol, something you often find in California wines. 
  • Also, how long the grapes are left to ripen matters, and so grapes that are picked later in the fall, when they are more ripe, have higher sugar content than those that are picked earlier.


But, that just the growing conditions. The other thing is that winemaking techniques can impact the alcohol content a lot, too.

  • Sometimes winemakers manipulate the amount of sugar in wines by adding sugar in the fermentation process, which is called chaptalization. That is a little more rare these days in higher quality wines and when using grapes that already have a lot of sugar content. But it is not unheard of, especially in cheaper wines. Conversely, sometimes a winemaker may even add some water to the wine to reduce the sugar volume, but, again, this is rare in good wines.
  • How long the wine is fermented matters. Longer fermentation means more sugar is converted into alcohol.
  • The yeast matters. Some yeast is more tolerant to alcohol, and so will be able to continue to convert sugar into alcohol longer than other yeasts.
  • And the temperature of fermentation matters. Warmer fermentation temperatures speed up the fermentation process, and that can also impact the taste of the wine, which is why you often hear top-flight wines having cooler, temperature controlled fermentation.


So, while we don’t know the true reason why the alcohol content in these two wines is different, we can make some conjectures related to the vineyard, the time of picking, and the winemaking techniques, , and may be able to tell in the tasting. 

Why does this matter, other than higher alcohol wines may make you get drunk faster?!? Well, higher alcohol wines tend to have a bigger body,  the higher alcohol can increase the sensation of sweetness in a wine, it can elevate aromas because alcohol carries aroma (which is one of the reasons why zero alcohol wines can taste kind of crappy), and the amount of alcohol can really impact balance. A wine needs to have the right combination of tannin, acid, and alcohol to feel balanced. Which is why sometimes we call these big California wines punch-you-in-the-face, because they are so big and jammy and can lack balance. Which some people like, by the way.

So, that’s some fun facts, but let’s get back to the contest. I am so excited to taste and review these two wines, and see if we can tell the difference and to see if we think one is better than the other, and we have some sleuthing to do to see if we can figure out some more about these two wines . . . 

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and if you haven’t  had the chance to do so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast  - and a huge thank you to all of you who have subscribed already! 

And, another great way to support is to leave a five star rating and review for us Apple because that is a great way for us to continue to grow our listeners.

You can also follow us and see pictures of the wines we are tasting and trying today and weird AI pictures and sometimes videos I like to make on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast, and we are now on Bluesky as well. And you can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and if you missed the last one, just let me know and I will send it to you! And, on our website you can now find links in a section called “Shop Wine” where you can buy the wines that we rate as buys in each episode. That I need to update, but that’s a whole other story.

And we want to make content you care about, so send us a note, give us some feedback, let us know if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

  • A shoutout to Justin who asked us if we would consider trying some South American Pinot Noirs (Chile and Argentina) because he’s tried a handful recently and has found them tasty, so we’ll be on the lookout for that. We did do one in Episode 117, but sounds like it’s time to dig in a bit more
  • Also, our IG buddies the East Idaho Foodies asked us if we have ever done Assyrtiko, which is a Greek white wine. We did WAYYY back in Episode 20 on wines for Greek food, but we probably need to bring it back as a WTF.


And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us.This week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who is either a super fan of Trader Joe’s Reserve wine or Costco’s Kirkland Signature wine, or if you know someone who is curious or skeptical about these top tier private label wines and is wondering if they should make the plunge. 


RESEARCH ARTICLES AND LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE


Topic: Can We Uncover the Mysteries Behind Trader Joe’s Diamond Reserve and Kirkland Signature Series Wines? 13:50

So, Carmela, the one thing I will say about these wines, and we have talked about this in our previous episodes, but it can be hard to find out much about these private label wines, including who makes them and how they are made. Trader Joe’s in particular is very cagey about who makes their wines, although Costco has been sharing more and more who makes their wines in many cases, probably because their reputation is so strong, it actually helps the winemakers to be associated with Costco.

We should note, too, that it is significant that the wines are from theOakville AVA in Napa (AVA stands for American Viticultural Area and is an official federal designation in the United States), and that is one of Napa’s highest regarded sub-appellations, often compared to first growth Bordeaux. Wines from there can be very expensive - generally well above $100 - and some very famous wineries are from that area including Screaming Eagle, Opus One, Groth, Harlan, and Far Niente. These are wines that are generally considered big, concentrated, and still balanced.

So, it is a big deal that these wines are from Oakville, and probably the only way you are going to find an Oakville Cabernet at anywhere near the price of $20, and that is why they are getting a special label from Trader Joe’s and Costco, and the highest prices for their private label wines

Let’s start with Trader Joe’s, and see what we can find out about where their wine comes from and how it is made.

Research I was able to do, and we have links in our show notes, say they source these wines via a negociant model, which is actually a very traditional way of making wine in places like Bordeaux and Burgundy, and not uncommon in other areas as well, especially for private label wines. A negociant is an individual or company that buys grapes, or juice, or finished wine from different wineries or vineyards, and then they bottle and sell the wine under their own brand or label - or someone elses. Of course, if they are just buying the juice or grapes, they also will make or blend the wine.

So, Trader Joe’s says the wine is bottled by Isolated Cellars on their label, but that is a shell company and trademark connected to a group called Precision Wine Company, which is a Napa negociant. They claim that the wine comes from “"arguably the most famous and influential” Oakville winery, but they do not say who, it is unclear if the wine comes from a specific vineyard or many, so that is why they are able to make and sell this wine at such low prices.

Trader Joe’s definitely plays up the mysterious side of their wines as part of their appeal - which annoys me but some people like. Trader Joe's markets these wines as offering premium quality at a value price, suggesting the Oakville Cabernet could be comparable to a ~$60+ bottle. The "Diamond Reserve" designation itself implies it's the "cream of the crop" of their selections. The secrecy surrounding the producer, from the Trader Joe’s perspective, gives it some perceived exclusivity, and they think that adds to the appeal - it certainly made me curious when I saw a Diamond Reserve! These releases often occur during peak demand periods like the holiday season, too.

Let’s turn now to the Costco Signature Series wine, which is still mysterious, but a little less so than Trader Joe’s.

Costco sources this wine through partnerships with established Napa winemakers and producers or negociants. While the exact grape growers are not named, the bottler for many of their wines is DC Flynt MW Selections, which is also a negociant firm. So both are using the negociant model, but Costco doesn’t try to hide it with a shell company.

What is different about Costco is that they often disclose the winemaker on the back label, and for the 2022 vintage, it was Alison Crowe, who is a seasoned Napa winemaker. The grapes are described as coming from "select vineyards in the heart of Napa Valley (Oakville AVA)", and that implies a blend of Oakville vineyards rather than a single estate. So, in all three instances, the wine bottler, the winemaker, and the grapes, Costco is just more transparent than Trader Joe’s. And that also implies to me a bit of higher quality to me at least.

Costco's "Signature Series," label is reserved for premium offerings from renowned appellations, and they are usually released annually and priced around $18–$20, but I have seen some even higher priced. In fact, there was another Napa Valley Cabernet that was priced I think $22.99 when I was there, with the similar Signature Series label.

So, while you can find many Kirkland Signature wines on your trips to Costco, like the Diamond Reserve from Trader Joe’s, when you see one of these Signature Series wines, we think you should probably consider grabbing them.

But, on that note, I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we are drinking today. Whaddya say?


Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Vs. Costco Kirkland Signature Series 2022 Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon Wines We Chose for This Episode 21:33

Ok, so even though we have talked about these wines a bit, there are still some tidbits to share. 

As usual, the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $25, and both of them should be relatively easy to find because I bought them at Trader Joe’s and Costco, which should be the only place you can find them. Again, I will say that you don’t find these top tier wines too often, so consider grabbing them if you find them just because they are unique and rare.

The first wine we are going to drink is the 2022 Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03.

The Reverse Wine Snob did not give this wine a huge rating, mostly because of the price. So, they gave the taste a 9 out of 10, but only a 3 in price, so their overall rating was a 7.5. They did note in their tasting that they liked it better than the 2020 version of the same wine which they found sweet and simple and they did not recommend. Another reviewer called “blonde voyage nashville” said they liked the Platinum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon better than this wine, and the Reverse Wine Snob also said something very similar: 
“Overall, it's not necessarily bad, it's just not even close to worth the price. There have been much, much better Cab options in the Platinum Reserve designation which retails for $5 less.”

Vinopointer says that the wine is "a Napa Cab for people that don’t like Napa Cab," and in their online article which I have a link to in our show notes, they say “It is not heavily oaked, heavily tannic and heavily extracted. It is a very un-Cab, Cabernet” - so that could be something we like, but it does demonstrate lots of different opinions about the wine. 

The second wine we are going to drink is the 2022 Costco Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and this one got an even lower overall score than the Trader Joe’s from the Reverse Wine Snob. They liked the taste a bit less, rating it an 8 vs. a 9, but since it was the same price, its overall rating was a 6.8 which is no longer a recommended wine from them - and they obviously weigh their ratings heavily by how much it costs - which we do not do, by the way. They also said the wine lacks complexity, so that is not super awesome to hear. 

This one, unlike the Trader Joe’s for obvious reasons, has a review in the Costco Wine Blog, and they had a bit of a different take on it. One thing they mentioned was that the 2021, which they rated a 92, was made by Glenn Hugo, another significant California winemaker for Costco as part of their DC Flynt negociant, and that this vintage was back to Alison Crowe, as we mentioned before, who made the 2020 that they rated a 90. 

The Costco Wine Blog does mention that Alison Crowe has been the winemaker behind the Kirkland Alexander Valley Cabernet, and Glenn Hugo is behind the Rutherford Cab and Russian River Pinot. They rated this wine as an 89, which is a good score, and a recommended wine from them, but maybe not what you would expect from a Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville, even at $20, and it is the lowest rating they have given this wine going back to the 2013 vintage - a wine they have never given a score below 90 before. 

Based on the description on the bottle, we can pretty much conclude that the wine is aged in French oak - which as we have said many times, is a more mellow oak than American oak, and we expect it is going give it some vanilla and cedar flavors. 

But, I think that is enough information - we need to make our own judgement on these wines. We’ll be back in a few seconds, but if you have these wines or an Oakville Cab, or a Napa Cab, or any old Cabernet Sauvignon, drink along with us to get some participation points, which you can trade-in for free stickers. You just need to send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get those “I drink with The Wine Pair Podcast” stickers over to you!


LINKS TO SOURCES FOR THESE SPECIFIC WINES


2022 Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03, 2022 Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 27:22

Wine: Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03
Region: California, Napa Valley
Year: 2022
Price: $19.99
Retailer: Trader Joe’s
Alcohol: 15%
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Rating: RWS 7.5, Sipped Reviews 92 Vivino 4.0

What we tasted and smelled in this Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03:

  • Color: Pretty, dark, purple, nearly opaque, you see the legs
  • On the nose: hot, alcohol, cherry juice, juicy, purple plum, dark fruits, wood, fresh struck matchstick, black pepper
  • In the mouth: Punch-you-in-the-face wine, jammy, hot, juicy, high in alcohol, tastes like a cocktail, almost like a Vodka cranberry, some tartness, cherry kirsch liquor, cherry juice, not super complex, needs age to mellow out, very dry, a lot of tannin, feels a little out of balance with the alcohol


Food to pair with this Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03: Red meat, cheeseburgers, not an elegant dinner wine, a “guy’s wine,” meat roasted over an open fire 
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03 Wine Rating: 

  • Joe: 6/10
  • Carmela: 6/10

The price point is impacting the rating!


Wine: Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Region: California, Napa Valley
Year: 2022
Price: $19.99
Retailer: Costco
Alcohol: 14%
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Rating: RWS 6.8 Vivino 3.8

What we tasted and smelled in this Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon:

  • Color: Purple, not as opaque as the TJ 
  • On the nose: Clay, very little fruit, cloves, allspice, baking spices, vanilla, dark plum, blackberry bramble, ripe blueberry
  • In the mouth: Potpourri, sweet cherry, sweet raspberry, syrupy, black pepper, clean, relatively smooth. Probably too young.


Food to pair with this Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: Red meat around the campfire, pizza, calzone, focaccia, meatball sandwich, Italian food

Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Rating: 

  • Joe: 7/10
  • Carmela: 6/10



Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

  • Carmela: Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Joe: Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon



Taste profiles expected from Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 42:11

  • General Napa Cab
    • Black currant, ripe plum, licorice, black cherry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, pencil lead, dusty, violet, sage, cedar, mocha, espresso, tobacco.
  • Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #03
    • RWS: opens with aromas of dark fruit, spice, a little vanilla and more. It's a good start and it's also not as super sweet and simple smelling as the 2020. Smooth with lots of deep, dark fruit and nice tannic structure, it features similar flavors to the nose. It's also dry and not sweet at all. It ends dry and long.
    • Vinopointer: Heady aromas of blackberry and oak, signaling its Napa origins.  Pours a nice opaque deep violet.  Flavors of blackberries, cassis, blueberry and toast. Unlike more costly Cabs from Oakville, this wine goes light on the tannins and is so medium-bodied, soft and approachable, you’d think it was a red blend, or – gasp! – a Merlot.
  • Costco Kirkland Signature Series Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
    • Label: dark fruit aromas of sun-warmed blackberry, cassis, and plum reserves that match seamlessly with vanilla and baking spice notes of toasted French oak. 
    • RWS: opens with a pleasant enough aroma of ripe black cherry and blackberry along with vanilla, a bit of cedar, a bit of spice and a bit of mint. It also has some green notes that we didn't detect in previous vintages. Soft and smooth, it's still a bit oaky when first opened but also definitely more fruit forward with a touch sweetness and a bit of an artificial flavor. Those green notes also continue when tasting. Much like the 2021 this wine lacks complexity,
    • CWB: it pours a medium to dark ruby in the glass with dusty aromas of dark fruit, vanilla, and pencil shavings; medium plus in body with tight tannins; good fruit, a bit of a different profile from previous vintages, black cherry flavor that tastes a little young and disjointed into the finish.


Who Won This Challenge?  44:27

It was a close call, and neither was a true no brainer, but we did prefer the Costco wine over the Trader Joe’s. The bigger issue was that there are better wines for the money, so while they were not bad, they are not worth $20 each. You can do better.

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 46:00

Ok, so, Carmela, it’s time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or other podcast app - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

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Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.

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