23 Popular Wines To Buy At Costco, Ranked

Costco is a go-to shopping destination for stocking up on paper towels and laundry detergent. And who doesn't love Costco's rotisserie chicken? But there are more reasons than chicken to go to Costco, like shopping for wine. Due to its membership-driven business model, Costco keeps its wine affordable by limiting its product price markup to no more than 15%. 

As a major retailer of wine, it also benefits from the ability to bulk buy, keeping prices low. Costco's pricing structure is an indicator of this. Most wine prices end in $0.99. However, if you see a price ending in $0.79 or $0.49, for example, the wine is either on sale or the company negotiated a lower-than-usual price with the distributor. Additionally, if you see an asterisk on the price tag, the product's availability will be discontinued in the future, so if you like it, buy now.

The likelihood of finding small, boutique-production wines is low. Instead, many of Costco's popular wine brands are recognizable and well-made. Drawing upon my training as a Certified Specialist of Wine and Sommelier tasting, reviewing, and writing about wine, this ranking is based on varying qualities, including taste, provenance, cost, and a winery's environmental focus. Still, enjoying wine is a personal, sensory experience, and every palate is different. The beauty of wine is that there is a style to fit everyone.

Josh Cellars is one of the top-selling wine brands in America, and certainly a popular Costco wine. The brand's creation came from a son, vintner Joseph Carr, as a gift to honor his father, Josh. One of the things we love most about Josh Cellars is the winery's dedication to giving back to various charities, including World Central Kitchen.

The brand has an extensive portfolio from vineyards throughout California and beyond, including Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. The California appellation wine opens with ripe black cherry flavors intertwined with spiced vanilla and toasted oak. While the wine's uncomplicated style appeals to many wine drinkers, a preference for a more structured and finessed selection places this wine lower in our rankings.

New Zealand's Kim Crawford Winery is one of America's most favored sauvignon blanc brands. The brand's total sales exceed $26 million annually, of which 90% of the production is sauvignon blanc. Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is an energetic wine displaying fresh grapefruit, lemon-lime, and gooseberries. The wine's average retail price is $16. However, Costco keeps prices lower than other retailers. The wholesaler is almost giving away a bottle for free with its $34.39 three-pack. 

While we love a deal, Kim Crawford ranks 20th. Its lower placement is due to Costco's Kirkland Signature Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc showing a striking similarity to the brand and costing only $7.49, making it a better option for sauvignon blanc fans. 

Sonoma County's Imagery Estate Winery creates approachable wines with an artistic touch and a focus on sustainability. The winery's Monterey County Pinot Noir highlights a marriage between ripe fruit, oak, and tannin. The wine's aromas of soft herbs and ripe berries give way to plush layers of jammy raspberry, black tea, and spice flavors, enhanced by six months of aging in French and American oak. 

With 14.5% alcohol and a full-bodied palate, Imagery's selection suits heartier dishes like grilled pork chops or za'atar chicken. However, when tasting this bottle, we must search hard for the subtle nuances typically enjoyed in this variety and found in similar wines at Costco, including its Kirkland Signature options, which outperformed it as such.

Daou Family Estates' luscious Discovery Rosé reflects a style similar to the luxurious rosé wines of Provence with a blushing pink hue and a dry style. The Paso Robles rosé uses 100% grenache fruit, creating aromas of orange blossom, watermelon, and wild berries, giving way to strawberry, papaya, and nectarine flavors.

The wine has an earthy, crushed stone minerality lingering from the front palate to the back and a lovely bright acidity. The suggested retail price of this vibrant wine is $24, or $17.99, at Costco. We've ranked Daou's Rosé here due to its limited availability, despite it being an excellent wine brand to find at Costco. Restricted to the current release, we suggest you stock up now. 

Decoy Winery crafts its smooth, well-balanced red blend from fruit growing throughout some of California's finest wine-growing regions, including Sonoma, Napa, and the Central Coast. The cabernet sauvignon and merlot-based wine opens with black plum, blackberry, and cherry notes that mingle with vanilla, pepper, and toffee. With 13.9% alcohol, the easy-drinking wine has a suggested retail price of $25. However, we'll shop at Costco for this wine as it is offering the selection for $15.89.

Decoy's wines are consistently reliable and widely available, delivering varietally correct representations of the fruit. While the red blend is appealing, Kirkland Signature Napa Valley Red Blend provides a similar profile and is available for $10.99. For this, Decoy places middle of the list.

Chardonnay is the most popular white wine in the world. La Crema Winery delivers a fan favorite for lovers of California chardonnay with its Sonoma Coast selection. It is ranked in the middle of our options due to its overall quality, taste, and overall appeal.  

The wine's production is from fruit grown within the Sonoma Coast appellation, where Pacific Ocean breezes keep the grapes cool throughout the year, locking in freshness. This bright acidity balances the medium-bodied wine's ripe fruit-forward characteristics, adding zesty energy to tropical, citrus, and orchard fruit flavors. The chardonnay finishes with a custardy creaminess.

Napa Valley's Duckhorn Winery was strictly a red wine producer until 1982, when it added a white sauvignon blanc to the portfolio. Utilizing grapes grown within California's North Coast with proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the wine reflects a Bordeaux-style white by blending 90.5% sauvignon blanc with 9.5% semillion, which adds weight and richness to the zesty, refreshing characteristics of the sauvignon blanc. 

The resulting wine shows fresh fruit notes of lemon, pineapple, and melon, with beeswax and white flowers. Combining a refined style and thirst-quenching, lively palate that is consistently well-made, ranking the wine a solid number 10 on our list. It is delicious with grilled fish or a tangy, warm goat cheese salad.

Oregon's Willamette Valley is pinot noir country. The region's signature red thrives in the cool climate of the Pacific Northwest and the volcanic and marine sedimentary soils, lending acidity, minerality, and earthiness to the thin-skinned grape variety. 

The Four Graces Willamette Valley Pinot Noir blends Dundee Hills, Van Duzer Corridor, and Yamhill-Carlton appellation grapes. The winery creates a complete wine, sustainably farmed and with estate-grown fruit. The wine shows classic Oregon pinot noir characteristics, including layers of wild berries, forest floor, and toasted cinnamon. It does this while costing less than $20 at Costco. While authentic and delicious, it is not the most complex wine at Costco, keeping it from climbing any higher. 

One of Sonoma County's historic wineries, Seghesio Family Vineyards' story began with family patriarch Edoardo Seghesio planting a few zinfandel vines in what became the winery's Home Ranch Vineyard in 1895. Five generations later, the family continues to craft elevated expressions of the variety with a focus on sustainability and reducing the winery's carbon footprint. 

With a newly designed, California-produced, lighter glass-weight bottle made of 30% recycled materials, Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel opens with earthy, woody herbs and toasted spice with blackberry, black plum, and pepper notes. The wine blends fruit from 150 different vineyard blocks dotted throughout Sonoma County. Each lot of fruit ferments individually and then combines to create a multi-layered, complex wine representing the region. The production quality, the winery's commitment to the environment, and the affordable Costco price of under $20 a bottle rank Seghesio high.

The Gerard Bertrand Collection has a dedication to crafting exceptional wines while preserving the natural environment in the Languedoc region in southern France. With biodynamic farming, placing the vineyard's health as a top priority, the winery produces terroir-driven wines with respect for the land. 

Gerard Bertrand Cotes des Roses Rosé blends grenache, syrah, and cinsault from vineyards near the Mediterranean Sea. The water's influence gives the fruit-forward yet dry palate a slight salinity. With red berry, grapefruit, and wild herb flavors, the wine is a match made in heaven with seafood, like shrimp, clam, and white fish-filled French bouillabaisse. Gerard Bertand's dedication to environmentally healthy farming while providing quality wines at affordable prices, like its $12.89 at Costco rosé wine.

Since its founding in 1976, Duckhorn has been a benchmark for quality in Napa Valley. Its inaugural vintage included 800 cases of cabernet sauvignon from two prestigious areas within the valley, Howell Mountain and the Stags Leap District. Today, Duckhorn's Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon continues to reflect the region's essence by blending valley floor and mountain fruit to create one of the finest expressions of terroir-driven cabernet sauvignon from Napa and one of the best available at Costco. 

The elegant red wine balances ripe fruit and earthy minerality with red and black cherry, blackberry, toasted cedar, and toffee and a smooth, lingering finish. The wine's tannins are crunchy and well-integrated, making this a wine that can be enjoyed upon release or aged for several years.