Castle & Cairn

Produced by Barton 1792, a holding of the same Sazerac that also operates Buffalo Trace, this special offering has been a rare sight at US Costcos for the last few years. Though I've previously had a good amount of both the occasionally offensive  Kirkland Small Batch and solid  Bottled-in-Bond , the Single Barrel has proved most elusive. In my native Georgia, we only got two pallets in 2025! The fact that they sat for more than a day shows just how much the bourbon boom has tapered off; I'm still showing them in-stock a week later.  Kirkland Single Barrel Bourbon provides a huge value, undercutting Total Wine's rival Wolcott Rickhouse Reserve by a good bit even though the juice is likely just about the same (there is some small difference as I somewhat proved in a long  blind tasting battery ). Further details are sparse, but Master Distiller Danny Kahn's name is on the bottle which has to mean something. 🛒 Sourced:  29.99 at Costco Perimeter, GA for 1 liter...

  Costco has historically worked with Barton 1792 for it's bourbon line, putting out a small batch , bottled-in-bond , and single barrel edition in liter bottles in waves over the last few years. This new 1.75L edition debuted in Spring of 2026 and mysteriously lacks a named distiller. The label proudly states that it was distilled and aged in Bardstown, Kentucky before being bottled in Columbia, Tennessee by DC Flynt   MY Domaines & Estates (never heard of them). Flynt appear to be more wine focused and have led a number of wine bottlings for Costco historically in addition to some Gins. Distilleries at scale in Bardstown include Jim Beam, Barton 1792, Heaven Hill (though primary production is at Bernheim in Louisville), Lux Row, Willet, and Bardstown Bourbon Company. I doubt it is Barton 1792 since they proudly label their existing collaboration and I suspect it may be a producer without a 1.75L bottling line (would justify the move better than just adding logistics for ...

Released in the first quarter of 2026, the Kirkland Sparkling Energy Drink lineup features three flavors: Orange , Tropical  Fruit, Peach (this one). Modeled after Celsius Energy, the packaging evokes a "clean" lifestyle veneer with no high fructose corn syrup, GMO ingredients, or artificial colorings.  🛒 Price: $16.99/24 ~$.7/each - Costco. Celsius is normally around $20/12 without sales, so figure around 95 cents savings per can vs. full sticker which is around 58% savings. I am seeing sales across CPG, including from Celsius but Costco's pricing advantage is strong.  ✨Calories: 10 , 12oz. can 🍵 Caffeine: 200mg, around a third more than a cup of coffee, more than Monster and Red Bull - similar to Celsius. 👅 Flavor: Yep that's peach - it tastes like the peach flavor you commonly find in flavored teas, not overly natural yet not terribly artificial. There is a slight minerality towards the finish but it is manageable. Compared to the other two flavors, peach is s...

Released in Q1 2026, the Kirkland Sparkling Energy Drink lineup features three flavors: Orange , Tropical, and Peach. The style, ingredients, and caffeine content are chasing a similar value proposition to Celsius Energy. The packaging evokes that brands "clean" veneer with no high fructose corn syrup, GMO ingredients, or artificial colorings.  🛒 Price:  $16.99/24 ~$.7/each - Costco. Celsius is normally around $20/12 without sales, so figure around 95 cents savings per can vs. full sticker which is around 58% savings. Celsius is showing up frequently on sale around $15 now but that's still not nearly enough to reach parity.  ✨Calories:  10 ,  12oz. can 🍵 Caffeine:  200mg, around a third more than a cup of coffee, more than Monster and Red Bull - similar to Celsius. 👅 Flavor: Semi-sweet citrus and pineapple forward but with lots of mango that stays into the aftertaste. Starfruit is pictured but I think it sits under the pineapple, adding a little bit fore...

Released earlier this year in 2026, the Kirkland Sparkling Energy Drink lineup features three flavors: Orange, Tropical, and Peach. The style, ingredients, and caffeine content seem to be talking aim directly at recent CPG success, Celsius Energy. It echoes that brands "clean" veneer with no high fructose corn syrup, GMO ingredients, or artificial colorings.  🛒 Price:  $16.99/24 ~$.7/each - Costco. Celsius is normally around $20/12 without sales, so figure around 95 cents savings per can vs. full sticker which is around 58% savings. Celsius is showing up frequently on sale around $15 now but that's still not nearly enough to reach parity.  ✨Calories:  10 ,  12oz. can 🍵 Caffeine:  200mg, around a third more than a cup of coffee, more than Monster and Red Bull - similar to Celsius. 👅 Flavor:  Very effervescent, I get tons of bubbles - close to Red Bull and more than Celsius. It does have a thinner mouthfeel vs Monster Ultra and Red Bull on balance whi...

I've been meaning to kill off my oldest bottle Costco's  Kirkland BiB  Bourbon for a bit now. The 2024 iteration was a good bit better than the 2025 for whatever reason, but this bottle had gotten pushed to the back of the cabinet. Unfortunately a good amount of headspace in that 1L bottle has resulted in a bit of over oxidation; most of the interested fruited notes are gone. With a few sips of a prior pour left in the glass, I absentmindedly tossed in a few glugs of Total Wine's Wolcott Rickhouse Reserve , also a Barton-1792 product, hoping that a little bit of fresh juice would liven up the Kirkland. The Wolcott impressed me for being relatively easy drinking at 120 proof and around $35, especially given how hard to find 1792 Full Proof had been over the past few years. Results of this impromptu mix were favorable, so I have set out to better document the ratios involved and recreate my accidental success. Vámonos! For the uninitiated, Whiskey Frankenstein is the practi...

Sourced for Costco from Scotland by Alexander Murray and Company, this edition of Kirkland's Highland Single Malt packs a 16-year age statement at an aggressive price point. Costco also regularly puts out a 15-year bottle for around five dollars less that is also sherry cask aged. I'm a bit perplexed by having two products so similar in terms of production techniques, age, and cost, so I will be doing a side-by-side tasting with some control methods to boot. My only hypothesis is that the two may be sourced from different distilleries as Costco is a truly huge contract account by volume and it may be necessary to spread the load. Not naming the producer gives Alexander Murray a good amount of flexibility, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it used in that way. On the other hand, maybe Steve Lipp, Alexander Murray and Co's CEO, just likes having two versions? Both bottles have the same quote from him on the back, "Perfect for after dinner drinking." Costco is f...

Fall is in the air, and that means we have yet another year of Kirkland's Vintage Ale! Brewed proudly by  Deschutes (pronounced "Da-Shootz") in Bend, Oregon, this Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout spends nine months in the wood, picking up what the whiskey left behind (mostly vanillin and tannins). Bottled over the summer, this particular beer is from Lot B. Neither Costco nor the packaging give us much additional detail beyond the ABV and style. I remember finding  last year 's edition to be solid but nothing to write home about, fairly dry but a pleasant pour. The use of the work "vintage" to me implies that some changes may be made year-to-year but we'll have to see if our taste buds can help us validate. How does the 2025 vintage fair? 💅Style: Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout 🛒Sourced: $7.99 Costco, GA  for a 22oz bottle. $2 cheaper than the 2024 edition! 💥Hops:   Not Mentioned sadly. Other ingredients include chocolate malt, milled oats and Dutc...

The 2025 release of Costco's Kirkland 15-year Highland Scotch hit shelves in late January and is a recurring installment on an annual cadence. The first pallet to hit my local store sold out almost immediately. Thankfully, we got two more shipments at one pallet each that hung around a bit longer and I was able to snag a bottle. Like in previous years, this Highland Scotch is finished in sherry casks. Alexander Murray & Co. is the bottler with MISA imports out of Texas bringing it to the States for consumption (Costco's standard sourcing pattern for Scotch). The bottle has a nice heft to it and there is an ensconced Alexander Murray Lion adding some nice texture to the front of the bottle. Steve Lipp, CEO of Alexander Murray, calls it "Perfect for after dinner drinking." All-in-all, this shows an attempt to elevate the product and presentation from the ubiquitous blends and non-age stated iterations you'll sometimes find under the Kirkland label.  Neither Alex...

Both produced by Sazerac's Barton 1792 distillery, Costco's Kirkland Bottled-in-Bond is a value darling of the wider internet and Total Wine's Wolcott Bottled-in-Bond has placed well at international spirits competitions, though most of its metal finishes were while it was still made at Sazerac's Buffalo Trace distillery. As both are private label bottles contracted distilled by Barton, we are left to ask the question: which one is better? The Contestants - Kirkland and Wolcott You can find our full bottle write-ups on both whiskies here: Kirkland Bottled-in-Bond Review Wolcott Bottled-in-Bond Review The broad summary is that the Kirkland bottle is significantly cheaper though both the Costco and Total Wine brands here cost less than the equivalent 1792 Bottled-in-Bond, a hard to find iteration that is only now starting to show up reliably on shelves again. Per the Bottled-in-Bond act , both drams will be 100 proof, aged a minimum of four years, and made in batches of b...

Like Costco's other Scotches, the Kirkland Signature Islay Single Malt is bottled for Alexander Murray and imported by MISA Imports after being distilled and aged in Scotland (TTB.gov plant registry TX-I-1277). The isle of Islay is one of the southern most islands in Scotland and is one of the five whisky regions ensconced in law. There are only nine active distilleries on the island, and the Islay style is typified by strong peat or smoky flavors. As a single malt, we know that the juice in this bottle comes entirely from one of those nine! All of the distilleries are significantly smaller than Glenlivet and many of the mainland producers. Taste testing has people split between Caol Illa, Bruichladdich (Port Charlotte), and Bunnahabhain as being the source. Caol Illa and Laphroig both have done deals for private brand scotch without rights to name the source distillery, but Laphroig does not match the flavor profile for this bottle. Realistically, Caol Illa is the most likely cand...

Produced by Deschutes Brewery  (pronounced "Da-Shootz") for Costco, the 2024 iteration of Kirkland'sVintage Ale is an Imperial Stout that spends nine months resting in used bourbon barrels. Since being founded in 1988 as a Brewpub, Deschutes is a craft brewery located in Bend, Oregon that now distributes in all 50 states and internationally. The brewery gets its name from the Deschutes river and sells more than 225 thousand barrels per year of beer. Deschutes' Black Butte porter, Stoic Quadrupel, Obsidian Stout, and Fresh Squeezed IPA can be found on draft throughout the pacific Northwest. They currently offer eleven other barrel aged beers including 3 imperial stout editions, 3 sours, 3 imperial porters, and 2 sour brown ales. The " Abyss " is their recurring Imperial Stout recipe which checks-din around 11% ABV and 50 IBUs and features Nugget, Cascade & Delta hops though the exact hop mix has fluctuated year-to-year. 💅 Style:  Bourbon Barrel Imperial ...

XO stands for "Extra Old" but how does this bottle of Bourbon Casked Rum from Costco's Kirkland Signature line measure up? 📚 Background: Finished in used Cognac barrels, this bottle is a product of Guatemala, imported for Costco by MISA IMPORTS out of Dallas Texas. MISA, named after the founder's children Michael and Sarah, started primarily as a sourcing partner for fine wines, but has since expanded operations into sourcing spirits. MISA's rum brand partners include 1731 , Autentico Nativo , and Navy Island. We would have to guess the maker if not for the back label which clearly identifies one Olivier Dumont, Master Blender. Mr. Dumont works for  Les Bienheureux , a French company growing at an alarming rate that has both a foothold in French Whisky and Costa Rican Rum. Les Bienheureux is the company behind "El Pasador De Oro " (roughly translated as "Gold Pin") which has two widely available iterations.  The XO version retails for $46.99 a...

Awarded 91 points and a gold medal by the Beverage Tasting Institute, Kirkland Canadian Whisky is known a great value and many in the popular culture have alleged that it is repackaged Crown Royal due to its relative quality for the price. But is it?    📚 Background:  Kirkland first introduced their line of spirits in the 1990s and has expanded their offerings over time. While I wasn't able to find a first release date for this product, the first TTB label in the  COLA database  is from 2016. The whisky is imported for Costco by Wide World Importers in Louisville Kentucky. Digging a bit further reveals that Wide World Importers is an alternative name for  SAZERAC . For me, this conclusively busts the popular myth that Kirkland Canadian is made by Crown Royal (a Diageo property). Sazerac has a number of Canadian Whisky brands in-house, including: Rich & Rare Reserve ($19.99 for 1.75L - No Age Statement), Seagram's VO ($22.99 for 1.75L - Aged Six Years),...

  📚 Background:   Distilled and Bottled by Barton 1792 in Bardstown, this Bonded iteration joins Kirkland Small Batch and Single Barrel as annual attempts to capitalize on the bourbon furor of the last few years. Small batch usually arrives in the June-July timeframe with Bonded and Single Barrel following over the ensuing months. It features an attempt at a crafted aesthetic with the askew proof label and bottled-in-bond traditional green ribbon seal. Not much other information on these bottles is available. Try as I might, I couldn't find any additional color from Barton officially. 1792 heavily markets their Bourbon as a cocktail component, and the typically spicy notes do help them stand out. I've linked their cocktail and style guide here:  1972 Bourbon Cocktail & Style Guide . 🛒 Sourced:  $24.79 Costco - Atlanta, GA for a 1L bottle. 750ml price would be $18.72 (around the same unit price as Mellow Corn or Evan Williams Bottled-In-Bond). My Cost...