It’s subjective whether you call it an intent to deceive or not, but they aggressively put the highest scores they can, from whatever years and publications they can get them, and they usually omit low scores.
If they can make the wine look higher rated by only putting scores from other vintages and omitting scores for that vintage, they’ll usually do it.
FWIW, I have sometimes noticed that there are multiples vintages of the same wines in bins even though they are overwhelmingly a single vintage. Perhaps that is part of how they get away with the multiple vintage scoring, enabling the distributor to unload a couple cases of previous vintages across a pallet of the current release. YMMV.
Unrelated, I was in Indiana for personal business and the Merrillville Costco had the 2014 Signal Ridge Zinfandel (~$25) and 2014 Signal Ridge Pinot Noir (~$35) if I remember correctly.
I don’t think they are really organized enough about this to be consciously making the effort to deceive/defraud. The guy taking care of that section was stacking dog food the hour before, and afterwards will be wrangling up carts in the hourly parking lot rodeo next.
It seems like anecdotally, just based on the thinness of reports here, that pickings are lean at the moment. Especially for imported wines.
Wouldn’t they sometimes make mistakes to their detriment then? I go there a lot, and I scarcely ever have seen that happen.
If one of your golfing buddies is sloppy at scorekeeping, but his mistakes are always to his benefit in the bet, you will wonder if it’s sloppiness or something else.
Are you suggesting that Costco benefits from wine sales???
No idea, Chris!
Sorry, they were running low last Friday, but it was I10.
LOL, I’m pretty sure that the wine buyers and marketers for a multi-billion dollar retail operation understand and care a lot about vintage variation. It is a major driver of price, it would be economic malpractice to be big in the wine business and not understand it.
I’m sure their job is to gather together some good press to show customers, but I doubt they know what is on the shelves of each individual CC, nor have the manpower to keep each store bang up to date. I’m not saying they don’t realise that this method might have result in tricking the odd customer, but I don’t think they deliberately set out to deceive.
Maybe it’s just me…but this whole back and forth on the wrong vintage being displayed on the Costco shelf talker seems kinda pointless. The peeps on this board (especially compared to the general wine-buying public) should be fully capable of checking the vintage on the bottle before swiping their Visa card (F you American Express!) At the checkout. I mean…id be shocked and frankly disappointed if all of us didn’t do this instinctively on each bottle we buy no matter where we are.
That being said…can we get please get back to our regularly scheduled feedback on the killer deals that can be had at what I consider to be my second home (with 2 young kids at home, I frequent the place at least twice a week)!
Rich, I have three kids under 5 and Costco is my Mecca. 
I think the reason we’re arguing these minutiae is because there do not seem to be anything interesting, which is weird. It was pretty barren at the main one I patronize.
In any case its not like anyone is running low on swill here.
I’m with you buddy! With 3 kids, I’m guessing I’d be there at least 3 times per week (once a week per kid seems about right).
And let’s be honest…any excuse to go there and see if they have any new/interesting wines 
It’s funny how having kids changes “who would ever need four dozen eggs?” into “Do I need four, or eight dozen eggs?”
I wish there was one more convenient to my house and I could get there more often. As it is I make it out there about once a month and have to stock up. Meat and wine are top of the list.
Overall, I find the elitism on this chain to be tremendously off putting. When the largest wine retailer in the country flexes its buying muscles and purchase oceans of good wine and passes that savings on to Costco members, I become more brand loyal to them.
Rarely, do I purchase wines over $30/ btl but my local costco has many choices in the under $10 range that get positive ratings and provide incredible QPR.
Yes, there are occasional mistakes like this yrs Rioja which is a pale imitation of last yrs. But the Cote du rhones villages, the cotes du provence rose at $6.99 are examples of wines you would pay twice the amount for in other retail stores.
Now that healthcare has been destroyed in washington, many of you will need the extra cash to pay for health care. You might find great pleasure in exploring wines w great QPR but lousy Kirkland labels.
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Is there really that much elitism in this thread? (you confused me for a moment when you said “in this chain,” I initially thought you were saying Costco was elitist) Looking back, it seems mostly people happy with the experience there and a few who find their score advertising suspect. As one who expressed skepticism about their private label wines, it isn’t elitism that drives that feeling, it is my own past experience. I still haven’t made it in to grab a bottle of the CCR in order to compare, but intend to do so in the next week. I’ll try a rose as well. I’m not a big CdR guy. If the wine is good I’ll drink it. There are some wines I love that are extremely cheap. Hell I may have more Guion than anything else in my cellar and those are 12/14 for the domaine/prestige before case discount. So my skepticism isn’t founded on cost. It’s founded on the fact that whenever I’ve been sold the prospect of some fantastic wine deal in a similar capacity it has seldom matched the hype.
I’m offended by your swipe at the noble Kirkland terroir.
Where else in the world can we get such delicious macadamia nuts, smoked bacon, blueberry muffins, briny bags of mussels, and shredded cheese – all from one patch of soil?
A land so blessed that its bounty pairs with all manner of grapes grown there - pinot, tempranillo, grenache, and more?
Truly these are the greatest times in the history of humanity for wine lovers.
and their olive oil-still a great buy
Agreed on the Olive oil for sure.
Try the costco Avocado oil if they have it. Awesome stuff. It tolerates high temps unlike olive oil. I make omelets and stir frys with it it all the time. Costco near me had these pump sprayers you put your own oil in and I fill them with Olive oil and Avocado Oil. Way better than PAM with quality organic oils. Its just a few pumps and the pressurized air spray’s a nice mist all over your pan.
They are brushed aluminum and about the size of can of PAM spray. Came in a 2 pack.