People Wait Years for This Wine Sold at Costco

A hint of something special at Costco arrived earlier this month on Reddit, when one user posted a picture of a row of wine bottles, one with an eye-popping price tag of $3,699.99. "Had to make sure I was seeing correctly," the person wrote in the caption accompanying the snapshot. As it turns out, that bottle housed cabernet sauvignon from California's Screaming Eagle vineyard, and it's one that many are willing to await for more than a decade.

SFGate notes that each year, the Napa Valley winery puts out a limited 500-case supply of the rare cab sav, whose 1992 version earned 99 points from wine critic Robert Parker. Tasting Table notes that some want to try the vino so badly that they put their name on waiting lists that can stretch for 12 years. In an email, Screaming Eagle tells SFGate that Costco isn't even a client and apparently obtained the few bottles it's now selling at some Bay Area locations at a wine auction.

Although the $3,700 price tag at the Costco cited by the Reddit user seems way high for a place that sells $1.50 hot dogs, others say it's right on target. The vineyard's cabernet varietal is so in demand that one 6-liter bottle sold for a half-million dollars in 2000. "That is actually a great price," one commenter notes. "I don't see a limit. Clean them out," another Redditor wrote. Can't find a bottle near you? The Anchorage Daily News has put out its annual holiday rankings of Costco's own private-label Kirkland brand. (More Costco stories.)