15 Rare Liquors Found At Costco

For many savvy customers, Costco is their go-to destination for premium products at competitive prices. It's a particular treasure trove for lovers of liquor. Whether you like whiskey, gin, tequila, or rum, Costco has something for everyone — and we're here to take a look at the rarest spirits on its shelves. 

To qualify for this list, the liquors need to be either highly difficult to find at mainstream retailers, or typically retail at a much higher price than they do at Costco. This rule means every bottle on this list is a fantastic find. Along with detailing these rare bottles, we'll also let you know what Costco they were discovered within and when. That doesn't mean that these bottles will still be available now, necessarily. But for some Costco members, they were at the right place, at the right time. Join us as we take a look at the rare liquors you can hope to find at your nearest Costco.

We already wrote about this whiskey in 15 rare bourbons you can find at Costco, but it deserves a second mention. Every whiskey lover knows how difficult it is to find any bottle of Pappy anywhere, let alone at Costco. The Special Reserve, often affectionately referred to as "Lot B," is as good as a 12-year-old bourbon can get. Its expert blend of deep and rich flavors provide a fantastic tasting experience.

Said flavors have a beautifully earthy quality, with nuts and toasted wood featuring prominently on the palate. To complement them, there is a rich caramel sweetness that rests on a bed of delicate spicy warmth. It may not be the best whiskey Rip Van Winkle produces, but that simply speaks to the quality of the bottles ahead of it. Even if you're not a bourbon drinker, you should grab a bottle of the 12-year if you ever see it for a memorable gift. This bottle was found at North Seattle Costco back in 2023, but other bottles have been spotted in the wild.

We switch from one of the best whiskeys you can get in America to one of the best in Japan. Like Van Winkle, Hibiki comes from a renowned source — the drinks giant that is Suntory. Part of Suntory's brilliance is its ability to create beautiful blends, along with its single malts. The Hibiki 21-year, a mix of single malts and single grains, is a great example.

Barreled in Japan for a minimum of 21 years, it delivers a harmonious flavor profile with a delightful nose. You'll get dried fruits, a strong scent of honey, and some more subtle floral notes. Many notes accompany them on the palate, including dark chocolate, apricot, sweet caramel, and a touch of smoke. It all makes for a great whiskey. As aficionados expect from Japanese whisky, the finish is long and elegant, with the mizunara oak coming to the fore. If you're hoping to find a cut-price bottle, one lucky customer found it in the Torrance, CA Costco in June 2024.

Our first diversion away from whiskey is with this cognac from Monfleurie. From the heart of France's Cognac region, it's an excellent example of this type of brandy. Monfleurie is a luxury brand that is known for producing refined and sophisticated flavors. It greets the drinker with a wide range of aromatic notes; the most notable are dried fruits, vanilla, and a touch of cinnamon. The nose is good, but this cognac impresses most on the palate.

It's quite fruity, with lovely tastes of candied orange and toffee. This sweetness contrasts with the earthy flavors of roasted almonds, nutmeg, and oak. With this expression, you can taste the meticulous aging process it has gone through in its French barrels. They give this cognac the depth of flavor that cements its warm and smooth finish. A bottle of Monfleurie is expensive, even in Costco, but it's worth the price if you can afford it. Costco's San Francisco store stocked this bottle in May 2024.

When it comes to hard liquor in the United Kingdom, England has historically produced premium gin, while Scotland has delivered exquisite whisky. However, times have changed. While England still has more gin distilleries than Scotland, the Scottish produce 70% of the UK's gin output. One of these gins is from the Isle of Harris, an island off the northwest coast of Scotland. Found in the Alhambra Costco in early 2024, this gin is a great example of the country's high quality product. It has a unique flavor profile, full of coastal sweetness, which partially comes from the distiller's hand-harvested sugar kelp.

The nose is a gentle mixture of all the ingredients used in this botanical gin, but the palate boasts a range of other notes. You get plenty of sweet fruits, such as grapefruit and mango, along with more savory notes. Courtesy of its marine setting, you also get a touch of salinity, along with a pleasant warmth. A beautiful bottle makes this gin even more appealing. But it's the contents inside that make this a definite pick-up for any gin-loving Costco member.

Buffalo Trace must be happy to stock its bottles in Costco — here comes another entry on this list from this distillery, and it's certainly not the last. George T. Stagg is a well-respected bourbon one Costco member managed to find in Malibu, CA in October 2023. It's a hugely powerful whiskey that often needs a drop of water to fully develop its robust flavor. Its proof is usually near the 120 region, which isn't too much for a seasoned whiskey drinker, but a novice may be overwhelmed.

Those who love the taste of chocolate in their whiskey will be happy with this bottle. Flavors of leather and tobacco are also present. They're balanced out with the sweetness of toffee and caramel, which gives it plenty of nuance. It's exquisitely smooth, and its endless finish makes its long maturation time clear. George T. Stagg is a true whiskey lover's delight: While some may balk at its robust characteristics, a wide range of devoted enthusiasts adore this intense bourbon.

Don Julio is one of the most respected and popular tequila brands around, and you can get it at Costco. This reposado comes from Mexico's Jalisco Highlands. It offers a smooth and rich tasting experience, the result of being aged for just under a year in ex-bourbon barrels. Once poured, its beautiful amber color is sure to impress. Nothing dazzles quite like its complex flavor profile, though. 

Plenty of citrus notes hit you on the nose, along with caramel and a more subtle hint of spice. You then move on to the full-bodied palate, rich with the tastes of stone fruits, butterscotch, and chocolate. Cinnamon makes itself known, and continues on to the smooth finish. Made with 100% blue weber agave, the meticulous craftsmanship of this tequila gives it remarkable consistency. It's not an overly expensive tequila, but bottles can be hard to grab in many parts of the country. One lucky shopper managed to find a few bottles in June 2024, at the Waltham, MA Costco.

This collection that pays homage to The Sample Room at The Glenlivet, where masters of their craft work to perfect their creations and ensure consistency throughout the popular scotch brand. There are three expressions in the collection, with an 18 and 25-year along with the 21-year. The last is a single malt that has all the grace and elegance you expect from Glenlivet. Finished in sherry, cognac, and port casks, it has a wide variety of flavors.

The nose is full of ripe orchard fruits, contrasted by cinnamon and nutmeg. That fruitiness and warmth continue onto the palate — you're sure to enjoy picking out your own notes. There is also a dark chocolate edge and an almond nuttiness that help bring all the flavors together. Smoothness characterizes the entire tasting experience, which ends with a pleasant level of heat and a touch of smoke. If you want high-end scotch at Costco prices, grabbing a bottle of this is a no-brainer. One was found as recently as June 2024, in Richmond, CA.

The Buffalo Trace Distillery produces many great brands, so it's no surprise it has a few entries in this list. This one is a rye whiskey, which means more than 51% of the mash bill is rye. This leads to a much spicier expression than you get with most other types of whiskey. Its retail price isn't that high, but it's hard to find and is much more expensive on secondary markets.

 The nose here is powerful, boasting a big hit of cinnamon. Along with that, you get many of the expected sweet notes, but also crisp lemon. The palate hits you with all of these notes and more. The spiciness turns peppery, and flavors like caramel and dried fruits emerge. These big, bold flavors are helped by the high proof, which usually sits well above the 120 mark. One customer managed to find a bottle in January 2024 at a Louisville Costco. If you can't find it, the brand also sells the Sazerac Rye expression, which is much cheaper.

Many brands love to make limited edition series, as it allows them to get creative and offer up something different. One example is Hennessy's Master Blender series, which has been running since 2016. Its latest release is the fifth iteration. There a few things that make this cognac unique. The first is that the expression is a blend of 18 of Hennessy's exclusive distillers. The second is that all of the Selection No. 5 stock was made in one batch, meaning that it's almost impossible to replicate.

The result of this meticulous blending is a fine drink. On the nose, you get a bouquet of fresh orchard fruits, including apricots, peaches, and oranges. A hit of toasted almonds and floral notes follows. The palate is rich, with a velvety mouthfeel. That fruit takes on a candied quality, with spices giving it comforting warmth. A touch of chocolate, fresh bread, and oak complete the tasting experience. Found at a Huntington Beach, CA Costco in June 2024, it's a bottle you have to grab before the stock runs dry. Once it's gone, Hennessy Master Blender's Selection No. 5 will never be made again.

Here, we have not just one whiskey, but a whole collection. Found at an Arizona Costco in May 2024, the Buffalo Trace Prohibition Collection is a fabled compilation that pays homage to one of the most famous periods in American history. It's also a showcase of Buffalo Trace's craftsmanship. Under its previous name, George T. Stagg, it was one of the few distilleries allowed to operate during Prohibition. The Old Stagg whiskey from this collection is a direct link to that long-ago time.

Each expression is complex and fascinating. There's rye-heavy Golden Wedding, fruity Three Feathers, sweet Walnut Hill, and the powerful Spiritus Frumenti. And then there's the Old Stagg, which has plenty of dark flavors and is bursting with rich cherries, oak, and leather. Though these bottles are all modern creations, they offer a potent glimpse of the creations of yore. This historical significance, combined with varied yet exceptional flavor, makes these bottles highly sought after.

Time moves quickly in the world of whiskey. It feels like only yesterday we were writing about Little Book Chapter 7, and now the Chapter 8 expression has hit Costco stores. This bottle was found in San Francisco, in July 2024. The bottle is an annual release and the brainchild of Freddie Noe, a descendant of the Jim Beam family. Each release is different and blends together a variety of whiskeys. For this year's release, rye whiskey was used to create a bold and powerful flavor.

The age of the whiskey used ranges from 4 to 18 years, which gives it a complex flavor profile. The aroma is beautifully sweet with some slight yeast notes, along with fresh herbs. The rye doesn't overwhelm your palate — quite the opposite, in fact. You get floral and fruity notes, along with plenty of oak. It makes for another interesting chapter in the story of this brand well worth a trip to your local Costco, just in case you get lucky and find a bottle on the shelf.

India has an increasingly impressive reputation for producing excellent whisky, and this Rampur single malt is a testament to it. One Arizona Costco shopper found a bottle of this in June 2024. The Double Cask name comes from the fact that this whisky is matured in both American bourbon barrels and European sherry casks. The result is a complex and refined flavor that has an enticing balance of sweetness and earthy notes.

That sweetness comes in the form of vanilla and toffee, along with a grape influence from the sherry cask. The full-bodied palate reveals many other flavors, such as more topical fruits, creamy caramel, raisins, and a touch of nutmeg. The fruity nose adds to its appeal, as does the lingering finish. If you've never given Indian whisky a try before, this Rampur expression would be a great place to start. The global market of whisky is ever-expanding and there are many great Indian whisky brands playing a more prominent role in it. Best to get on board now.

Here we have another whisky with an Asian influence. But instead of India, this is a Scotch whisky that utilizes Japanese oak. If the Rampur is a double cask, then what's a double double? Essentially, the name refers to the fact that both types of whisky used in this blend are matured in two different types of barrels. The blend uses both single malt and grain whisky. Both whisky types are aged in traditional oak barrels before being blended separately and matured in oak casks once again. After another period of aging, these two whisky types are blended together and returned to a used oak barrel. Finally, this blend is finished in Japanese mizunara oak barrels.  

What results is an incredibly smooth layered whisky with a rich aroma. Upon tasting, you'll enjoy some unique notes of dark chocolate, coconut, and the rich vanilla common to mizunara oak. The whisky is incredibly clean and beautifully balanced; it allows you to fully appreciate all the steps that have gone into creating it. One Costco member was lucky enough to find a bottle in Fremont, CA back in May 2024.

Here we have the last whiskey in the list and another with a Noe family influence. This expression is named after Booker Noe, who was the grandson of Jim Beam. The bottle is still made by the huge distilling company and is a high-proof robust bourbon that many people love. That higher proof makes this a bold bourbon with plenty of depth. Each batch of Booker's changes slightly from one iteration to the next, with the 2024 release being named the "Springfield Batch" after the town where Booker Noe was born.

The first thing you notice about this release is its beautifully dark color. A slight char greets you on the nose before you get to sample its wide range of flavors. They include a beautifully deep vanilla, along with pronounced nuttiness and an oak influence. Multiple bottles of the 2024 release were spotted at the Industry, CA Costco in April 2024 at an impressively affordable price, which makes this one of the more accessible liquors on this list.

We end with a beautiful tequila that was found in Sacramento, CA, back in April 2024. The Porfidio "The Maximus" Añejo Extra is crafted from 100% blue agave and aged for a minimum of five years. This results in unique depth and excellent character. 

The nose offers a range of rich sweetness and hints at the complexity you're about to sample. Upon tasting, your first note is likely to be a velvety chocolate that coats your tastebuds. Other sweet notes include layers of butterscotch and ripe tropical fruit. Earthier tones emerge, encompassing roasted nuts, baking spices, and a touch of smokiness. The finish lingers with a calming warmth and deep vanilla. This tequila is a true work of art, a fact further showcased by the beautiful bottle. It's a great liquor to bring out on those special occasions, and one of the most impressive finds ever discovered at a Costco.