Top of the pops

Costco cemented its name as the biggest wine retailer in the US by selling bottles of Dom Perignon for $US100 a pop in 2006. That little bit of marketing chutzpah reportedly moved more than 100,000 cases of Dom that year and helped propel what had been regarded as simply a “big box” discounter into the orbit of the serious wine drinker. It was like honey to a bee. Has Costco’s first venture into Australia provided the same alluring honey? It’s not $100 but relative to its competitors (the ’02 ranges from $199 to $332 in Melbourne) it’s a bargain, writes Jeni Port in The Age.