Just days before Thanksgiving, nearly a million bottles of popular Costco Prosecco were pulled from shelves after consumers reported them shattering — without warning — even when left untouched on a countertop or in the fridge. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced the recall on November 20, 2025, covering 941,400 bottles of Kirkland Signature Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG, sold exclusively in twelve Midwestern states between April and August 2025. The green glass bottles, wrapped in purple foil and labeled with a distinctive purple seal, pose a serious laceration risk. Ten incidents have been reported, including one confirmed injury. And this isn’t the first time.

Second Recall in Five Months

This is the second recall for the exact same product in 2025. Back in September, Costco quietly issued a warning that bottles were "spontaneously shattering" — no handling required. No injuries were reported then. But now, there’s one confirmed cut, and the CPSC is sounding the alarm louder than ever. The manufacturer, F&F Fine Wines International, Inc. — which operates as Ethica Wines and is headquartered in Miami, Florida — has been under scrutiny since the first recall. Yet the same bottles, same batch, same production line, are still out there. And now, people are getting hurt.

What’s more alarming? The product carries the prestigious DOCG label — Italy’s highest wine classification, meant to guarantee strict quality control. Yet here we are: bottles made in Italy, sold in the U.S., breaking like cheap soda bottles. The CPSC says the issue isn’t temperature or handling. It’s the glass itself. "The bottles can break without warning, even when not handled or in use," the agency warned. That means your holiday wine stash? It could be a time bomb.

How to Stay Safe — And Get Your Money Back

The CPSC’s instructions are stark: Do not open the bottles. Do not return them to Costco. Instead, wrap each one in paper towels, seal it in a plastic bag, and toss it in your household trash. Then call Ethica Wines at 786-810-7132 (8 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday) or email [email protected] for a full refund. No receipt needed. No questions asked.

Costco’s silence speaks volumes. The retailer hasn’t issued a public statement beyond what the CPSC released. That’s unusual. For a company that prides itself on customer trust — and for a product that sells for just $8 — you’d expect more transparency. But instead, customers are left navigating a safety crisis with no clear path to accountability.

Why This Is About More Than Wine

This isn’t just about a bad batch of sparkling wine. It’s about supply chain oversight. Ethica Wines imports and bottles this Prosecco under Costco’s private label. That means Costco doesn’t make it — but it sells it as its own. And when things go wrong, the public sees Costco. The manufacturer? Often invisible. This recall exposes how deeply private-label products are woven into our daily lives — and how little we know about who’s really behind them.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Thanksgiving is the biggest wine-guzzling holiday of the year in the U.S. Families stock up. Refrigerators fill. Pantries overflow. People reach for bottles without thinking. Now, every green-and-purple bottle in a Midwest home could be a hazard. Consumer advocates are calling it a "holiday safety trap." And with Montana also reportedly included — despite not being on the CPSC’s official list — the scope may be even larger than we know.

What Happens Next?

The CPSC has flagged this as a 2026 recall case, even though it was issued in November 2025 — a bureaucratic quirk that suggests the agency is already overwhelmed. Meanwhile, Ethica Wines has not disclosed which Italian winery produced the glass or why it’s failing. No recall of other products. No public apology. Just a phone number and a refund offer.

Legal experts say Costco could face class-action lawsuits if more injuries occur. The company has a history of aggressive cost-cutting on private-label goods — and this isn’t the first time its products have failed in unexpected ways. In 2023, Costco recalled a line of baby food after lead contamination. In 2024, its electric pressure cookers overheated. The pattern? High volume. Low oversight. Big risk.

Meanwhile, the CPSC is urging anyone with a damaged bottle — or who suspects they’ve been injured — to report it on SaferProducts.gov. They’re also asking consumers to call their hotline at 800-638-2772 if Ethica Wines doesn’t respond to refund requests. But here’s the catch: the agency doesn’t have the resources to chase every manufacturer. That’s on us — the consumers — to speak up.

Background: The Kirkland Signature Model

Kirkland Signature is Costco’s private-label brand — a $50 billion-a-year operation that outsells many national brands. It’s a brilliant business model: buy in bulk, cut out middlemen, slap on a blue-and-gold label, and call it a day. But when quality control slips, the fallout is massive. The Prosecco recall isn’t an anomaly. It’s a symptom. And if we don’t demand more transparency from retailers who sell products they don’t make, we’ll keep seeing this.