Kosta Browne Gap's Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
On the nose deeply fruity, with blueberry and blackberry pie over a subtle backdrop of honeycombs and French oak. On the palate instantly irresistible with mouthwatering tension evolving to a balanced, focused finish.
Professional Ratings
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The Somm Journal
From the maritime climate of the Petaluma Gap AVA, this celebrated vineyard in the southern part of the Sonoma Coast offers the advantages of high elevation, afternoon winds, and a lingering fog that allows for slow sugar development. Angular and spicy, with cocoa-dusted tannins, this juicy and delicious wine has a zippy mouthfeel that’s ready for a steady flow of blueberry, sage, and coffee.
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James Suckling
Lively aromas of blue and ripe red fruit, plums and toasted rosemary. Full-bodied and so expansive on the palate. Well-integrated tannins carry plenty of flavor with so much depth and steady intensity. Well balanced and remaining fresh, despite the lush fruit.
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Wine Spectator
Big, with cooking spice accents to burnished dark plum and dried blackberry flavors that are supported by fresh acidity. Dark chocolate and toffee linger on finish, which features medium-grained tannins.
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Wine & Spirits
Scents of dark-roast coffee and touches of volatility enhance this wine’s depths of black-cherry flavor. It’s juicy and spicy, a rich pinot that ends with the ripeness of black-raspberry jam. For roast duck.
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Founded in 1997, Kosta Browne is one of North America’s most revered wineries, recognized for making some of the world’s finest Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. Located in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, and guided by an acclaimed team that includes renowned Winemaker Julien Howsepian, Kosta Browne makes appellation and single-vineyard wines from the most coveted cool-climate vineyards across the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley, Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Lucia Highlands appellations. In addition to partnering with the finest growers in California, Kosta Browne has an estate program that features 170 acres of vineyards through ownership or long-term leases that includes the Cerise Vineyard in Anderson Valley, Keefer Vineyard in the Russian River Valley, and a prized section of the Gap’s Crown Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast. Kosta Browne has earned a place on Wine Spectator’s annual list of the world’s “Top 100 Wines” seven times since 2005, including “Wine of the Year” in 2011.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.