Kosta Browne Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir (1.5L Magnum) 2018
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Jeb Dunnuck
Brought up in 20% new French oak, the 2018 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands offers a terrific, complex bouquet of spiced cherries, raspberries, spring flowers, and dried herbs. Beautifully balanced, elegant, and seamless on the palate, it shines for its complexity, texture, and length and is a stunning Santa Lucia Highlands release!
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Kosta Browne Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir is youthful, bright, and satiny. TASTING NOTES: This wine brings lively blue and black fruits to the fore. Enjoy its active notes with grilled lamb chops. (Tasted: June 13, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Big and ripe, with firm tannins juicing the slate, dried red fruit and spice flavors. Mocha hints show on the broad, powerful finish, revealing creamy accents. Drink now through 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands comes from Pisoni, Garys', Soberanes and Sierra Mar vineyards. Medium ruby, it has bright, crunchy red cherries and blackberries, tar, potting soil and rose petals scents with a medium-bodied palate that's broody and earthy but lifted by good freshness and finely grained, finishing long.
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Wine Enthusiast
Black-raspberry jam, rose petals and a hint of lavender show on the nose of this appellation blend. The palate is consumed with flavors of rich cranberry sauce, orange rind, cinnamon stick and light clove.
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Wine & Spirits
This is unabashedly rich, a classic pinot from the Santa Lucia Highlands. It’s irresistible in its smoky, carob-scented, cherry pie flavors and suave, velvety intensity.
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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.”
Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.
The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.