Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the top Pinot Noirs I was able to taste from California is the 2014 Pinot Noir 4 Barrel. It comes from a barrel each from Giusti, Gaps Crown, Koplen and Keffer vineyards, fermented with 25% whole clusters, and aged in 75% new oak. This prodigious Pinot Noir offers awesome notes of black raspberries, classy oak, violets and spice to go with a full-bodied, seamless and weightless profile on the palate. Concentrated, structured and impeccably balanced, with a rare mix of intensity and elegance, it's an incredible Pinot Noir that's the finest vintage of this cuvee to date. Bravo to the team at Kosta Browne for this beauty.
-
Wine Spectator
Offers amazing aromas of wild berry, spice, cedar, sage and underbrush, with a texture that highlights the tenderness and strength of the tannins, sailing along on a persistent finish.
Internationally recognized for gorgeous, pure fruit combined with great elegance, California Pinot noir thrives among the state’s cooler, coastal zones. Characterized by eclectic flavors and aromas of strawberry, black cherry, plum and potpourri with notes of forest floor, mushroom or black tea, the best California Pinot noir boast a supple texture and good acidity, giving them the ability to improve with age.
Credited with the beginning of Pinot noir’s glory in California, two growers, Joe Rochioli and Joseph Swan in the late 1960s independently planted Pinot noir vineyards in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. Today Sonoma County remains the leading producer of Pinot noir in the state, and Pinot noir is the leading red grape in the county, achieving its highest potential, in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast.
Other coastal appellations where Pinot noir flourishes include Carneros, Anderson Valley and most of the Central Coast.