Winemaker Notes
Aromas of purple fruit with cherry and raspberry character. Hints of violets on the nose. Full body that is very dense with defined layers. Agile and fresh with hints of salt.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Lots of purple fruit with cherry and raspberry character and hints of violets on the nose. Full body that is very dense with defined layers. Yet, remains agile and fresh. Hints of salt. A little reserved now. Needs two or three years of bottle age. Better in 2021.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Pinot Noir Gaps Crown comes from a great, great site on the Sonoma Coast and saw 15% whole clusters and 40% new wood. It’s a deep, rich, blacker fruit-driven effort that shows more and more savory, iron, and earthy notes with time in the glass. It’s ripe and opulent on the palate, with building tannin, yet packs a wealth of fruit and texture, while still showing the more elegant, balanced style of the vintage.
Rating: 95+ -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Kosta Browne Gap's Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir satisfies my palate as few other wines can. TASTING NOTES: This wine is Pinot Noir at its best. Its aromas and flavors deliver outstanding red and black fruits that last and last into its crisp and pleasingly al dente finish. Pair it with a lightly-seasoned crown roast of lamb and enjoy the experience. (Tasted: July 10, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aged 15 months in 40% new French oak, the 2016 Pinot Noir Gap's Crown Vineyard is medium ruby with a nose of Earl Grey tea leaves, citrus peel, garrigue and lavender with touches of tree bark, dried flowers, wild blackberries, blueberries and bright red berries. Medium-bodied and silky, it's perfumed and elegantly styled in the mouth with a finely grained frame and seamlessly woven freshness, finishing long with loads of perfume and spice. 3,400 cases produced. Rating: 93+
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Wine Spectator
Everything is moving in the right direction, from the snappy wild berry and plum flavors to the crushed rock and savory underbrush notes. Ends with fine-grained tannins that bode well for the future. Drink now through 2024.
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.