Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
So much peach, tangerine and mandarin orange aromas then goes to oyster shell and bark and then follows through to a medium body with lots of tension and fine tannins that take you down deep. Dried orange peel. Delicious and vivid finish. Drink or hold.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
A dark red color, the 2021 Pinot Noir Gap's Crown Vineyard is ripe and expressively detailed on the nose, with notes of cherry liqueur, pie spices, candied flowers, and sweet sage. Medium to full-bodied, it’s ripe and beautifully textured, with plush, ripe tannins and a long, supple finish.
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Kosta Browne Gap's Crown Pinot Noir deftly combines power and finesse into an alluring wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits aromas and flavors of dried leaves, Myer lemons, and chalkiness. Pair it with grilled skewered lamb kebabs. (Tasted: May 27, 2024, San Francisco, CA)
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
It has aromas of blueberry, pomegranate, licorice, iron and nori. The palate is vibrant and light on its feet with nuanced, spicy flavors and a long, elegant finish.
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.