Winemaker Notes
Perfumed aromas of dark fruit and glorious layers of Santa Rosa plum. Luxurious and cerebral, with dense, dark fruits and a full-body.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
From this perennially impressive site is this stunning vineyard-designate, earthy in a wealthy array of cola, clove, nutmeg and orange peel. Soft, succulent and layered, it dazzles in fresh, focused black cherry and tart shocks of pomegranate. Black tea finishes things off within a balanced body of full flavor and structured complexity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aged 19 months in 50% new French oak, the medium ruby colored 2017 Pinot Noir Kanzler Vineyard gives up cinnamon toast, pipe tobacco, pencil shavings, moss-covered bark and mushrooms with a core of blackberries, redcurrant and cranberries. Medium-bodied, it's earthy but countered by bright berry flavors, with a grainy frame and juicy acidity lifting the finish. This needs another year or two in bottle to come together but should result in a lovely, earth-driven expression. 850 cases produced.
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Wine Spectator
Contoured and rich-tasting, with concentrated dark cherry, raspberry and wild plum flavors, backed by fresh acidity. Finishes with a creamy texture and notes of dark chocolate and Asian spice. Very svelte, plush and powerful. Drink now through 2025.
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Wine & Spirits
Steve Kanzler planted his vineyard in 1996 and has sold fruit to Kosta Browne since the inaugural 2002 vintage. This wine ferments in open-top vessels, half in concrete, half in wood, developing density and fullness without excess weight. It’s bold, with brightness in its black-cherry flavors and red-currant notes that works to balance all its richness.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.