Winemaker Notes
Bright, fresh notes of pomegranate, rhubarb, orange, and raspberry complement a touch of subtle toast. Approachable and commanding entry with a pleasurable mid-palate and a long, rich, thorough finish.
Professional Ratings
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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.
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.