Kosta Browne Gap's Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017
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An explosion of juicy blueberry and raspberry jam is layered with blood orange and hibiscus. Bold and structured with a generous mouthfeel.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
I always love this site, and the team at Kosta Browne have made a killer bottle of wine with their 2017 Pinot Noir Gap's Crown Vineyard, especially remarkable in a challenging vintage like 2017. The wine saw 10% stems and 10 months in 35% new French oak, with a small amount in concrete and larger oak. Great notes of mulberries, blackberries, black cherries, violets, and spice all give way to a rich, medium to full-bodied Pinot Noir that has ripe tannins, an expansive texture, loads of charm, and great finish. It's another beautiful, beautiful wine to enjoy over the coming decade or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Gap's Crown Vineyard was aged 10-19 months in several vessels: 35% new French oak, 20% concrete and 13% wooden tanks. Medium ruby, it's scented of black tea leaves, licorice, wild blackberries, dried lilac and tree bark with hints of blood orange, potpourri, saline and crushed red berry fruit. It’s medium-bodied and ultra silky with wonderful layering of pure fruits, amaro and spices, with a gentle, grainy frame and fantastic juicy freshness, finishing long and elegant. How lovely! 3,500 cases produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
Soft blue fruit, orange tea and rhubarb make for an exotic, tangy and beguiling experience on the palate of this explosive, focused and freshly crisp wine from the famous site. Soft and seductive in texture, it has complexity around rich layers of balanced spice and earthiness.
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Wine Spectator
Lively and juicy, featuring cherry tart, dried fig and plum compote flavors that are fresh and offer a touch of ripeness. The plush, spicy finish lingers, with minerally notes. Drink now through 2024.
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Founded in 1997, Kosta Browne is one of North America’s most revered wineries, recognized for making some of the world’s finest Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. Located in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, and guided by an acclaimed team that includes renowned Winemaker Julien Howsepian, Kosta Browne makes appellation and single-vineyard wines from the most coveted cool-climate vineyards across the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley, Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Lucia Highlands appellations. In addition to partnering with the finest growers in California, Kosta Browne has an estate program that features 170 acres of vineyards through ownership or long-term leases that includes the Cerise Vineyard in Anderson Valley, Keefer Vineyard in the Russian River Valley, and a prized section of the Gap’s Crown Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast. Kosta Browne has earned a place on Wine Spectator’s annual list of the world’s “Top 100 Wines” seven times since 2005, including “Wine of the Year” in 2011.
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.