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The January 2025 Auction: Part 1
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1 / 2Lot 184
Estimate: $95
Lightly scuffed capsule.
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Collection name
Reviews
95WA
"Aged 22 months in 100% new French oak, the medium ruby colored 2016 Pinot Noir 4 Barrel gives up spiced cranberry sauce, wild blackberries, gunflint, turned earth and moss with red berries at the core plus notes of coffee, musk and Earl Grey tea leaves. The palate is medium to full-bodied, silky and nuanced, with an amazing layering of spices, earth and fruit. It has finely pixelated tannins and fantastic juicy freshness, finishing very long and very layered. Yowza! This is classic, open-knit Kosta Browne Pinot. 95 cases were made. Kosta Browne harvested most of their fruit before the heat wave in 2017. “It was a mad dash, to be perfectly honest,” winemaker Julien Howsepian tells me. “Some of the fruit hung through the heat, but having begun sourcing from further western sites, we tend to have cooler microclimates than some other spots. Those cooler pockets were the best suited vineyards to survive the heat. We do have an optical sorter, so that was really important in 2017.” Howsepian has been gradually introducing changes in the winery. “We have started picking a little bit earlier and looking for sites closer to the coast,” he says. He’s paying serious attention to the Chardonnay program, which began only in 2009. “Pinot Noir was always the king of Kosta Browne,” he notes, “But we knew we could do better when it came to Chardonnay. We wanted to be in the same conversation as the best Chardonnays in the world.” Filtering is being phased out for single-vineyard wines. “Filtering makes clearer wines, but I think it removes some of the soul and complexity. It takes away character and I don’t want to see all that hard work go down the drain.” Oak usage is changing as well. “We want to use oak as a support and not the lead, so we’re carefully choosing our selections, using lighter toast and larger formats.” Use of whole cluster is about 10% to 15% across the board. The Observation Series is another new development—2016 was the first vintage for these special bottlings. “This is for special fruit that we find or want to show off,” Howsepian explains. “And they tend to change each year.” These wines will be available only to members. Kosta Browne currently sells about 6,000 cases in the market—the rest of the wines are sold direct to consumer and to members."
Region
Red
Country
Score
"Aged 22 months in 100% new French oak, the medium ruby colored 2016 Pinot Noir 4 Barrel gives up spiced cranberry sauce, wild blackberries, gunflint, turned earth and moss with red berries at the core plus notes of coffee, musk and Earl Grey tea leaves. The palate is medium to full-bodied, silky and nuanced, with an amazing layering of spices, earth and fruit. It has finely pixelated tannins and fantastic juicy freshness, finishing very long and very layered. Yowza! This is classic, open-knit Kosta Browne Pinot. 95 cases were made. Kosta Browne harvested most of their fruit before the heat wave in 2017. “It was a mad dash, to be perfectly honest,” winemaker Julien Howsepian tells me. “Some of the fruit hung through the heat, but having begun sourcing from further western sites, we tend to have cooler microclimates than some other spots. Those cooler pockets were the best suited vineyards to survive the heat. We do have an optical sorter, so that was really important in 2017.” Howsepian has been gradually introducing changes in the winery. “We have started picking a little bit earlier and looking for sites closer to the coast,” he says. He’s paying serious attention to the Chardonnay program, which began only in 2009. “Pinot Noir was always the king of Kosta Browne,” he notes, “But we knew we could do better when it came to Chardonnay. We wanted to be in the same conversation as the best Chardonnays in the world.” Filtering is being phased out for single-vineyard wines. “Filtering makes clearer wines, but I think it removes some of the soul and complexity. It takes away character and I don’t want to see all that hard work go down the drain.” Oak usage is changing as well. “We want to use oak as a support and not the lead, so we’re carefully choosing our selections, using lighter toast and larger formats.” Use of whole cluster is about 10% to 15% across the board. The Observation Series is another new development—2016 was the first vintage for these special bottlings. “This is for special fruit that we find or want to show off,” Howsepian explains. “And they tend to change each year.” These wines will be available only to members. Kosta Browne currently sells about 6,000 cases in the market—the rest of the wines are sold direct to consumer and to members."
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The fourth-largest wine producer in the world, led by California. American fine wine is defined by ripe, expressive fruit and a spirit of innovation, with Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon among the most sought-after wines globally.
A thin-skinned, terroir-sensitive red producing perfumed, silky and elegant wines of red-berry fruit and earthy complexity. It reaches its apogee in Burgundy.