2019 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills 750 ml

The cool climate of the Sta. Rita Hills gives this Kosta Browne Pinot is a dazzling wine from the Central  Coast. Though newer to the Kosta Browne lineup, this ruby-hued wonder shows the house style with beauty and grace, offering a silken mouthfeel and soft tannins on the finish. An infusion of herbal tones on the palate displays its Sta. Rita Hills origins, and is complemented by blue fruit and cola-like flavors across the palate. This is a red that’s destined to be a fan-favorite and standout in  the coming years. 

Kosta Browne is synonymous with cult Burgundy varieties in Sonoma County. Ever since their eponymous start, these wines have continuously set the bar—and raised it—in terms of Sonoma County wines. 

The world has noticed. Today, the winery has countless top-scores, rave reviews, and a multi-year waiting list. Kosta Browne climbed Spectator’s Top 100 rankings: The Russian River took #7 in 2006, and the Sonoma Coast landed at #4 in ’09 and claimed the top spot in 2011. 

Today is your chance to skip the decade-long wait, and access the gold-standard of Sonoma with bottles coming directly from the cool Kosta Browne cellars. 

We could spend page after page detailing the history and prowess of Kosta Browne. The short history is this: 

Kosta Browne was hatched when Dan Kosta and Michael Browne were working at Sonoma County restaurant John Ash—and neither had experience making wine. They started by putting $10 each in an envelope on nights they worked together, and after a few months they had a thousand dollars. After one of the restaurant’s chefs ponied up $400 more, they set off to buy grapes and gear.

Their first grapes came from Russian River and sapped most of their funds. The rest of the money they used to buy two things they didn’t want to borrow: a used barrel and a hand-cranked destemmer/crusher. Their first effort yielded one barrel (just 24 cases) of Pinot, which they poured for VIPs at John Ash.

Over the next five years, they persevered, scouring Northern California for grapes and capital. Their huge breakthrough came in 2005 when Wine Spectator crowned two of their 2003 Pinots with 95-point scores and named the Sonoma Coast bottling the #11 wine on their king-making Top 100 list. Almost overnight, the challenge changed from keeping afloat to keeping up with demand.