The 2016 Chardonnay Cerise Vineyard aged 15 months in 35% new Austrian and 8% new French oak. It has a singular nose of petrol, lime peel, lilac, spiced peach cobbler, apple pie and quince with notions of stone and honeycomb. It´s medium-bodied, silky and spicy with loads of ripe stone fruits, seamlessly woven freshness and a very long, textured finish. A very unusual—but delicious—expression. This is the first vintage of Cerise from Kosta Browne and the first time they have worked with fruit from Anderson Valley. 225 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.

Score: 92 Robert Parker (RP), The Wine Advocate (WA), December 2019

From Anderson Valley, the 2016 Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard has a touch of old-world charm in its savory, complex bouquet of dried earth, forest floor, leafy herbs, and dried red fruits. Complex, weightless, and elegant on the palate, it’s a great example of the style of the 2016 vintage and will continue drinking nicely for at least 7-8 years.

Winemaker Nico Cueva continues to fine tune his approach at Kosta Browne, experimenting with new vinification and aging vessels. While the wines were richer and more upfront in the past, today, they have slightly more freshness and tension while not abandoning the beautiful fruit and texture that defines California wines. As I hope these notes show, these are distinctive, singular wines up there with the crème de la crème of the region.

Score: 94 Jeb Dunnuck (JD), JebDunnuck.com (JD), June 2018