2018 AldenAlli Pinot Noir Campbell Ranch Sonoma Coast 750 ml

One half-ton of Pinot Noir. One used barrique. One hand-cranked press. 

From these humble beginnings in 1997, Dan Kosta launched a winery that would change Pinot Noir in America forever. Kosta Browne created a bold, unapologetic expression of the grape, which rapidly led to a years-long waiting list. Today, the winery enjoys an insanely devoted following, with their wines routinely selling for $100 and up. 

But by 2013, Dan Kosta wanted a new challenge. He found it by starting a Pinot project called AldenAlli. 

Kosta recruited Shane Finley, who helmed Kosta Browne during their white-hot streak of vintages from 2006–2012 and crafted the 2009 Kosta Browne Pinot, which took home Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year honors in 2011. By tapping top vineyard sites, he and Kosta capture Sonoma County’s magic.

In the absolutely flawless 2018 vintage, Finley NAILED AldenAlli’s Campbell Ranch Pinot, creating a majestic, complex, and elegant bottling.

Campbell Vineyard is one of Kosta’s go-to sources. Located just northeast of Annapolis on the “true” Sonoma Coast, not too far north of Peay, it’s also a key site for the likes of Anthill Farms, Papapietro Perry, Davis, and Alma Fria.

Finley earned his stripes not only at Kosta Browne, but also at Copain in the Russian River Valley, Torbreck in Australia’s Barossa Valley, and Domaine Pierre Gaillard in the Northern Rhône. 2018, his 18th vintage making wine, was a phenomenal year in Sonoma County: Wine Spectator said, “Nearly perfect conditions resulted in fruit-driven and very expressive Pinots,” and this AldenAlli bottling delivers all of the beautiful red fruit and herbal tea-leaf aromatics of the foggy Sonoma Coast in that vintage.