2018 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sta. Rita HIlls 750 ml

Formerly a restaurant-only wine, this is a phenomenal showing from the cool climate region with bright red fruit and a smokey finish. Heightened acid and florals giving the wine lift and length.

Here’s the short history of Kosta Browne: From ten bucks a night to thousands on the waiting list.

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.

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. And the demand? The queue to get on their mailing list is now endless.