Agreed. The only one I question is the SS. Initial guidance was to enjoy them young, given no sulfur and no real baseline to work from. Even tougher because I only get the single bottle with the case buy. That said, I’ve had a couple of the “older” ones lately and they’ve held up well… and if the 2000 Allemand SS I tried a couple of months back was any indicator, I’d be inclined to sit on the SS as a science experiment.
I had the 21 SS a couple of months ago and at age 4 it was still very primary. Seemed like it had years to go.
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Still sitting on 2019 Syrah and 2020 SS. I’ll be talking to Travis at the after party on guidance if any have peaked yet. The whites I can’t hold long enough.
My view is the SS Syrah is their best wine (so far)… they have a SS Cab Franc too now which is yipeee great!
However, you get 1 btl per year… it’s not like knowing the ‘pinnacle’ time frame means much… you can’t go backfill a case of it… it’s also not some 4 digit price tag where you have to wait for that ‘singular moment in time’…
Drink it young, sit on it for a while, it’s a fantastic wine, so treat it as a fun btl, and drink it when you feel like having a fun/good btl of wine.
The other wines (white and red) will all benefit from 3-5 years btw. Altho almost all can be had young as well, and be delish.
the only wine that absolutely REQUIRES aging is the Mizunara btling…
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Or you could just go ahead and bring one of them to the after-party 
@Mark_Y I’ve blown through mine when friends are in town and have never tried Kobayashi. Definitely appreciate you sharing yours when you’ve been over!
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I emailed Mario and asked the same question since this is my first case. My thought was SS too, however it wasn’t mentioned in the drink sooner category:
Viogner sooner rather than later.
MS - one young, one old
Reds - all (me: even the SS!? Impressive. Although reading about the 00 Allenand above is neat) can go the distance. That said they can be drunk now too with a min 1 hour decant.
Sparkling was not mentioned. Wonderful mentions everywhere, but that likely needs a bit of time to integrate as well? @Warren_Taranow seems to have had it a couple times and as a bubble head may have a better idea on how long it needs to be ready “enough?”
I’ve had the Kobayashi Winery Pinot Noir Nikko Celilo Vineyard Sparkling Wine twice, first in June and again in October. It is all 2022 vintage Pinot Noir, made with flor yeast sourced directly from Selosse, aged 22 months on the lees, and finished with no dosage.
While wine showed very well on both occasions, I usually prefer to give Champagne two or three years (or more) post disgorgement, and I will likely do the same here to let it show its best. That said, there is no harm in opening one now.
More Kobayashi sparklers will likely be available in the future. They also have plans to release a Pinot and Chardonnay sparkling blend down the line. Also, very small amount of wine from this current release is being held back for extended lees aging.
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Going to be really hard to keep my hands off my 1 bottle of sparkling.
I tend to drink the whites faster than the reds, and cab franc before Syrah, but most I’m still laying down.
Does anyone know if they are going to ramp up sparkling production in the future?
my understanding is that is the goal, to produce more
See above 
Had a brainfart when I wrote that reply, shoulda been “Does anyone know if I can buy sparkling only in the future instead of having to buy mixed case to get a single bottle of sparkling allocation?”
You can roll the dice with the single bottle allocation sale, just like with any of their wines, however this year the bubbles sold out in like 30 seconds.
I have a feeling the sparkling, and wines like the sans soufre, will be difficult to buy solo because of limited production and popularity of his other wines (mixed cases)
But i never would buy a case of wine to get asingle bottle
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Anyone have any idea what happened with the 2nd special offer release from Kobayashi? I recall they said one month after the Caberlot X offer that the rest would come but I must have either not received the email or they never released after all? Was expecting EBA Syrah and the CF Mizunara.
“We decided to push our spring Rarities and B Sides release to the fall, meaning our next wine release will be our annual release and the email will go out sometime late in June or July.” From an email over the weekend re a dinner they’re part of.
Yikes that’s gonna be an expensive day
That was a pretty suprising email this morning. 2026 release is $1000 for a case of:
2 bottles 2024 Viognier
2 bottles 2025 Marsanne-Roussanne
3 bottles 2024 Syrah
2 bottles 2024 Cabernet Franc
2 bottles NV Nikko traditional method sparkling
1 bottle 2023 Extended barrel aged Cab Franc in Slavonian oak
Open for single bottles at 9am PST on Saturday June 27th.
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Agreed. I don’t typically by the mixed case because we do not really drink whites/bubbles, but I’m thinking about it this time to get the extended barrel CF.
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Just got first allocation email today. Bought a mixed case due to all the chatter as it sounds like these may line up with my palate.
Having never tried any of the Kobayashi wines, tell me why this was a good use of $1k of the wine budget😆