This wine appears to reflect the continuing evolution of the KB style, as well as the cool 2011 vintage. 14.5% alcohol, 3.57 pH. In the mid 2000s vintages, KB SVDs were in the 15+% alcohol range, and lower acid and more heavily oaked as well.
I was less enthused about the really big style in the mid 2000s that caused a big splash and then backlash. But I got on the list starting with the 2007 and I’ve liked the style since that time in its own way. It definitely has its place among all the other styles of wine in my cellar, and my wife, in particular, adores the wines.
I have been on the waitlist since 09. Every year, twice a year, I get a dear john card. Each time I get it, I am angry and say I am going to drop off, each year somehow I dont.
Not sure what I will ever do if they do offer me wine, but I did recently have a bottle of their 06 sonoma I think it was, and it was quality juice.
My last vintage of buying KB was 2006. I didn’t think those wine were particularly good. Especially the appellation wines. My tastes have changed and now I look for finesse in a wine and you certainly didn’t get that with KB through 2006.
Perhaps people have staked out their views on KB. Some continue to buy because they enjoy it. Others either don’t like it, or don’t like the QPR and have moved on. Kind of silly to have the same debate twice a year.
Anyway, I’ll buy my allocation because I like it, but I’m down to 3 SVDs because the Kanzler wasn’t produced (at least in sufficient quantities) this year. Slightly annoying that when they stop producing an SVD I’ve bought for a few years doesn’t result in offering up one of the other SVDs they haven’t offered me.
BTW, I separately received a mailing from KB “A Private Invitation” and then contains almost no more details inside - “Imagine having private access to the Inside of Kosta Browne and hosting your closest friends, family and colleagues to an unforgettable wine and culinary affair. . . .”
I assume this is an opportunity to rent their new facility, perhaps with some KB wines included for the price. But why not give a bit more detail than a contact person?
We had a food event this summer which included the KB “WINE OF THE YEAR!!!”
At the end of the evening there was over a half bottle remaining but the Red Burgundy, White Burgundy, Condrieu, Languedoc-Roussillon, Champagne, Brunello, Beaucastel Blanc and Calif Rosé were all LONG gone.
The host (and owner of the KB) pronounced it to be disappointing at best
I’d probably find more meaning in that if it were a blind tasting, since we all know that KB is one of the top “cool to hate it” wines among geeks, plus a lot of the perceptions about it relate to its early years when it really was pushing the limits of ripeness and hedonism.
I’m not saying you or any given person could not end up disliking the wine absent any prejudgment, but just that it does have a lot of label bias when it’s served non-blind.
Chris, I’ve had some bottles I have liked quite a lot even though it isn’t my style of PN. But the one we had this summer was out of place with the other wines at the event. I think it would have shown even poorer blind in that particular instance.
I do agree with you that KB is a real target for the AFWE (when no one is looking I sneak out of the meetings to buy Napa Cabs, Saxum and southern Rhone).
Passing on my allocation. I can appreciate that they are well made, in a style and I have more and more contempt for, especially after tasting another Gap’s Crown Pinot that made my heart flutter. After tasting that I wanted to punch both of them square in the mouth for what they were doing to those beautiful grapes.
yes times have changed for KB - while bunch of “cult cabs” no longer have wait lists of any substance KB’s wait list continues to grow. People have been waiting 5-8 years and still waiting while name the wine that use to be “hot” you could get by signing up right NOW!
long wait lists for wine are in short supply these days - SQN, KB, Marcassin are some of the longest - this i know cause i have been offered every cab in NAPA and i did not wait 5+ years for any of them including Screaming Eagle.
You have a SVD allocation (meaning that you’ve been buying pretty decent quantities from from them for probably 4+ years after being on a wait list for several years before that), but now you have contempt for them and want to punch them in the mouth for the wine not being a style you like?
Dude, this is just wine. If you don’t like it, just don’t buy it and get something else. Problem solved. Plus, with KB, unlike 98% of anything else out there one might buy, you can probably recover your full cost plus a premium when you sell the ones you have.
P.S. I would have thought a wine making your “heart flutter” would be praise (albeit pretty florid and Hallmarkesque praise), not condemnation, though I guess we all use words differently.
To each his own Chris. In my evolution as a wine drinker, KB is not something that is in my wheelhouse any more. I hang on to the allocation because I have several friends that still like the style and it is better for them to order through me than wait a long time. Still, it is nice knowing that something better can be done with the great raw material they have been given. If we are lucky enough to meet, I will share some and see if you understand my previous statement and if not, so be it.
What are the other producers of Gap’s Crown that you like so much? There look to be quite a few. I think Sojourn may be the only other one I have in my cellar.
Bruliam is the one I have now. Very unlike most of the folks making pinot from the vineyard. It is very pricey, hard to find because production is low, but worth it. I am chummy with a local wholesaler so I was able to get some bottles. I have tried a few others like Harrington, Ladd Cellars, and Patz & Hall, liked them at first, but my shift in tastes has taken me to the lighter end of the Pinot spectrum.
Many times, we have been served the KB pinots blind. And have always hated the heat that comes off of the wine. I think some people are immune to the heat, just like some do not detect corked wines unless it is severely corked. To me, the KB heat is easy to notice, blind or otherwise.
Certainly part of that is the limited quality of KB and the American sweet tooth.
There are plenty of people lining up to buy wine that many members of this forum dismiss.
You make it sound like the length of their waiting list disproves the point of the OP, which seemed to be that KB is not necessarily the current darling of this forum. I think the mixed/lukewarm reviews and relatively few responses would indicate that the OP’s point is correct.
You’re certainly welcome to my share
Mitch, I enjoyed reading that, and it’s funny how it’s more applicable now than it was when you wrote it. I especially loved this that you wrote:
Will five to seven year old bottles of yesteryear’s hot but now mostly forgotten pinot maintain their coveted nature and allure so as to justify the space they are taking up in finite cellar space? Or is it more likely that mass fire sales of pinot will appear in waves on the various wine auction sites?
you can also add in all of the syrah from about 5-7 years ago as well. It’s not hard to find the bottles that you wrote about on the various sites and in a decent amount of cases, at values less than what the person paid for them. Just take a look at Winebid right now, and there are 352 California Pinots listed from 2003-now. If one wants KB, there’s plenty there. Along with a bunch of other major Pinot names that have been greatly coveted in the recent past.
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