Kosta Browne Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir 2014

The wait time for getting an allocation of Kosta Browne 4 Barrel Pinot Noir is 12 years. 12 years for just 3 bottles of wine! Crazy– but I understand. Few wines made in America are more sought after than Kosta Browne; a winery that has a knack for making sexy, hedonistic Pinot that is almost impossible not to love at first sip.

It’s also really hard to get– forget the 4 Barrel Pinot, I am talking about just their basic appellation wines.

The Santa Lucia Highlands bottling is extremely hard to get your hands on but I managed to score a few from one of Kosta Browne’s best vintages in recent memory. It’s the richest of their appellation wines with darker fruits from SLH along with deep structure. What I love here is the hints of game, spice and dried meat that you get as it opens up. This is one sophisticated bottling.

Read below what the Wine Advocate had to say about it when they first reviewed these 2014s from KB:

This was another rock star lineup from Kosta Browne and it’s certainly one of the most impressive lineups I tasted all year. And while I generally consider 2013 to be a better vintage than 2014, these 2014s are a step up over last year’s releases, which were no slouches either. The estate continues to use moderate amounts of whole clusters for their reds, and aging occurs in varying amounts of French oak (and recently, some concrete). While these are big, rich wines, they’re in no way over the top and the vast majority have classic, structured and age-worthy profiles. Other producers at this level are few and far between. -Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate