Kosta Browne Taste Off With a Ringer…Blind

Kosta Browne Taste Off With a Ringer…Blind – Episode #271

July 6, 2007

Gary Vaynerchuk has some fun on this friday, answers a few questions and tastes some AMAZING PINOT NOIRS Blind!

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Comments on this episode(203) Leave a comment ›

“QOTD: Had a Jordan Chardonnay tonight…yeah, not too good….” by Tooch
“QOTD: Ravenswood Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel, 2007 I think. It was one di…” by richardvinifera
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Wines tasted in this episode:

2003 Kosta Browne Pinot Sonoma on Wine-Searcher
2005 Amisfield Pinot Noir Central OtagoNew Zealand Pinot Noir
2004 Kosta Browne Pinot Sonoma on Wine-Searcher

203 Responses

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July 9, 2007

Dave
After two years on the wait list I got two each of the 2005 KB’s (Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast). I don’t want to open either of them yet. Heard bad things about the 2005 (on this list and elsewhere), always in the back of my mind – waiting for that day. Hope I’m not disappointed. Live and learn from YOU Gary!
Great show, fun times.
Worst wine of the last several days – a home made. It was a gift so I can’t be too mean. All of us who received some made it into a sort of Sangria to dilute the huge fruit and kill the burn.
July 9, 2007

dadobs
Hey GV–nice ep! Still, your claims of minimal talent don’t quite fit with what we all see or what you said in the Times article about charisma and hosting SportsCenter. Don’t mean to bust your nuts here; false modesty and cockiness can be a charming combo.

QOTD: 2005 Schild shiraz. Not a bad wine at all, but I was hoping for a little more given the highly regarded Aussie vintage and previous WineSpectator reviews.

For those who want to know about 2005 “Prisoner,” you can go to corkd.com to read reviews. We had it a couple weeks ago and it fit in well with 4-5 other 90+ wines from Spain, Australia, Cali. Not particularly complex, which was the main criticism given that it’s a blend. However, it’s easy to drink with good fruit and no hard edges.
July 9, 2007

Rick W.
Worst wine was a Cameron Hughes Cab
July 9, 2007

winejedi
missed this last week was on vacation…GREAT EPISODE GARY!!! glad to see a blind tasting episode especially with kosta browne.
July 9, 2007

Garret Nagle
QOTD: Las Rocas Garnacha…. it tasted and smelled like horse poop mixed with mint or eucalyptus
July 9, 2007

Sangio
QOTD – A Sur De Los Andes Torrontes 2006 bought from Wine Library. Tasted at wine fridge temperature, upper 50’s, very disjointed. Popped in a regular refrigerator and chilled down to swilling temperature. Acceptable at that point. Even though it was not a great wine, I would never have tried a torrontes without WL. (Not sure I will try another)
July 9, 2007

Adrian Tamblin
Worst wine I have had recently was Pillar Box Red. It was a screw cap with a red label…What crap! It tasted like dirt mixed with crushed up grape stems…I took it back to the store at which I purchased it at and told them I thought the bottle was corked…They quickly said it is a screw cap…I guess it goes to show that screw caps can be pretty bad as well. They didn’t hassle me much past that point, due to the fact that I buy some serious wine at thier warehouse.

As far as really good pinots go, I would recommend Paul Hobbs Pinot. I mean I think it rates right up there at the top…I am going to seek out that Kosta Brown stuff it sounds really yummy… Thanks for the find….I would have never known..
July 9, 2007

msb2ncsu
Great show… the blind tastings are a nice change of pace.

QOTD: Well, the wife is out of town so I hate taking anything from our stash that she doesn’t have a chance to taste. I’ve only had a few bottles the last two weeks and they are grocery store budget buys that are our dependable choices when we are in a pinch. The worst of the bunch that I have had is the Masciarelli 2003 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo that I grabbed at Costco to have with some pasta. It wasn’t awful or anything, just not good.
July 9, 2007

eatapc
Loved the blind tasting. Do more of that! But try double-blind or at least throw in a couple more ringers.

Gary, I think you’re a very honest and accurate critic, but you gifted the Amisfield with a few too many points given your tasting notes: “dirty & vegetal on the finish … little stinky sock meets green pepper meets dirt w/ chocolate bar on top @ a Camp fire … overall a young wine … little more disjointed….”

That sounds like a wine that should have been rated at least 4 points lower that the lesser of the Kosta Browns, which sounded delicious.

I’ve also learned to automatically deduct 2 or 3 points from any pinot noir score because of the hype factor. Maybe it’s just a matter of taste and my taste buds don’t like pinot noir, but I believe that people are more willing to overlook obvious flaws in pinot noirs because of the hype.

So, by my calculations, the Amisfield would be an 86 – 87 pointer if it were judged by the usual standards. None for me, thanks!
July 9, 2007

KenP
Wmole asks, “How can you overextract a grape that has thin skins”? Two observations: the skins do not add a whit to the syrupy, glycerin ‘quality’, but could provide structure, tannins, etc. in a more restrained style. Seems this is what is precisely missing from fat, fruity Cal. Pinots. It is, infact, that the fruit has been left too long on the vine so as to reduce, perhaps eliminate, structure altogether. Secondly, manipulation remains the one great factor in the wine biz about which the consumer knows next to nothing. Does Uri Geller bend spoons? Of course he does, provided no viewer is alert to how the trick is done. A little mega purple here, a little micro-oxigenation there, new pump-over technologies, along with oak barrels, staves, pellets, powders toasted to the winemaker’s exact specification, zin or cab or syrah used for blending or the ‘topping-off’ (up to 25%), added sugar during fermentation, GM yeast strains out of the U. of Fresno and U.C. Davis, so many techniques are available to the hypermodern winemaker it is no surprise you end up with so much ‘magic’ in a bottle of Cali. Pinot.
Truth to tell, I’ve not had a KB. Further, I cannot say what technologies, if any, they use, But I can assure you the Cali wine market is flooded with manipulated examples of Pinot, and every other variety.
The skins? A quaint artifact.
July 9, 2007

Lurkerdog
QOTD: Hands down, 2002 Rockledge Napa Zinfandel, very tanic, worst finish of any wine I have tasted. Tried it two times with the same result.
July 9, 2007

waibeans
hey yo GV!

great show from friday. I’m back from a trip to ATL so i’m watching the show late. In answer to your QOD, we visited Chateau Elan while we were in GA and we went through their tasting. The WORST wine I had was their American Pinot Noir which IMO tasted like rotton fruit. It really was pretty gross. They make alot of flavored wines as well but one true wine that I liked was their Viogner. Picked up some to bring home as a souvenier!

also off topic i saw you on a tv show yesterday: Uncorked! Not sure if its an oldie, but you were doing a guess the price gimmic. Pretty impressive, how you called a wine listed as 9.99 as too high was unblieveable.. the real price was 8.99.

Lata GV can’t wait to see the new announcements!
July 9, 2007

ed w
You, you, you…you’re good! Calif pinots are getting like other grapes…too much alcohol. losing their uniqueness BUT maybe that’s what they are. Kosta is still a great bottle of wine.
July 9, 2007

wayno da wino
QOTD: Domaine Wachau – Gruner Veltliner
Terrassen/Federspiel 2005 – This wine
cost me $10 & it ain’t worth 10 cents !!
YUK !! YUK !! QUADRUPLE QUK !!!!!!
July 9, 2007

Daniel
Nice Episode. I like blins tastings and would like to see then with different wine varietals…

(lurker no more I’m from Brazil and I did not read Time Magazine
July 9, 2007

EricB
I like the “blind” format, makes it more interesting.
Did anyone else notice the shirt blindfold looked like a “superhero” mask – like Robin (i.e. Batman) – funny. “Wineman” anyone?
I’ve noticed a lot of PLUS “+” scores lately…. just give it a score. There may be a few instances where it is justified (like 89+) but lately it’s been given for way to many wines.
July 9, 2007

Jayhitek
Has every show the past 2 weeks been the Thunder show?
July 9, 2007

wildebeest
Alright! Kosta Brown in the SF Vaynerglass!

Thank you for the Paris Hilton comment.

QOTD: The worst wine I’ve had in the last 14 days was the 2004 Grant Burge “Kraft” Sauvignon Blanc. I bought four of these at a deep discount in the hopes that they’d at least be decent everyday wines for the summer, BUT… no such luck. Oddly, I’m not too upset about it. It’s actually kind of nice to have a wine around that doesn’t disappear as soon as I open the bottle. This stuff is so out of balance that my girlfriend (and most of our friends) can’t handle it. But it doesn’t apologize for its faults, and I like that. If it tried to smooth over its faults with sugar, I’d probably just give the stuff away. But, as it is, I’ve got three somewhat enjoyable bottles entirely to myself.
July 9, 2007

YoungDave
FANTASTIC blind tasting, BIG G.- you basically nailed it.

QOTD: In line with my comment from the other day, the worst wine(s) that I’ve had in the last week were definintely the teo Portuguese reds that my friend’s Dad offered us on the 4th of July. I hate to seem like wine snob with my non-wine-drinking friends, but they quickly agreed with me when I had to label these wines as nothing more than… “bad.” Call me crazy, but when you give ANY wine a sniffy sniff and get NOTHING, then taste it to get a thin, chemically, alcoholic flavor profile, it’s not exactly something to write home about…unless you want to tell your folks at home that you’ve just had an absolutely aweful wine.
July 9, 2007

KW
Kool on the Kosta Browne tasting. Tried to find a bottle last year but haven’t yet. But at $150 bones – I can skip it.
July 8, 2007

wolfie
qotd: had a lindeman’s chard that was pretty much a suckfest.
July 8, 2007

Jim in Atlanta
Thanks for doing pinot, including one I can afford. Creative blind tasting format. QOTD – Had two corked wines in the past week at good restaurants. Otherwise no bad wine in past 2 weeks.
July 8, 2007

Colin Nicol
This is an awesome episode, this is in my top 5. Way to bring the Thunder on a Friday.
July 8, 2007

Kraemer
Great show, Gary! You have inspired me to grill out tonight!

QOTD: 2004 Kangaroo Ridge Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. One shallow, one dimensional, and completely artifical tasting. Thankfully, it’s still drinkable.
July 8, 2007

Carlitos
I’m back, and catching up!

QOTD: Man, we’ve been to the Pinot Days in SF and then to Napa-Sonoma for three days, so there was a lot of wine, good and some bad. I’m going to stick with the one I had yesterday 2004 Domaine des Causses Lirac Syrah Reserve that I got from WL.