2016 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Treehouse Vineyard

Aged 16 months in 55% new French oak, the 2016 Pinot Noir Treehouse Vineyard is medium ruby-purple with a perfume of cranberry sauce, rhubarb and red berry jam hints with tree bark, underbrush, tobacco leaf and black cherries. The palate is medium to full-bodied, silky, rounded and slowly gains in amplitude in the mouth, giving up red then black fruits, spices, earth and savory notions. It has a sturdy frame of very finely grained tannins and juicy acidity to call you back for another sip, finishing long and nuanced. 1,300 cases produced.

Brought up in 45% new oak, the 2016 Pinot Noir Treehouse Vineyard comes from a site in the Russian River that has slightly redder soils, which always seems to give wines from this site more minerality as well as higher acidity. This 2016 offers a fresh, focused, yet seamless style to go with a huge bouquet of cassis, underbrush, violets, and hints of blood orange. On the palate, it’s medium-bodied, has beautifully integrated acidity, and a pretty, pure, graceful profile.

The 2016 Pinot Noir Treehouse is fiercely tannic and forbidding. Powerful and dense in the glass, the 2016 is shut down to a degree I have not seen in any other wine – bottled or barrel sample – that I have tasted from this site. The tannins will have to soften a great deal for the fruit to emerge. If that happens, the Treehouse may merit a more positive note in the future, but I am not sure the 2016 will find that balance.