Last Week's Tasting
Byron Kosuge - Pinot Noir and Friends on California's North Coast.
July 30, 2025
Tasters found the Syrah "Amazing."It sold out but a little more is coming this week and still more by the end of the month. We can't recommend it strongly enough.
Tasters found the Syrah "Amazing."It sold out but a little more is coming this week and still more by the end of the month. We can't recommend it strongly enough.
We were happy to welcome back Byron Kosuge, authentically an artisanal winemaker. He crafts wines that are full of fruit, characterized by clarity and precision that caress your palate. You can taste the wines' origins. His talents are in meticulous winemaking and good taste, more than self-promotion. Virtually a one-person operation, his tiny production has escaped the notice of the claque of critics. Still, it has impressed our Federalista customers over the last few years and made him one of our favorites.
He says it best himself:
"I am a native Californian, born and raised in the Central Valley. I'm a purist. I prefer unadorned wines, or at least those that carry their adornment gracefully. I want to be as natural as I can, but don't consider myself a "natural" winemaker in the current sense of the term. Like most new-world winemakers, I am inspired by old-world wines, but I firmly believe that in the new world, we should be creating our own traditions and not merely copying what came before.
I like working the vines, sorting grapes when they arrive at the winery, pumping over and punching down, driving the forklift, and dragging hoses.”
With his characteristic modesty, he omits that in the 90s, he was the winemaker at Saintsbury, then an icon of California Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
His Sonoma Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are quietly bravura wines that now come from a vineyard on the border of the premium West Sonoma Coast, which gives them more definition. At the same time, in 2022, they are more approachable and softer.
It's worth coming to the tasting for the 2009 Syrah alone. From the Hudson Ranch in Carneros, it's now at its peak of maturity. It's ripe and balanced with the beginnings of secondary notes, a joy for the palate.
Byron also makes wines for MacIntyre Vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands. Their 2020 Dornfelder is made with a grape native to Germany but rarely grown in this country. It is hearty and dark-fruited, given a degree of finesse by an overlay of pleasing spice.
White
2022 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast; Aroma: Heady, rich, and intense with herbal notes; Mouth: Clean, sweet forward, intense, dry, minerally, firm, lean acidity, good length; Very Good - Excellent $43; Prearrival Case, $35
Rose
2024 Pinot Noir Rose; Color: very light, clean, fresh; Aroma: fresh, rounded, a touch of melon; Mouth: clean, bright, nice lemony acidity, clean finish, long; Very Good Plus $23.99; Case, $19.99, one case only
Red
2023 Pinot Noir;Carneros; Color: Very dark, Aroma: heady rich nose, some spice, light in the nose, plummy; Mouth: rounded, curbed dark fruit, fullish, fat, firm, tactile sticks to the tongue; Very Good Plus $32; Prearrival Case, $26.99
2022 Pinot Noir El Galpon Carneros; This is selected fruit from a single Carneros vineyard, aged solely in concrete to focus on the subtlety of the fruit.
I liked the 2021 very much.
Aroma: heady, very deep, rather dense, firm, richly warm; Mouth: juicy, intense bright acid, dark blackberry fruit, soft, rich, firm, clean long; Very Good Plus $40; Prearrival Case $32
2022 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast; Color: Light red; Aroma: Light fresh, clean, softly herbal, assertive, round red fruit, fragrant, raspberry; Mouth: Bright acid, clean, supple, mouth-filling, bright intense, fine acid, very clean, lithe; Very Good - Excellent $45; Prearrival Case, $36
2009 Syrah Hudson Vineyard Carneros; Aroma: heady lifted, aromatic bacon, rich & sweet, tapenade; Mouth: sweet, dense, fine, avid, dark, jammy fresh, secondary notes, fine tannins, low toned long; Excellent $45; Prearrival Case, $36
2020 McIntyre Vineyards Dornfelder; Color: very dark black red; Aroma: light, heady, fresh, pretty, juicy, and fine; Mouth: clean, light, angular in the back, firm, heady, richly dense fruit, long; Very Good Plus $37; Prearrival case, $29.99
Mix any 12 bottles at their case prices
The two prearrival wines will arrive in about a month.
Miix any twelve or more at their case prices
Len Rothenberg
Order by phone at 617.367.8605, or reserve here: Click to Order
Please pass this on to any friends who are wine enthusiasts!
FREE DELIVERY!
downtown on orders more than $75;
in Greater Boston on orders more than $199
