Kosta Browne vs Quivet, only buying one.

I will be able to purchase Quivet for the first time next week. I have bought KB for years and really like their wine. I’m just really turned off at paying $90/bottle for their appellation wine after tax and shipping. I’m a big Syrah fan and want to try Mike Smith wine. thinking of just getting double the amount of Quivet for the same price campared to KB and just getting the single vineyards when offered. Any advice?

Quivet

Such different wines, but I understand the predicament.
Personally, I actually preferred KB appellation wines over their SVDs. I was a buyer from around the 2005 vintage until 2014.
In many years, I did not see much distinction with the SVD wines. Now, granted, I did not taste them side my side so my recollection was one of memory. It was just that I did not find them particularly distinctive.
Since you have had KB wines and sounds like you plan on buying their SVD wines in the Fall, then go with Quivet.

Personally, if you like syrah, I think his Myriad syrahs are some of the best wines he makes. The Las Madres Esther Block and Sugarloaf syrahs are fantastic wines.

Yea not sure I’ll get offered his myriad ones as they go so quick. When I got the offer last month all that was left was the semillio.

Sounds like you are already pre-disposed. The great thing is that for $45 or lower, there are tons of great syrahs out there throughout the state and in OR and WA as well . . .

Quivet Syrah is definitely a great QPR, but there is no way I can tell you it is preferable to KB Pinot. If you have lots of good Pinot choices in your cellar, then by all means, go for the Quivet. First world problems…

KB pinot is overpriced and mediocre. Almost 100 for appellation Pinot is a joke

+1.

For me not worth the tariff with so many good CA and OR SVD Pinots available in the $50 - $70 range.

Quivet. Mike Smith wines are great value and you don’t feel bad popping them open on a weekday night

I like KB but rarely buy it because of the inflated price caused by the infatuation that WS and TWA have had with the wine for 10+ years. I am stocking up on Quivet before it suffers a similar fate and I recommend that you do the same. As much as you can afford.

One of my tasting groups tasted eight high-end 2015 California Pinot Noirs last week. The tasting was blind and there were two wines from Kosta Browne - the Sonoma Coast and the Russian River. Both wines fell into the pinot-on-steroids camp and both had too much oak and too much alcohol. I ranked them 6th and 7th and it’s hard to imagine them ever turning into something good. Conversely, I’ve never had a wine from Quivet that I didn’t like.

This topic is like apples vs oranges to me. Quivet and kb have virtually nothing in common. Different varieties altogether.

This.

Such a strange comparison.

And KB isn’t mediocre wine, not by any means - it’s just overpriced vis-à-vis CA Pinot of similar quality.

First, I love Mike’s wines and have been buying since the 2006 vintage. It this really is talking apples and oranges. And KB may have its obvious haters but I think it is well worth the $72 tariff. And with tax and shipping it worked out to $81 per bottle on my case purchased, which is not $100. Maybe if you only buy three, the shipping is more…

Now if you want to compare KB with Williams Selyem you have a better comparison. Then I would split my purchases but the Westside Neighbors is now up to $72 and I bought all they’d sell me.

I disagree that it is apples versus oranges. It’s more like Valencia versus Navel Oranges. They are both fermented grape juice. It’s not like comparing KB to a renault race car, or Quivet to the Mona Lisa. The question is which of the two wines delivers more pleasure for the dollar. Those who only drink pinot and would rather commit suicide than drink a Napa cab, or vice versa, or those who think Dan Kosta or Mike Smith are the spawn of the devil who should be drawn and quartered, should stay out of the way because their opinions are useless to Mr. Migliano.

I happen to like both wines. I just check CT and I have 11 bottles of each, including the one bottle of Quivet on the floor of the cellar because there is no room for it. However, I have not bought any Kosta Brown since the 2010 vintage and I am currently a Quivet, although it appears that I forgot to buy last year. I will rectify that this year. Both wines have their place in a diversified cellar, but one on one, if I could buy only one bottle, it would be Quivet because, on average, I get more please per dollar out of Quivet than KB. KB was a good deal 10-15 years ago, before they showed up on the front cover of WS and people went nuts over them. Quivet is still a bit obscure, so I recommend that you gobble it up before it goes the way of other wines that became industry darlings and dramatically increased in price.

Richard - were there any pinots in your line up of particular note?

KB has reached the breaking point on pricing and it kills me because I’ve always loved the wine. While they are stellar wines, there are a good number of wineries producing wine as good and you can buy three bottles for the price of one. I don’t know the impact of pricing by the current owners of KB.

Hey John. The group’s favorite wine (and mine too) was the Roar “Pisoni”. Oddly, the group’s least favorite wine was the Roar “Garys”. It was completely different from the “Pisoni” - much lighter and more elegant, a word I’ve never before used to describe a pinot from Roar. (I liked it and ranked it third.) Another wine I liked a lot was the Williams Selyem “Eastside Neighbors”. The only other “notable” wine was the Aubert “UV Vineyard” - overripe flavors, heavy-handed new oak and an alcohol level that singed my nose hairs when I smelled it.

I totally agree with the comparison of apples and oranges. The OP’s question only makes sense if, under a fixed budget (which is implied), which would you purchase? Of course, only he can answer the question. I also find the KB’s to be right at $80 with tax/shipping and W-S just a few dollars less. If the price of K-B keeps going up, I will start buying more W-S. I’m afraid that sooner or later, I will have to find replacements for both. I keep looking - Benovia (tasted this year) is definitely a candidate, but it isn’t cheap either. I quit buying Arista Pinot when the price went over $80 per bottle. I thought Sojourn would fill a gap, but the price of most of them is over $70 with tax and shipping. It is a sad thing to get priced out of something you enjoy…