By Charles Olken

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the highly regarded, widely admired Pinot Noirs of Kosta Browne are enjoyed only by “novices”. If you like them, you don’t know diddly squat according to the Chronicle and its boyish wine judge.

He apparently has never heard that there can be no disputes in matters of taste. It is not enough that he and his admittedly euro-trained palate cannot abide Kosta Browne and most vinous things Californian. He wants you know that if you do like those wines, you are a wine idiot. You know nothing. You have not learned enough to get out of your own way.

So, let me say it out loud. It is time for these kinds of arrogant writings to be dismissed as serious comments on the wines of the West Coast. People like this have learned nothing about the reality in the wine world. Apparently, if a Pinot Noir does not follow their narrow, European-determined definitions, they feel no compunction about dismissing that wine out of hand.

These are the same people who bray on and on about terroir and authenticity. And then they tell us that the wines of California will only pass muster if they reflect the terroir and structure of France. In so doing, they turn useful concepts into intellectual garbage.

Now, believe me, I don’t begrudge them their preferences in Pinot Noir or in anything else. Each to his own taste. Everyone should like what they like and drink what they like. I believe that. Most of us who love wine do. But, these people do not.

And they have got to stop telling me and millions of fans of California wines that we are know-nothings just because we do not subscribe to their idiosyncratic views of the world. The wines of Kosta Browne, of Paul Hobbs, of DuMOL, of Tom Dehlinger are lovely, rich, deep interpretations of Pinot Noir. They smell and taste like Pinot Noir. They are not raisined or sweet or simple. They are simply different from 13% alcohol Burgundies. They are authentic, real and wholly enjoyable.

They are reflections of the land where they are grown. They are clearly not the only interpretations possible, and they do not need to appeal to every palate. But to proclaim them as wines for the unknowing is to proclaim that only they know what wine should taste like. It is an arrogant, narrow-minded view, and it is horribly misleading because it insists that every winery remake itself in the image of Burgundy.

It is sad to think that we still have that message being circulated after all these years of success with styles that range from the lighter works of Peay and Littorai to the rich offerings of Hobbs, Dehlinger, Talley and, yes, Kosta Browne. And it is time for the California wine industry to stand up for itself and to root out the cancer, the utter rubbish, that says that California is only successful when it imitates Europe.