About AldenAlli
Dan Kosta was a sommelier at Santa Rosa's famed John Ash & Co. in 1997 when he and coworker Michael Browne pooled $1,400 in tips to buy a half-ton of Pinot Noir grapes, founding Kosta Browne, the label that became Wine Spectator's 2011 Wine of the Year and a defining American Pinot house. For his second act, Kosta partnered with his friend, chef Emeril Lagasse, and the Lagasse family, launching AldenAlli with the 2013 vintage.
The winery's unusual name blends the first names of the partners' wives, Alden Lagasse and Allison. Winemaker Shane Finley, a longtime Kosta Browne assistant winemaker, crafts allocated Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir from sites like Campbell Ranch in the mountains above Annapolis, plus a lush Limerick Lane Zinfandel, with bottles pouring at Lagasse restaurants and selling out quickly most everywhere else.
