United States · California

Ken Brown

Ken Brown is a Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producer with roots extending to his tenure as founding winemaker of Zaca Mesa (where he helped establish the winery in the 1970s) and later as winemaker at Byron (now The Nielson by Byron) before founding his own label in 2001. Brown's career represents some of the formative history of Santa Barbara County wine, and his namesake label focuses on single-vineyard Pinot Noir from the Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley. At auction, the estate averages $52 per bottle across 101 lots, with Radian Vineyard Pinot Noir ($60), the standard Pinot Noir ($53), and Cargasacchi Vineyard ($40) as the primary auction wines. Radian Vineyard sits at the windiest, coldest end of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA, where the Lompoc Valley wind gap creates extreme diurnal temperature variation and produces some of the appellation's most structured wines. Cargasacchi, a historic site in Sta. Rita Hills, averages lower at $40 — possibly reflecting smaller lot sizes or less collector awareness. The 2015 vintage appears most frequently as a reference point.