UNCOMPROMISING TECHNIQUE.
INTEGRITY. VITALITY. power.
THESE ARE WINEMAKER-DRIVEN WINES born out of three decades of vertical integration, from the vineyard, to the winery, enology lab, bottling line, and cellar. WELCOME TO KNA WINES.
Kristof Nils Anderson Wines, Napa Valley, is the personal label of Kristof & Jennifer Anderson. We are pleased to offer two rare vins de terroir of distinction, PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon, Star Vineyard, Rutherford, & SANNA Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley.
A Napa & Sonoma winemaker who works like a composer.
Known for the way tannins “dance” in his wines, Kristof credits an incredible detail orientation, including farming vine-by-vine & blending myriad small fermentation lots, for the characteristic purity of fruit, complexity & aging potential of his signature style. Kristof’s wines reflect a virtuoso’s palate. Like a composer, he orchestrates diverse elements for harmony, with an uncanny ability to sense how a wine will evolve in the medium of time, creating wines that seem to live & breathe, with movement and energy.
"My favorite wines are always the ones that taste most like the fruit in the vineyard the morning we pick."
— Kristof Nils Anderson
“The SEVEN”
We’ve affectionately nicknamed our 7-year library vertical of PELLA 2003-2009 “The SEVEN.” Tasting through the vertical provides an extraordinary sensory and spatiotemporal experience.
Taste the evolution of terroir with the passage of time. 100% Napa Valley Cabernet. 100% French Oak. Unfiltered, unfined. This is what KNA Wines is all about: offering unique tasting experiences - from the winemaker’s perspective.
Terroir & Alchemy
Kristof Nils Anderson is the founding winemaker of Gargiulo Vineyards in the Oakville AVA, Napa Valley. Working in concert with vineyard managers Laurie Wood & Mark Neal, Kristof was also the founding winemaker for the Booth Family Vineyards of Belle & Barney Rhodes in Rutherford AVA, Napa Valley. He was lead winemaker for the coveted Oakville Winegrowers Cuvee (2011-13 blends) and is known for the nuance, balance & integrity of his wines, contributing stylistically to the world-renowned Oakville, Napa Valley, AVA.
A pioneer in natural & non-interventionist winemaking techniques that begin with meticulous viticultural practices, Kristof is also co-founder/founding winemaker of natural wine phenomenon Scribe Winery in Sonoma. There, he established a winemaking program known for aromatics & fruit-forward elegance. Karen MacNeil (The Wine Bible, 2nd Edition) described his Scribe estate Riesling as possessing “Audrey Hepburn-like grace.”
Kristof enjoys a pleasure unique among winemakers in that he makes wine from estate vineyards that he designed, developed & planted in concert with vineyard managers, in addition to overseeing winery planning & construction.
He and his wife Jennifer started the PELLA Cabernet label in 2002. Their radical vision was extended aging before release, cellaring their classically-made, Bordeaux-inspired, vineyard designate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon for optimal drinkability. They produced vintages from 2002-2009, all of which are still available, except for the sold-out 2002 and 2003. Harvest of 2022 marks the highly anticipated year of relaunching the PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon brand.
SANNA Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley, joined their offerings with the 2019 vintage. “The clay soil in Napa loves Sauvignon Blanc, & we do, too," says Jennifer, who manages the KNA Wines brand.
“These wines are my ultimate expression of terroir, a word conjured up to describe the indescribable alchemy of growing grapes for fermentation into wine, to enrich our individual experiences of life," Kristof says.
“Basically I’m a chef who grows his own ingredients. By being small, I’m vertically integrated. In other words, nothing happens at any stage of the winemaking where I’m not involved in the decision.”
Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley
"A very expressive nose of freshly picked Sauvignon Blanc grapes with aromatics of passion fruit, green melon rind, honeysuckle flowers and a variety of tropical fruits. The wine may be all fun and flashy on the nose but the flavors on the palate multiply with tart green apple, pears and citrus. A long complex finish builds with acidity peeling back layers of flavors.”
—Back Room Wines, Napa
SANNA by KNA Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2022
“Collectors take note – with both a fine vineyard and winemaker pedigree, such limited production, and a rare current release featuring wines with extended aging – these wines won’t last long.”
"I don't get overly excited about many wines, particularly if they have any extended age. Age, for the sake of age, is not my thing. Extended cellaring that transforms a bottle of wine into something otherworldly, now you have my attention. The 2006 Pella Star Vineyard Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon, yes 2006, no typo here, is drinking otherworldly now. Still inky in the glass, it begins with a powerful nose of briary black currants, freshly ground espresso beans, milk chocolate, and sweet vanilla spice. The palate is rich and decadent with deep black fruits, concentrated Creme de Cassis, delicate florals, and an unbelievably supple mouthfeel. The finish is very long, linear, expansive, and as compelling as you might hope to experience. Perfection is difficult to achieve and even harder for me to acknowledge, but this wine is about as close as I have seen. Simply brilliant! I tasted two bottles over several days, and my notes are consistent. Wow!" 98 Points
—Kevin M. Vogt, Master Sommelier 5/29/22
Winemaker Driven
…but it’s all about the vineyard, and then ultimately the wine…
Beyond Labels
Jennifer Anderson is a writer and former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She and Kristof, two native Californians, met at Wheaton College in Illinois in 1989. “I have gradually become more immersed in Kristof’s world of wine production as our family has grown older,” she says, “first in creating our e-commerce site, then in grape sampling, tasting, blending, and writing tasting notes.”
During the Napa fires of 2020, she worked with Kristof in his lab, preparing micro-ferments and listening to winemaking panels on smoke taint. “The more I work with Kristof, the more I admire his humility, work ethic, & integrity as a winemaker. He is someone who always considers the well-being of his production & vineyard teams first. He works side-by-side with them, in the middle of the night, in inclement weather, sometimes sleeping in his truck during harvest. In an era of self-promotion, he is self-effacing and stoic, with a quiet sense of humor. I am now watching him mentor a younger generation of winemakers, never expecting gratitude or recognition, just motivated by pure love of winemaking.”
“Kristof makes wine the hard way, never cutting corners, which is sometimes not fun. It boils down to basics like chemistry and meticulous data collection, but also having a talented palate and taste & olfaction memory that allows him to blend wine, projecting for the future. There is a beauty to his artistry in blending that builds on the rest.”
“In the fiercely competitive marketplace for small, independent brands, where wines like ours battle to find a spot on a bottle shop shelf, there is a new phenomenon of labeling wines according to various social values, such as woman-owned, organic, sustainably-farmed, first-generation winemaker, etc., perhaps in lieu of the old point score system that created unintended consequences, like wines meant to be showstoppers that didn’t age well or that lacked restraint and finesse. But these new forms of rhetoric are too reductive for me. They hint at something but fail to tell the whole story of the winemaking.”
“I want to tell people this, buy the wine that you think tastes the best. And this may not necessarily be the wine from the fanciest winery with million-dollar views, either. At the end of the day, I urge the consumer to transcend scores, value ratings and labels in favor of knowing who your winemaker is. If he or she makes wines of integrity, that is the most important thing. These are the wines that endure, are most pleasing to the palate, and integrate best with a healthy lifestyle.”