PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
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 named for our daughters, PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon and SANNA Sauvignon Blanc.
Terroir & Alchemy
Kristof Nils Anderson was the founding winemaker of Gargiulo Vineyards in the Oakville AVA, Napa Valley for 18 years before leaving in 2021 to focus on his own brand. Working with vineyard managers Laurie Wood & Mark Neal, Kristof was also the founding winemaker for the Booth Family Vineyards (now Bella Oaks) 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 clean farming & low-intervention winemaking techniques that begin with meticulous viticultural practices, Kristof was also co-founder/founding winemaker of 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’s career has been unique, in that he has primarily made wine from estate vineyards that he designed, developed & planted in concert with vineyard managers, in addition to overseeing winery planning & construction. Additionally, he has been the consulting winemaker for numerous wine labels in Napa and Sonoma, including Carlo and Dante Mondavi’s RAEN.
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 and then re-launched the PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon brand in 2022.
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.”
“This is Napa Sauvignon Blanc in its most under-the-radar form…Imagine the most vivid, just-picked Sauvignon Blanc grapes…with a mouthfeel so clean it’s like drinking pure sunlight, fresh, precise, alive. This is the bottle winemakers keep for themselves.” —AngieSomm
Clean-farmed | Zero Sugar | Cold-fermented | Lower Alc
"Perfection is difficult to achieve and even harder for me to acknowledge, but [the PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon 2006) 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
Beyond Labels
Jennifer Anderson, Director of Sales & Marketing for KNA Wines, is a writer and former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She and Kristof, two native Californians, met at Wheaton College in Illinois in 1989. “The more I work with Kristof,” she says, “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.
In an era of self-promotion, he is self-effacing and stoic, with a quiet sense of humor; perhaps that’s Swedish jantelagen at work. More than once I’ve seen him craft a wine that gets 100 points, but meanwhile he has moved on to another project and doesn’t get the credit or fame. I’ve watched him mentor a younger generation of winemakers, never expecting gratitude or recognition, just motivated by pure love of winemaking.”
Winemaker Driven
…but it’s all about the vineyard, and then ultimately the wine…
“Kristof makes wine the hard way, never cutting corners, which sometimes isn’t fun. It boils down to basics like math formulas, 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. I have heard him say that he likes to think of himself as a feather when he makes wine, meaning that he wants his touch to be feather light.
Because of that humility and feather-light touch, his wines have an understated, restrained style that only looks effortless; it requires a master touch to achieve balance and harmony. Sometimes critics fail to appreciate the almost Scandinavian minimalism of his wines—even his most opulent and hedonistic wines—which still embody elegance and refinement.
I want to tell people this: Know your winemaker. If he or she makes wines of integrity, that’s the most important thing. These are the wines that endure.”