Menu
Black Kite Pinot Noir Kite's Rest Anderson Valley 2014 - Last Bottle

Black Kite Pinot Noir Kite's Rest Anderson Valley 2014

So there we were just minutes ago, sipping coffee, checking emails when -- BAM!! -- this lands. Wow! 93-POINT, lush, delicious pinot from Black Kite?? Priced like this?? Best Tuesday ever!!

We FLIPPED for this tasting last week. It just crushed everything else on the bar (20+ wines) - to get it priced like this is amazing and a MUST if you love beautifully-made, finessed and silky pinot. Winemaker Jeff Gaffner had no less than Richard Arrowood as his mentor (Chateau St. Jean, Arrowood) and along with making all the high-scoring wines of Black Kite, he has his own much-respected label, Saxon Brown. But hey, let’s get back to how outrageously tantalizing this wine is, shall we? It’s like, filling up our office with glorious perfume!!

As the 93-point writeup suggests, it’s a fantastic balance of ripeness and finesse. We’d give it more points, personally. Silky cranberry and sweet juicy dark cherries, rich texture and just an overall sense of HARMONY, yes, that’s it!! An instant hit with ANYONE, we think, and at this PRICE? Man, load us up. Perfect drinking through the holidays and well into 2019 if you can wait that long! Not a lot of this to be had…(as we said earlier, it’s incredible to even HAVE this wine), so if sexy, sophisticated pinot loveliness is your bag, move quick!

The Wine Enthusiast described included Black Kite as "one of the most outstanding vineyards in Anderson Valley, proving to yield high-quality, memorable bottlings..."

The inspiration for Black Kite Cellars came many years ago when Rebecca and Tom Birdsall bicycled through the Burgundy region in France. After having traveled from the famous Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards of the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune regions of the Côte d’Or, they began wondering, " Would it be possible to apply the Burgundian terroir-oriented approach in California?"

Technical Details

Country: United States
Region: California
Appellation: Mendocino County
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Vineyard: Kite's Rest
Winemaker: Jeff Gaffner
Farming: Sustainable, organic
Alcohol: 14.90%

About The Producer

The opportunity to answer this question presented itself in 1995 when Rebecca’s parents, Donald and Maureen Green, purchased a remote 40 acre hillside parcel overlooking the Navarro River. The land is located in the bucolic Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, just north of Sonoma County along the Pacific Ocean. At the time the site featured beautiful Redwood groves, lush vegetation and a small, old Gewürztraminer vineyard planted on four acres along the river frontage. Seeing that Anderson Valley growers were having great success with Pinot Noir, the family decided to convert the vineyard to Pinot Noir and expand up the hill. 

All of the natural conditions needed to produce a Burgundian style wine were in place: the right land, the right exposure, the right soil, and the right climate. So in 1999, the existing vineyard block was replanted to Pinot Noir, and two new vineyard blocks were developed on the hillside above the river, increasing the vineyard acreage to 12 acres.

Pairing Suggestions

Poached salmon, braised duck breast, garlic and herb roast pork tenderloin, stuffed mushrooms

Your daily purveyor of fine wines.

We’re wine drinkers, collectors, and part of the global wine trade. Mostly, we are totally stoked to bring you incredible juice at the best prices we can possibly obtain, every day.
Sign Up for FREE

Don’t miss out on up to 70% off great wines. Sign up now