Pinot Noir fans, gather ‘round!

Today we proudly bring you another triumphant first for TWS. THE Black Kite Cellars!! A true cult powerhouse in the high-end spectrum of Pinot, this double 92-pointer single-vineyard stunner will rock you to your core! We’re still a little stunned to have ANYTHING from these guys, especially at this price.

Rarely discounted, it’s worth every penny of its $50 price tag but at 55% off?? Wow…

Black Kite is a small family-run winery with a healthy obsession making Burgundian style Pinot and Chardonnay. This comes from the Sobranes Vineyard in Santa Lucia Highlands (often called the Côte-d’Or of California) and is born from the legendary Pisoni Clone! Yeah, good luck finding that for 25 bucks out there.

Vinous advises that Black Kite produces, “elegant wines from some of the Santa Lucia Highlands’ most prestigious vineyards… on the artisanal scale, and the wines are well worth looking for.” and Wine Advocate echoes that “Pinot Noirs from Black Kite Cellars come highly recommended!”

ABUNDANCE is the word here. This has it all - harmony, POWER, sophistication and depth. Rich and polished ripe fruit comes storming out the gate with a flood of sweet black cherry, ripe summer strawberries, raspberry compote, and a deep vein of toasty, well integrated oak, adding an exotic vanilla crème / burnt caramel aspect. Flanked by rich baking spices on all sides, it also brings a subtle but intriguing earthy / mushroom note along for the ride. Weighty and lavishly textured, it carries into a lengthy finish and still seems incredibly youthful with years ahead of it.

Jeff Gaffner is the magician behind this wine. He made the world famous 1996 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepages, a Wine Spectator #1 Wine of the Year. He also leads the charge at his own highly esteemed, venerable Saxon-Brown. Oh, yeah, great reviews on this Pinot too, Black Kite NEVER skips a beat with the wine press!

If you love complex, beautiful, age-worthy Pinot you NEED to get in on this. A total treat, and a must have at our price, while the limited supply lasts.

92 Points – Antonio Galloni’s Vinous

“Deep, limpid ruby-red. An exotically perfumed bouquet evokes candied red and dark berries, Asian spices and floral oils, along with a minerally nuance in the background. Sappy, penetrating and appealingly sweet, offering sappy black raspberry and rose pastille flavors and a hint of spicecake. Shows impressive depth and power but comes off lithe; smooth tannins come up slowly to frame the sappy fruit on the impressively long finish. Drink 2018-2023.”

92 Points – Wine Enthusiast

“There’s an intriguing mix of smokiness, tangy cranberry and sanguine notes on the nose of this bottling from a winery obsessed with the Burgundian style. The palate combines aromatic and woody flavors of juniper, pine needle, bay leaf and eucalyptus with base notes of baked red cherry. Fascinatingly, it’s richer in spice than in fruit.”

91+ Points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“This small, family run estate was created in 2003 by Rebecca and Tom Birdsall and Donald and Marueen Green. The wines have been made by Jeff Gaffner since 2005, and today they release four wines from the Santa Lucia Highlands, as well as a number of wines from the Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley AVAs. Looking at these wines, Jeff prefers a three- to five-day cold soak to get as much extraction without alcohol, and malolactic is always in barrel. All of the wines are destemmed and aging is in French oak, 50% being new on average. The 2014 Pinot Noir Soberanes Vineyard is a medium-bodied, lively and pure effort that offers classy notes of black raspberries, toasted spice and sappy herbs. Drink this pretty, elegant Pinot over the coming 6-7 years.”