2018 Black Kite Cellars Pinot Noir Kite’s Rest Anderson Valley 750 ml

Robert Redford came into Napa Valley's iconic Tra Vigne restaurant on a busy Friday night, perusing a wine list that contained cult Napa Cabernets and French icons galore. But he’d arrived seeking one bottle: Black Kite. He gave it his personal stamp of approval, telling the servers "This is a wine you have to know, I simply love it."

Wines like the 93-point 2018 Kite’s Rest are why Wine Enthusiast has listed Black Kite among “America’s Best Pinot Noirs.” From winemaker Jeff Gaffner—who helped Château St. Jean take home a Wine Spectator Wine of the Year award—it’s a stunning expression of a site that Robert Whitley of Wine Review Online called “one of the most spectacular Pinot Noir vineyards in the New World.” 

For years, Wine Access members have been all in on Black Kite too, calling the wines “an outstanding value” and “competitive with wines costing 2 to 3 times” as much. This Pinot delivers the kind of uncompromising quality you normally expect from California’s cult producers, whose $80+ bottles disappear into high-profile cellars almost immediately upon release. 

Black Kite’s estate vineyard, Kite’s Rest, is located in the “Deep End” of Anderson Valley. It sits just ten miles from the Pacific Ocean, starting at the Navarro River and rising 400 feet to the edge of a redwood forest. With a northern exposure, the Pinot Noir grown here enjoys a longer hang time than the rest of Anderson Valley, promoting slow, even ripening—what every winemaker in the world wants.

This is the kind of Black Kite Pinot that got Robert Redford so excited he just had to share it, and we're passing on that enthusiastic recommendation to you.