2018 Kahler Cellars Pinot Noir Sonoma County 750 ml

This dazzling, fog-cooled Sonoma Pinot Noir was never meant to be available to the general public by the bottle, and after these bottles disappear it never will be again.

Developed exclusively for by-the-glass pours at one of the best restaurants in Healdsburg, it was a passion project where price was no object and quality was everything. The grapes were sourced from a legendary Russian River Valley vineyard, just ten miles from the coast and richly appointed with the same Goldridge loam soils as Dutton-Goldfield and Ramey’s famous sites.

The biodynamically farmed, high-density plantings that produced its lithe concentration are rarely found outside Burgundy. The French oak treatment was luxurious, befitting its white-tablecloth destination. The value would originally have worked out to around $85 per bottle, and the sommelier would have insisted you order it with the $60 wood-fired duck breast.

But restaurateurs are fickle creatures, which is how this marvelously classic Pinot Noir landed in our lap instead of at a spot where reservations were booked three months out.

In another sensational deal from member favorite producer Kahler Cellars, you can drink like a big spender while saving an astounding 65% on a Pinot that most of us would never have had access to in the first place.

Kahler has developed a unique underground following among Sonoma and Napa insiders—they’ve got friends in high places that allow them to do deals few others can match. Backed by a multi-generational family legacy of winemaking, they mine the same coveted vineyards as Kistler, Ramey, and Aubert, quietly patching together sensational bargains that regular buyers almost never see. Usually only wine program directors get access to them.

They developed this beautifully supple Pinot at the behest of a multi-millionaire restaurant owner willing to spend lavishly to add a premium by-the-glass Pinot to the wine list. To meet his exacting specifications, he had the folks at Kahler tap one of their best vineyard sources, where costs are high, quantities low, and quality sublime.

Located in the Green Valley sub-AVA of the Russian River Valley, the site is where the coastal fog first creeps in through the Petaluma Gap, and it’s the last place where it dissipates by mid-morning. That fact alone extends the growing season, allowing for even, complex maturity while maintaining vibrant, taut acids.

In 2018, everything came together beautifully—right up until the day Kahler read in the newspaper that the restaurateur who had poured investments into this wine had closed the location down. Thanks to a recent string of bombshell deals, Kahler thought of us first to move the exquisite final product.

It’s the extremely rare exception to the rule that best-in-class Pinots are a rich person’s game. Few Sonoma releases are as impressive for the price.