2018 Kinfolk Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Sonoma County 750 ml

Our drive through the Sonoma Coast one foggy morning in September took us past some of the most famous Pinot Noir vineyards in the United States. We stopped at Durrell Vineyard first, warming our hands on our cups of coffee as we walked through the vines. We then headed north past Home Ranch until we arrived at our destination. 

Our NDA-shrouded vineyard source, called “a top Sonoma Coast vineyard” by Wine Spectator, has supplied wineries like Kosta Brown, Three Sticks, Fulcrum, and Patz & Hall with grapes for some of their most sought-after wines from this rocky hillside. 

Philippe Melka-trained winemaker Britt Nichols, the force behind some of our top wines, was already waiting for us at the end of one of the rows when we got out of our car. She had glasses and an unlabeled bottle already uncorked. 

“Grapes from this particular producer usually go for around $7,000 per ton,” she said by way of greeting. “But I’m pretty sure we can get it for a lot less… I hope you brought your checkbook.”  

That unlabeled bottle was a prototype of the 2018 Kinfolk Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, and it was spectacular. Twelve months later, when we reconvened in our Napa offices to taste the finished wine, it was sensational: Aromas of mixed cherries, brambly berries, rose petals, and cola spice rolled into a silk-textured palate propelled forward by flavors of red and black raspberries, blood oranges, and a subtle kiss of vanilla. We’re offering it for $20 a bottle. For comparison, the specific producer who grew these grapes usually sells their Pinot for around $75.

The undulating vineyard ranges from 300 to 800 feet in altitude, and its location in the Petaluma Gap means that, in the best vintages like 2018, fresh temperatures prevail even in the warmest months, lending the wines energy alongside their inherent power. Wine Advocate has praised recent vintages of Pinot from there as “perfumed and elegantly styled,” “long and layered,” and possessing “wonderful intensity.”

The 2018 Kinfolk Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast shows all of that and then some. 2018, after all, was a vintage for the record books—and not just in terms of quantity. Wine Spectator noted that 2018 Sonoma Coast Pinots have “structure and concentration without being overripe,” which is exactly how we’d describe this one.

The only difference between the 2018 Kinfolk and its single-vineyard cousins is price: At less than half of what most of them cost, this is a serious value for a fantastic wine that Pinot lovers should jump at.