2015 Pinot Noir Soberanes Vineyard

This small, Anderson Valley-based winery produces elegant Chardonnays from some of the Santa Lucia Highlands' and Sonoma County's most prestigious vineyards as well as from their own 12 acres of vines in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley. Rebecca and Tom Birdsall established Black Kite in 2003 and winemaker Jeff Gaffner, who trained under Dick Arrowood, came on board in 2005. While the wines are stylistically on the graceful side they do see up to two-thirds new oak for the Pinots and 50% for the Chardonnays, which, in my experience, is usually absorbed with a few years of bottle age. Production here is still on the artisanal scale, especially in low-crop vintages like 2015, it has been increasing steadily in recent years and the wines are well worth looking for.