2014 Black Kite Cellars Pinot Noir

VIN92 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.
WA91+ Moving to the reds, 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.
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. I was only able to look at the Santa Lucia Highlands releases for this report. 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.

Rich, earthy and brooding with a lingering finish • A reference point for Santa Lucia Highlands
Soberanes; 400′ elevation; granite-laden sandy loams – Cold soaked for 48 hours and punched down three times daily. Aged for 10 months in a mix of new (50%) and one-year old French oak barrels