Black Kite

Located out in the wilds of the Sebastopol area, Black Kite is a gem.  You have to venture back into lovely country out near Occidental, but the drive is very beautiful.  You don’t feel like you’re in California anymore.  It looks more like Snohomish, Washington.

The folks at Black Kite ask that you make a reservation ahead, but they also said they take walk-ins.

The staff are amazingly accommodating.  As you can see from the image on the left, there were quite a few wines to try.  Our host was knowledgeable about the area, the wines, the vineyards and the history of the winery.  Pretentious? Nope.  The guy was relaxed and patient.  I mean, we tend to do a lot of analysis of every wine we try, throwing out scents and flavors.  Our host played right along as we chatted amiably.  

The wines are very good, minerally, nuanced and each one very different from the next.  The price-point averages $65.00.  There are familiar vineyards that we have seen at other wineries such as Robert’s Road and Gap’s Crown.

The only issue we ran into was a new paint and wood finish scent that took away from being able to completely focus on the wine.  Other than that, we would suggest making the trip!