Littorai Wines
SEBASTOPOL
788 Gold Ridge Rd.
tel. (707) 823-9586
www.littorai.com info@littorai.com
8 ac – 48,000 bt
‘‘A visit to Littorai will make you understand the significance of this winery: besides crafting wines of absolute quality, among the very best in California, the commitment to vineyards and environment is highly commendable, with painstaking attention to detail, including the production of their own biodynamic preparations, infusions and plant extracts’’
PEOPLE
Winemaker and owner Ted Lemon and his wife Heidi founded Littorai, the Latin plural for “coasts,” in 1993. Lemon studied winemaking in Dijon and worked at several estates including Domaine Dujac. He set a precedent as the first American to be appointed as winemaker and vineyard manager in Burgundy at Domaine Guy Roulot.
VINEYARDS
Lemon’s 30-acre biodynamic farm is home to the three-acre estate vineyard The Pivot and indigenous hole-nesting bees, Osmia lignaria, that are vital pollinators. In 2001 he acquired the Haven which has five-acres under vine in nearby Occidental. The winery also sources fruit from sites on the Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley that are farmed to Lemon’s specifications.
WINES
The Haven Vineyard Pinot Noir 2014 (great wine) delivers aromas of dried rose petals, exotic patchouli spice and darker fruit with the intensity and restraint found in wines like Chambolle-Musigny. Littorai Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2017 is made from the estate’s the Pivot vineyard blended with lots from all the single vineyards Lemon works with. It’s lighter body and intensity showing cranberry, early blackberry, earth, and forest floor. Planted and farmed under Lemon’s direction, Mays Canyon Chardonnay 2016 is whole-cluster Old Wente and Dijon clones with pronounced intensity, lemon juice, and lemon pith framed by a chalky mineral texture and high acidity.
FERTILIZERS compost
PLANT PROTECTION none
WEED CONTROL mechanical
YEASTS spontaneous fermentation
GRAPES purchase 50%
CERTIFICATION none