2016 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Block E

As usual, Ted Lemon offers terrific perspective that comes from both experience and working across a number of sites in both Sonoma and Anderson Valley. Lemon told me he saw more fruit that needed to be sorted out because of heat in Anderson Valley than in Sonoma. "Two thousand seventeen was a warm year," Ted Lemon opined. "But I also saw many days with wider temperature gradients from coastal to inland sites than I am used to." As for the wines, they are superb. Among the 2017s, my impression is that the Pinots have a bit more potential than the Chardonnays. The Wendling in particular is shaping up to be a real gem. The bottled 2016s have turned out as I had expected.

My annual visit with Ted Lemon was one of the highlights of the ten days I spent in Sonoma earlier this year. The range of single-vineyard Pinots and Chardonnays are essays into the great terroirs of the Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley. The 2016 Pinots are stunning for their aromatic depth and crystalline precision, while the 2015s, from a much richer vintage, are quite different in style, but every bit as compelling. Readers will find two superb back to back vintages in the Littorai 2016 and 2015 Pinots. The Chardonnays are a bit more difficult to grasp. Some of the 2016s had been racked into tank a few days before my visit, while the 2015s appear to be still in a state of bottle shock. None of that should be a huge issue over time. Still, I give a slight nod to Pinot over Chardonnay for consistency across both vintages. Ted Lemon describes 2016 as a year with relatively normal flowering and even maturation. Harvest took place over five full weeks. In 2015, on the other hand, protracted flowering led to uneven levels of ripeness in the field, which, in turn, made picking decisions challenging. All the fruit came in during a very compact period of just 20 days.

(Originally published in Sonoma Preview: January 2018 New Releases)