2012 Pinot Noir One Acre

I tasted a wide range of wines with proprietor Ted Lemon at Littorai. For now, my sense is that 2013 favors Chardonnay over Pinot, which is a common refrain for the vintage. The 2013 Chardonnays are striking and precise. I found the 2013 Pinots a bit clenched, which Lemon attributes to a period of cold weather just before my tasting. That may be, but I always taste around the same time of year. My sense is that some of the Pinots may have been impacted by a brief spell of rain in late June. At this time of year, ideally, vegetative growth has stopped so the vine can direct all of its energy to the grapes. But the rain set off vegetative growth, which could explain the fact that some of the 2013s are a bit less deep than the 2012s. It will be interesting to see where things are once the wines are bottled. As for the 2012, they have pretty much turned out as I had expected. The Littorai wines remain some of the purest expressions of the Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley readers will find. In 2013, Lemon used a little more whole clusters in the Pinots than in 2012, but the whole cluster inclusion here is never on the high side. In the cellar, the wines see minimal handling. I have also included notes on a few older wines I tasted. Readers might also enjoy this short video with Ted Lemon I shot just after our tasting.

Readers will find a number of compelling Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs in this wide range of wines from Littorai. Proprietor Ted Lemon is one of this country's iconic producers. In particular, his Pinots are super-impressive, transparent and bursting with crystalline energy. Long-time Littorai fans know Lemon spent two years as the winemaker at Domaine Roulot in the early 1980s and also worked at Domaine Dujac, both experiences that have clearly marked his style. The 2012 harvest started on September 7 at Hirsch end ended on October 5, when the Heinz Chardonnay was brought in. The Chardonnays spent about 12 months in oak followed by 4 months in steel, which is where they were when I tasted them. Bottling is scheduled for February 2014. The 2012 Pinots were vinified with some whole clusters, about 20-25% for the Cerise, Savoy and Mays Canyon, while the rest of the Pinots were done with just a dollop (0-5%) of stems. Most of the 2012 Pinots were still in barrel at the time of my January 2014 visit, although a few wines were in barrel. Native fermentations and moderate amounts of new oak (25-30%) are the norm. Most importantly of all, vineyards are farmed with meticulous attention to detail. Unfortunately I was not able to taste the 2012 Savoy, as it been racked just prior to my visit. I did have a chance to revisit the 2011s from bottle. The Chardonnays showed pretty much as I expected, but there was more variability with the Pinots. Some of the 2011 Pinots appear to still be tight post-bottling (The Haven), while others, the One Acre and Pivot appear to be maturing a little faster than I thought they would. On the other hand, the 2011 Hirsch has turned out even better than I had expected. The Littorai range encompasses first-rate vineyards in Anderson Valley, Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast, many of which are California's versions of Grand Crus. Readers who want to discover what the essence of terroir in California is should start here. In many, if not most, of these sites Ted Lemon makes the reference-point wine.