2013 Pinot Noir One Acre

Ted and Heidi Lemon are among the handful of producers who knocked it out of the park with both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in 2014. These are some of the most brilliant wines I have tasted at Littorai. I remember stopping by the winery in September of 2014. I had hoped to catch some of the crush, but because of the early harvest my timing was not so great. Instead, I tasted a few wines, or more accurately musts, straight out of the vats. The first impression was quite positive, but wines are hard to judge at that early stage. Now, a good sixteen months later, the 2014s capture all of that early potential. Ted Lemon reported that yields were not markedly different in 2014 and 2013, but that berries were smaller in 2014, so consequently skin to juice ratios were higher, which is a good harbinger for overall quality. That, in a nutshell is the essence of the two vintages I tasted on my most recent visit; the 2014s are intense, while the 2013 lack the depth and complexity of the best vintages. The Chardonnays are strong in both 2014 and 2013, although I give a slight edge to the 2014s. Readers will find a much wider gap in the Pinot Noirs, where 2014 is several notches above 2013. Most importantly, the 2013s appear to be more than just one year older than the 2014s in their color and overall intensity. Today, my impression is that the 2013 Pinots will mature at a slightly faster pace than is the norm at Littorai. In addition to these current and future releases, I also tasted the 2008 Chardonnays and have included notes on those wines here.

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.