Littorai Retrospective Tasting: Blazing Wine Trails for 30 Years

Few producers have done more to prove how profound the best of Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley can be than Littorai. Since their first vintage – a mere 150 cases each of 1993 Mays Canyon Chardonnay and One Acre Pinot Noir – founders Ted and Heidi Lemon have been trailblazers and lodestars. What started as a modest operation that relied exclusively on purchased fruit has since grown to include wines produced from both estate-grown grapes as well as pinot and chardonnay from benchmark vineyards such as Savoy, Charles Heintz, Hirsch, Cerise and more.

In celebration of the release of their 30th-anniversary vintage, the Lemons and their team have been hosting a series of vertical tastings and discussions around the United States. Earlier this month, Executive Editor Jim Gordon and Staff Writer and Taster Brian Freedman joined other industry colleagues at Compline Restaurant in downtown Napa, California, for a stunning retrospective of Littorai’s wines. The tasting spanned four decades, and included wines whose finesse, detail, expressiveness and ageworthiness were a testament to the land in which the grapes were grown, the hands-off confidence of the winemaking, the vision of the Lemons and their passion for these two regions.

“It's important to remember that geology and climate do not stop at county lines,” Lemon pointed out. “So for us, it’s a continuum. And although Anderson Valley is a true valley, and what's on the Sonoma Coast are tiny little valleys … there are more similarities in terms of geology and weather than you might expect.”

As such, exploring the underlying differences, both within and between both regions through the lens of key single vineyards, proved to be appealing to the Lemons, and formed the basis for the lineup.

“As far as what we're tasting, we could have done a vertical of one or two different vineyard sites, and we felt that that would tell you a lot about, say, how the Haven ages, or Hirsch or Savoy, but it wouldn't give you a sense of the region, of the bigger picture,” he said.

“I think one of this reasons that this tasting is fun to do is I don't think there's another winery could do this,” he added. “To really taste from the southern end all the way up through Anderson Valley at this level, it’s really only Littorai who can do that, at least going back that far.”

Time and again that day, Littorai’s chardonnays and pinot noirs proved how right the Lemons were from the beginning. And while not every wine tasted was from a classically great vintage (this was by design), they impressively showcased an ability to mature with elegance and to express a deep sense of place – from the great years to the more challenging,.

The Sonoma Coast Mays Canyon Chardonnay 1995, for example, is almost unbelievably layered, creamy and intricate, and showed a rich, luxurious texture. And in awarding the Sonoma Coast Charles Heintz Vineyard Chardonnay 2002 a perfect score, Jim noted that at 23 years of age it is “a wonderful dream of a wine, perfectly mature yet still lively and fresh” with “ethereal and intricate layers of spiced fruit and dried flowers on the palate.”

The wines come from two very different sites, of course, and they reflect that divergence. The Mays Canyon Chardonnay comes from a plot that lies between 200 and 400 feet (61 to 121 meters) above sea level and is bordered on three of its sides by the Russian River. The Hugo gravelly loam soils there help with heat maintenance, which is especially important when the fog rolls in.

The Charles Heintz, on the other hand, is planted on Gold Ridge loam, itself resting on marine sandstone. It sits at 800 feet of elevation, and the Lemons were so convinced of its potential for greatness that they became the first producer to craft a vineyard-designated chardonnay from there, back in 1994.

It’s important to note, however, that Littorai’s wines tend to show beautifully in their youth, too. The Sonoma Coast Mays Canyon Chardonnay 2023, for example, scored highly for its butter, spice, and lemon aromas and “sleek, balanced” palate with plenty of marzipan, minerals, macadamia nuts and white flowers.

The reds also showed their ability to age in profound ways. Jim found the Anderson Valley Roman Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012 to be “a well-aged yet still muscular and lively wine” with black fruit, green peppercorn and “autumnal flavors,” while he termed the Anderson Valley Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir 1995 an “ageworthy California pinot noir at its best,” whose velvety texture provides the backdrop for flavors of plum, cherry and cassis.

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Again, these two pinots proved to be profound lenses through which to understand seriously different terroirs: Roman Vineyard climbs above the fog line at a coastal-wind-swept 1,150 feet and is based on sandstone soils. Savoy, on the other hand, rests on the valley floor – the only such site among Littorai’s wines – and the vines are planted on Boont and Pinole loams underpinned by Franciscan shale. The generosity of this vineyard has been apparent from the beginning; in fact, their 1995 Savoy is from the first vintage that the Lemons began purchasing fruit from there.

Tasting wines like these alongside one another highlighted just how beautifully the best of Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley can age. Of course, that doesn’t happen by chance: countless decisions in the vineyard and winery affect the ways in which any given white or red will evolve over the years. From the beginning, Littorai has been doing things right, and consistently so. In both the best vintages and the more challenging ones, they’ve stuck to their vision and crafted wines of energy, detail and, as we saw earlier this month over the course of 18 wines, remarkable ageworthiness.

– Brian Freedman, Staff Writer & Taster

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the tasters at JamesSuckling.com. Note: You can sort the wines below by vintage and score. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.