2023 Littorai Pinot Noir Richardson Ranch

The 2023 Pinot Noir Richardson Ranch is a youthful red hue and offers notes of cranberry cocktail and spice. It’s tension packed, with bright acidity and a long, focused feel, and its finely coiled tannins, zest, and lift are refreshing. The year 2025 marks the 30th anniversary for Littorai. Heidi and Ted Lemon operate Littorai from their Gold Ridge Estate in Sebastapol, where they produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from exceptional cool-climate vineyard sites on the Sonoma Coast and in Anderson Valley. Ted is, hands down, one of Sonoma's most important farmers and winemakers today. Though they farm biodynamically, they prefer to describe their practices in the vineyards as “generative farming,” a term intended to include the human relationship to the stewardship and shaping of the land as part of modern nature and integrated farming. In the winery, all the wines undergo spontaneous fermentations, with the reds going through two to three weeks of fermentation, and although Ted is not dogmatic in his approach, each of the wines is raised similarly. All of the wines for this report were tasted at the estate.

Sits at 760–800 ft of elevation on a south-facing slope four and a half miles from the Pacific Ocean south of the town of Annapolis in north-western Sonoma County on Goldridge loam: grey and yellow sandy clay loam with only 6–12 in of topsoil. Planted in 2015, this site is farmed using organic methods but is not certified. Free-run juice from a combination of destemmed fruit and 23% whole clusters is fermented with ambient yeasts in a combination of steel and wood, utilising both punchdowns and pumpovers, with the wines pressed at dryness. Aged for 14–17 months in 20–25% new French oak on the lees with no racking. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 459 cases produced. Smells of cranberry and pomegranate. Stony flavours of cranberry, wet pavement, dried and fresh herbs and a touch of earth are wrapped in lightly fleecy tannins and enlivened by excellent acidity. Wonderfully mineral in quality, with a rocky density at its core and bright berries floating around the edges. Notes of plum skin and dried herbs linger in the finish. Very tasty. (AY)

The 2023 Pinot Noir Richardson Ranch is floral and lifted in feel. Crushed flowers, red/purplish berry fruit, lavender, rose petal and spice grace this mid-weight Pinot. Brisk acids support the saline finish. Today, the Richardson Ranch comes across as one of the more understated wines in the range. There is something about this wine—and the other wines from this site I have tasted from other producers—that suggests Richardson Ranch is a very special site.