Wine

Item Description

Enjoy 6 bottles of mixed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Littorai Wines, located in Sebastopol, CA. The estate property where the winery is located is farmed biodynamically as a self sustaining, integrated and diversified farm. Savor a 6-pack of delicious wines from this unique Sonoma Coast winery.

2010 Vintage Chardonnay Notes

Mays Canyon Russian River Chardonnay

This wine has great aromatic range and complexity: lemon candies, quince, pear blossom, stone fruits, squash blossom, pate brisé, cardamom and hints of grilled nuts all jump out of the glass. It has lovely richness on the attack with good acidity. Supple, elegant and almost weightless on the mid palate, the wine finishes with excellent grip and length.

B.A. Thieriot Vineyard Sonoma Coast Chardonnay

Aromas of orange blossom, lime zest, lemon curd, lemon verbena, grilled toast, beeswax and subtle lactic tones.  The lively acidity defines this wine giving it great definition and a delicate, very long finish.

2009 Vintage Pinot Noir Wine Notes

You will see that a couple of aroma descriptors arise multiple times in the following notes, in particular the aromas of juniper berry, pine, pepper and redwood. To us, the presence of those descriptors multiple times is a vintage signature as is the repetition of cranberry. We would venture to associate cranberry with the lower ripeness levels of 2009. Lavender is an important signature of great North Coast pinots that one rarely finds in pinots from other parts of the world. You will see it more than once below. On the other hand, we do not associate the aroma of blueberries with the north coast and almost never smell it in those wines. For us it is a classic descriptor for Oregon Pinots. Yet you will see it repeated several times below. It all adds up to a very intriguing vintage…

Savoy Vineyard, Anderson Valley Pinot Noir

This wine opens with a very feminine, floral nose. Rose petal, lavender, red apple, black licorice. Then notes of cough drop, horehound and fennel appear. It displays a soft, supple entry and great sweetness on the mid palate.  The tannins slowly build on finish. Finishes powerfully dry. Great tail. This wine is all about the palate right now.  The best Savoy since 2005?   

Cerise Vineyard, Anderson Valley Pinot Noir

Cerise has a more decadent nose right now than Savoy. It comes across as an almost exact opposite: it is all about the aromas as the palate is quite backward. The aromas are earthier than Savoy with mineral notes, dried pipe tobacco, faded rose blossom, black pepper juniper berry, pine. Cranberry. Great explosion in mouth: dense firm tannins in a rather austere style for now, yet great sweetness and acidity lie hidden behind the tannins. May be the most structured of the 2009s along with Thieriot. 

Roman Vineyard, Anderson Valley Pinot Noir

Displays the typical joyous fruit aromas typical of this wine. It is candied, herbal, and shows notes of lavender and pastry dough. Espresso bean. Darker, more earthy and mineral with air. The attack is soft and generous but then yields to substantial tannin. Fine and elegant palate distinctively Roman in its joyous fruit and rich mid palate yet substantial tannin will reward aging.

The Pivot Vineyard, Estate Bottled Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

Spices, pomegranate, cranberry, red fruits, blueberry, carnations, floral tones, grilled meats. Dry, slightly angular style with firm tannic structure. This is much less revealing now than Platt (2008 followed the same pattern) but has a very long finish. This needs time but will be a star. 

Item Special Note

Littorai produces nine vineyard designated Pinot Noir wines and four vineyard designated Chardonnay wines. 

We believe that the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnays of California are grown near the littoral zone of the continent, hence this is where we source our grapes.  We use the plural word "coasts" intentionally for the geology, topography and mesoclimates of the extreme western portion of the continent north of San Francisco create a diverse series of unique terroirs, each with its own characteristics.  Our vineyard designations are each a unique expression of this distinctive landscape. 

Littorai farms approximately thirty five percent of production itself.  The remaining proportion comes from long term relationships with independent small vineyards.  This is the land of the majestic California Redwood.  Imagine a landscape of towering mountains and forests with small vineyard plots sprinkled across an area sixty kilometers long and twenty kilometers wide and you will have an image of just how diverse, complex and extraordinary is the land in which we live. 

Littorai derives its unique sustainable farming techniques from the fertile cross currents of permaculture, agro-ecology and biodynamics.  For those sites which Littorai does not farm, we require all of our farmer-partners to use only organically certified materials.   In 2003 we purchased a thirty acre farm in western Sonoma County. This winery property is modeled on Rudolf Steiner’s vision of an integrated, self sustaining farm.