Littorai
Littorai is Ted Lemon's Sonoma Coast project, built around single-vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from cool, windswept sites farmed organically and biodynamically. The wines are detailed, restrained, and among California's most Burgundian in spirit.
History
Ted Lemon founded Littorai in 1993 after spending time in Burgundy, where he worked as a winemaker and absorbed a site-specific approach to viticulture and vinification that was largely foreign to California at the time. He is widely credited as the first American to hold a head winemaker position at a Burgundy domaine, having worked at Domaine Guy Roulot in Meursault. That experience shaped everything Littorai became: a producer oriented around individual vineyards rather than a house style, and around restraint rather than extraction.
The name Littorai is Latin for "of the coasts," a signal of intent toward the coldest, most marginal growing zones along the Sonoma and Mendocino coastlines. Ted and his wife Heidi have run the operation together from the outset. Over the decades, Littorai has grown steadily but without aggressive expansion, maintaining a roster of long-term vineyard relationships alongside the estate vineyards they farm directly in the Sebastopol Hills area of the Sonoma Coast.
Vineyards
Littorai draws from a mix of estate and contracted vineyards, most of them in the extreme western reaches of Sonoma County where the Pacific has an outsized influence on growing conditions. Sites like Hirsch, in the Fort Ross-Seaview area near the coast, sit on ancient marine terraces with heavily weathered, nutrient-poor soils. The Thieriot Vineyard, in the Freestone-Occidental zone, sits at moderate elevation in a bowl that captures morning fog and afternoon wind. The Haven and Pivot are estate blocks farmed directly by Littorai in the Sebastopol Hills, where the soils are predominantly Goldridge sandy loam, well-drained and low-vigor. Richardson Ranch and Roman Vineyard round out a lineup that spans several distinct mesoclimates within the broader Sonoma Coast appellation.
All vineyards in the Littorai program are farmed organically or biodynamically. The estate sites are certified biodynamic. Yields are kept low by design, consistent with the vine stress and natural low-vigor soils at most of these locations.
Winemaking
Fermentation relies on native yeasts throughout. Whole-cluster inclusion is used selectively depending on the vintage and the vineyard, with the proportion varying rather than being fixed by formula. Pinot Noir is fermented in open-top vessels with manual cap management; Chardonnay sees barrel fermentation. Oak usage is restrained by California standards: a significant portion of neutral wood, with new oak kept to a minimum so that it functions as a vessel rather than a flavoring agent. The wines are neither fined nor filtered as a rule, though Lemon has spoken about making decisions vintage by vintage rather than applying dogmatic rules across the board.
The resulting wines are lean and precise by California benchmarks, often showing more in common with village-level Burgundy than with the richer, more extracted style that defined the state's Pinot Noir reputation in the 1990s and early 2000s. Mays Canyon is a slightly more accessible entry point among the Chardonnays; the single-vineyard bottlings, particularly Thieriot and Hirsch, are among the more age-worthy whites produced in the state.
Wines
2023 Chenin Blanc The Haven Vineyard
2023 Pinot Noir The Haven Vineyard Estate
2023 Pinot Noir Thieriot Vineyard Estate
2023 Chenin Blanc The Haven
2023 Pinot Noir The Return
2023 Chardonnay Mays Canyon
2023 Chardonnay The Tributary Estate Vineyard
2023 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard
2023 Chardonnay Thieriot Vineyard
2023 Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard
2023 Pinot Noir Mays Canyon
2023 Pinot Noir Richardson Ranch
2023 Pinot Noir The Pivot Estate Vineyard
2023 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard
2023 Pinot Noir Roman Vineyard
2022 Chenin Blanc The Haven
2022 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard
2022 Chardonnay Mays Canyon
2022 Chardonnay Thieriot Vineyard
2022 Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard
2022 Pinot Noir Mays Canyon
2022 Pinot Noir One Acre
2022 Pinot Noir The Pivot Estate Vineyard
2022 Pinot Noir The Return
2022 Pinot Noir The Haven Vineyard Estate
2022 Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard
2022 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard
2022 Pinot Noir Roman Vineyard
2022 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Block E
2022 Pinot Noir Thieriot Vineyard Estate
2022 Pinot Noir Richardson Ranch
2021 Chenin Blanc The Haven
2021 Chardonnay Thieriot Vineyard
2021 Pinot Noir One Acre
2021 Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard
2021 Chardonnay Mays Canyon
2021 Pinot Noir The Haven Vineyard Estate
2021 Pinot Noir Mays Canyon
2021 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard
2021 Pinot Noir Roman Vineyard
2021 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard
2021 Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard
2021 Chardonnay The Tributary Estate Vineyard
2021 Pinot Noir Thieriot Vineyard Estate
2021 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Block E
2021 Pinot Noir The Return
2021 Pinot Noir The Pivot Estate Vineyard
2020 Pinot Noir One Acre
2020 Pinot Noir Mays Canyon
2020 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Block E
2020 Pinot Noir Roman Vineyard
2020 Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard
2020 Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard
2020 Chardonnay Thieriot Vineyard
2020 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard
2020 Chenin Blanc The Haven
2020 Pinot Noir The Return
2020 Chardonnay The Tributary Estate Vineyard
2020 Chardonnay Mays Canyon
2019 Pinot Noir Mays Canyon
2019 Pinot Noir The Haven Vineyard Estate
2019 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard
2019 Pinot Noir The Pivot Estate Vineyard
2019 Pinot Noir Roman Vineyard
2019 Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard
2019 Chardonnay The Tributary Estate Vineyard
2019 Pinot Noir Thieriot Vineyard Estate
2019 Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard
2019 Pinot Noir The Return
2019 Chardonnay Thieriot Vineyard
2019 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard
2019 Pinot Noir One Acre
2019 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Block E
2018 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Block E
2017 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard
2017 Pinot Noir The Return
2017 Chenin Blanc The Haven
2017 Pinot Noir Savoy Vineyard
2017 Pinot Noir Mays Canyon
2017 Chardonnay Mays Canyon
2017 Chardonnay Thieriot Vineyard
2017 Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard
2017 Pinot Noir One Acre
2017 Pinot Noir The Pivot Estate Vineyard
2017 Chardonnay The Tributary Estate Vineyard
2017 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard
2017 Pinot Noir The Haven Vineyard Estate
2017 Pinot Noir Thieriot Vineyard Estate
2017 Pinot Noir Roman Vineyard
2017 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Block E
2017 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard
2016 Pinot Noir The Haven Vineyard Estate
2016 Pinot Noir The Pivot Estate Vineyard
2016 Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard
2016 Pinot Noir Thieriot Vineyard Estate
2016 Pinot Noir One Acre
2016 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard
2016 Pinot Noir Wendling Vineyard Block E
2016 Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard