Littorai Wines

Ted Lemon founded Littorai in 1993 after training at Domaine Dujac in Burgundy and serving as winemaker at Château Woltner in Napa. What he brought back was not a recipe but a principle: that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay of genuine distinction required small-scale farming, attention to individual sites, and the kind of patience with soil health that industrial viticulture could not offer.

The Littorai vineyards span the Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley, two of California's coolest and most challenging appellations for Pinot Noir — sites where ripeness is never guaranteed and where farming precision separates serious wine from expensive disappointment. The conversion to biodynamic farming under Demeter certification was a gradual process completed over several years, and the farming philosophy now runs consistently across the estate's own vineyards and a number of carefully selected grower partnerships.

The wines have drawn 96 points from Wine Advocate across multiple bottlings, and the critical record is reinforced by a following among collectors and sommeliers disproportionate to the production volume. Littorai is not a large business. Ted Lemon makes wine the way he was taught to in Burgundy, at a scale where personal attention is possible, on soils he has farmed and understood over three decades.

California Pinot Noir at this level of ambition and this level of farming integrity remains a short list.