Littorai Wines

The Free Bacchus Story

Ted Lemon trained at Domaine Dujac in Burgundy and came back to California in 1993 with something more portable than a recipe: the conviction that Pinot Noir of real distinction requires small-scale farming, close attention to individual sites, and patience with soil that industrial viticulture cannot accommodate.

Littorai's vineyards sit on the Sonoma Coast and in Anderson Valley — two of California's coolest and least forgiving appellations for Pinot Noir, where ripeness is never assured and farming precision separates a serious wine from an expensive disappointment. The conversion to Demeter certified biodynamic farming was gradual, completed over several years, and now runs consistently across the estate's own sites and a set of carefully chosen grower partnerships.

Lemon spent two decades farming conventionally first, in Burgundy at the height of industrial viticulture and in Napa as a hired gun, and says so.

The wines have drawn 96 points from Wine Advocate across multiple bottlings, with a following among collectors and sommeliers well out of proportion to how little is made. Lemon still works at a scale where personal attention to each site is actually possible, on soils he has farmed for three decades.

California Pinot Noir combining this level of ambition with this level of farming integrity remains a short list. Knowing the names on it is most of the work.