Littorai

I was fortunate enough to partake in a recent tasting of Littorai wines care of Ted Lemon, producer, and his Japanese importer Wine in Style. The tasting was held at '45' in the Ritz-Carlton. While many of the wines were fine indeed, I found the food a little distracting due to interwoven Japanese influences alongside weighty French strokes of foie, morilles, sweet breads and sweet sauces including ginger, honey and mandarin.

The wines I tasted:

2007 Littorai Charles Heintz Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast: very natural feeling in the mouth with a whiff of volatility to boot, presumably from indigeneous yeast. This is supported by a mushroomy, earthy nose and a hint of nougat. The wine boasts a broad textured palate that could have done with a bit more lift. Rich yet a bit flat. 85

1997 Charles Heintz Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast (served from magnum): a wine that took more than a decde to resolve its obdurate acidity apparently. And resolve it has! Wonderful mature nose of marzipan and truffle-not at all past it-that served to draw one back for another glass. Arguably the finest Californian Chardonnay yet tasted. The palate is broad yet alive with a tensile minerally presence for impeccable balance; staining intensity of numerous layers and a long finish. This wine is etched by site. 95

2007 Thierot Vineyard Chardonnay Sonoma Coast: like chalk and cheese when compared to the '07 Charles Heintz. While the Heintz is bumptious, this wine is tangy, precise and linear; febrile even. Some oak sits atop-as yet unresolved-but the wine bodes very well for a long future with fine mid-palate weight held together by juicy acidity, thrust and excellent line. 93

2008 Littorai les Larmes Pinot Noir Anderson Valley: simple lolly-like nose bringing to mind gentle extraction from a less-than-ideal year and the subsequent carbonic influence of whole clusters. The palate too is fruity upfront with slightly ropey tannins and moderate acidity for lift. Overall quite simple and sweet. A beetroot/bottom of band-aid/smoke-house nose brought to mind many `03`s from certain regions of Australia and the smoke-taint that inflicted them. Indeed, the wine suffers from these pungent notes because of the Sonoma fires in 2008. While the wine is an easy quaffer if suitably chilled, at JPY 6,000 once landed it hardly represents a quaffable price! 83

2006 Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley: sweet aromas of maraschino cherry and ripe plum on a plump frame with some underlying acidity for grace and balance. While this wine will benefit from some age and tertiary complexity, it is currently too sweet for me. 87

2006 Littorai Cerise Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley: kirsch and dansom plum-sweet/sour and slightly carnal compared to the primary simplicity of the Savoy. More intoxicating due to a hint of five-spice and mulch which to me, in its finest manifest, is what one seeks in fine Pinot Noir. Perhaps these descriptives can be expressed in a different fashion such as the line used by a former sommelier co-worker of mine: 'smells like after sex'. In any event, while the wine is rich and distinctly Californian, it exhibits lacy acidity and textured mineral presence to keep it persistent, long and svelte. 92

2002 Cerise Vineyard Pinot Noir Anderson Valley: wow! Reticent nose of sandalwood and Chinese herb shop yet, not at all about fruit which is what wowed me. Despite its age this wine portends very well for another decade of ageing with sufficient fruit sweetness gracefully draped across a sculptuesque frame of lean yet ripe tannins and moreish acidity. Long, sumptuously textured and like all top Pinots, judiciously balances its delicate fruit, flavour intensity and complexity, and structural components with guile and finesse. Everything in place here. 97