A silky smooth, utterly mesmerising pinot noir

2012 Littorai, Sonoma Coast pinot noir, California (£36.99, www.thewinereserve.co.uk; £38.50, www.winedirect.co.uk; £37.40, www.farrvintners.com; £46.70, Hedonism Wines, 020-7290 7870).

The three website merchants would like to sell you a case of wine at the keen prices listed while Hedonism stocks this wine by the bottle at its Mayfair emporium. I expect there will be many more fine-wine merchants listing Ted Lemon's Littorai wines in due course, because they are utterly mesmerising.

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A highly sophisticated winemaker with innate taste and a deep understanding of both chardonnay and pinot, I met up with him recently to taste his epic new 2012 releases.

The B.A. Thieriot Vineyard Chardonnay (£63.99), The Pivot pinot noir (£68.99), Hirsch Vineyard pinot noir (£68.99) and The Haven Vineyard pinot noir (£73.99) are the most restrained, impeccably balanced and stunningly beautiful wines I have tasted from California in a decade.

The Sonoma Coast pinot is his forward-drinking, silky smooth offering, and it will no doubt compel you to seek out the rest of the portfolio.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.