A silky smooth, utterly mesmerising pinot noir

The Sonoma Coast pinot will compel you to seek out the full range of Littorai wines, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
By Matthew Jukes
published

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.

He studied winemaking in Dijon and then worked in Burgundy for a handful of great domaines in the 1980s. Ted then set up Littorai on the Sonoma Coast in 1992. He consults for a handful of starry chardonnay and pinot noir estates all over the world, too.

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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
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. 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, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

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.

 

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