Lioco - Pinot Noir Mendocino 2023 (750ml)
Price: $28.99
| Producer | Lioco |
| Country | United States |
| Region | California |
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Vintage | 2023 |
| Sku | 203706 |
| Size | 750ml |
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Lioco Description
Inspired from ancient winemaking practices
The Approach
Drew Huffine is our winemaker. He and proprietors Matt & Sara Licklider, supported by viticulturalists Prudy Foxx and Scott Knippelmeir and a small team of seasonal cellar hands, make up the winemaking team. Our winemaking is guided by a few underlying principles. Chief among them is a resistance to dogma. California is now the planet's most extreme place to grow wine with an ever-changing climate defined by fire, flood, heat, frost, and drought. Our approach is fluid but grounded in very old, very traditional winemaking practices. The land and seasonal expression are paramount.
From the source
We source our fruit from sustainable, organic, and biodynamic vineyards. These vineyard practices produce mature fruit with lower sugars leading to flavorful, lower alcohol wines. Chemical sprays kill soil flora and lead to simplistic, fruity wines. Vines growing in living soil have the capacity to deliver terroir-driven wines. By tending to the organic biome of the vineyard, we promote biodiversity in the ecosystem and ensure that our grapes are harvested with healthy native yeast populations intact.
Minimal Intervention
In the cellar, we take inspiration from the ancient winemaking practices of Europe and mid-century California. We believe if our grapes are holistically grown and come from a truly compelling site, there is little we can do to improve upon it. Our job is simply to usher the fruit through the process of fermentation and into bottle with as little intervention as possible. This has been our approach since Day 1.
AROMA: Bing cherry, rose petal, iron
FLAVOR: black raspberry, dried tobacco, lilac
FOOD PAIRINGS: chicken liver mousse, wild mushroom tartine, venison burger
VINIFICATION: Fruit was hand-harvested in early-Sept. and vigorously sorted. All lots were fermented in open top tanks with 10% whole clusters. Regular cap management was performed over a two-week primary fermentation. Aged for 8-months in a mix of neutral French oak and stainless steel barrels.
SITE: A selection of premier Mendocino County vineyards from Potter Valley, sweeping west through the Yorkville Highlands, Anderson Valley, and out to Comptche on the far coastal Mendocino coast. These sites were selected with an emphasis on dry-farming, older vines, and sustainable viticulture. Pinot Noir clones 115, 667, 777, 2A,, Pommard clone, and Martini play a part in the blend. The goal was to capture the unique character of this region defined by the proximate Pacific Ocean, coastal redwoods, and river valleys.
NOTES: Vintage 2022 gave us another extreme drought year with a warm, dry winter producing early budbreak. The vines responded to the stress by putting out a tiny fruit set. Vintners who love small yields and the concentrated wines that follow, rejoiced. Growers who get paid on tonnage, groaned. And so it went. The growing conditions were perfect until the Labor Day Weekend "Heat Dome" which brought Phoenix-like temps to all of California. We started picking as early as we could to get the fruit out of the sun. The growers that had some water to combat the heat, faired best. Those who didn't ended up dropping a lot of sun burned fruit onto the ground. More triage was done in the winery to ensure that only healthy clusters were used. Once again, we were surprised by the pure flavors draining out of the fermenters a few weeks later. Seems these California vines are inoculated against extreme weather events--especially the more mature vineyards in the Potter Valley. The 2022 Mendo Pinot is a wide aperture view of the county-- with fruit from four disparate AVAs: Potter Valley, Yorkville Highlands, Anderson Valley, and Comptche. It shows the typicity of this diverse region which reads like a love letter to Mendocino County stained with brambly coastal berries, pine resin, and blue florals.
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