2023 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard

The 2023 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard is a youthful red color and is incredibly expressive in its wild aromatics, which are so characteristic of the vintage. With notes of wild red flowers, grapefruit, and a fantastic, dusty earth expression, it reveals finely coiled tannins and a Nebbiolo-like texture on the palate, and it’s only going to improve with time. The year 2025 marks the 30th anniversary for Littorai. Heidi and Ted Lemon operate Littorai from their Gold Ridge Estate in Sebastapol, where they produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from exceptional cool-climate vineyard sites on the Sonoma Coast and in Anderson Valley. Ted is, hands down, one of Sonoma's most important farmers and winemakers today. Though they farm biodynamically, they prefer to describe their practices in the vineyards as “generative farming,” a term intended to include the human relationship to the stewardship and shaping of the land as part of modern nature and integrated farming. In the winery, all the wines undergo spontaneous fermentations, with the reds going through two to three weeks of fermentation, and although Ted is not dogmatic in his approach, each of the wines is raised similarly. All of the wines for this report were tasted at the estate.

Grapes for the 2023 Pinot Noir Hirsch Vineyard were picked from October 6 to 7. It opens slowly on the nose to reveal pomegranate, raspberry, bergamot, forest floor and botanical aromas. The medium-bodied palate is silky and vibrant with concentrated, perfumed flavors and a very long, latent finish. It will benefit from several years in the cellar. 293 cases were made.

Planted on several ridgetops 12 miles north-west of Jenner, this site lies on the second range of hills in from the Pacific at 1,200–1,550 ft of elevation on very gravelly Hugo loam and Hugo–Josephine complex. Planted in 1995, this site is farmed using organically certified materials and biodynamic methods but is not certified. Free-run juice from a combination of destemmed fruit and 35% whole clusters ferments with ambient yeasts in a combination of steel and wood, utilising both punchdowns and pumpovers, with the wines pressed at dryness. Aged for 14–17 months in 20–25% new French oak on the lees with no racking. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 293 cases produced. Smells of flowers and a hint of struck flint and berries. Crushed-stone tannins grasp a core of faintly salty raspberry and pomegranate. Pomegranate pith and earth mix with flowers and dried herbs, as a stony rumble lingers through the finish. Great acidity at work here. This wine is much more open in its youth than the typical Hirsch bottling. (AY)