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aroma

salted plum, blackberry flower, shitake

flavor

coastal berries, rosehips, Orange Pekoe tea

food

rotisserie chicken, hot smoked salmon, mushroom tempura

In the spring of 2022 we signed a vital grape contract that will raise the quality of Mendo Pinot Noir significantly. After many years of petitioning, the township of Comptche on the far Mendocino Coast received its AVA status. There are just three vineyards in the entire AVA and two of them are now LIOCO monopole. This new partnership with grower John Peterson--whose family were homesteaders on this remote coastal rainforest in the 1800s--will provide LIOCO with +/-40 tons of pristine Pinot Noir each year. Most of it will go into Mendo Pinot Noir. The '23 installment is infused with this exciting new Comptche component, which brings a black and purple-fruited, coniferous element to wine. The Comptche lots were blended with stalwarts from the Anderson Valley, The Cole Ranch, and the Potter Valley. The AV component adds some characteristic floral notes. The Cole Ranch piece contributes some pleasing structure. And the Potter Valley piece brings lift and levity care of some Beaujolais-clone Pinot Noir fruit historically sources for Rosè programs. We feel this wine from disparate but essentially Mendocino ranches blend out to give a wide aperture view of this wild, evergreen county and make an authentic expression of Mendocino Pinot Noir.

aroma
violet, blackberry, rosemary
flavor
Italian plum, dried fig, iron
food
stuffed Cubanelles, pizza funghi, shepherd's pie

The wildfires in 2020 necessitated a shift in fruit sourcing, and the extreme drought / massive winter frost of 2021 left us with too little fruit to bottle an Indica. The 2022 was a return to form as we tapped all three original fruit sources, ramped the carbonic maceration, and bottled a wine that everyone agreed was flat out delicious. It sold out before we could get the 2023 to bottle. Fear not! The 2023 is now bottled and it, like so many of our 2023s shows the once-in-ten-years fruit quality that this vintage will soon be known for. It is a blend of three historic Mendocino ranches—some dry-farmed, 1940s Carignan from Bartolomei (Talmage) and 1960s McCutchen (Pine Mountain), plus a healthy dollop of rare 1940s Valdiguie from Lolonis (Redwood Valley). We rocked 50% whole cluster, with two tanks going through carbonic maceration. Further, we pressed the juice off the skins early and "went to barrel sweet" to highlight the crunchy freshness of this wine. The result is chillable, medium weight red—with some grip—that reminds of us Cote de Brouilly but is unabashedly Californian. 

> Cranberry Flower <

AROMA: fresh cranberry, red currant, pipe tobacco
FLAVOR: berry bramble, crushed clove, red plum
FOOD PAIRINGS: osso bucco, herb-rubbed lamb, shepherd's pie

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