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.
