Littorai

This rarely known winery provides tours to their vineyard and their generated farm that grows the grapes! They even let me eat the grapes that will make the same bottle of wine but 2024 vintage! A never had tasting experience. Highly recommended.

Wine was really good. We purchased half the wines we tasted. Our host was good and property was beautiful. Would recommend for a visit.

We loved our time visiting and learning about their unique approach to winemaking, farming and more. It was so peaceful sitting looking out with the birds chirping away while trying some fantastic wines. It's really a special place

I knew before going here that the Littorai wines would be excellent. I didn’t anticipate the gorgeous farm on a hilltop. Another delightful surprise was learning about their deep commitment to biodynamic farming methods. If you care about the true high quality of what you are drinking, this wine is for you! Very special place.

Lovely tasting experience of some delicious wines. The view was beautiful, and Luke was a good host to explain how well the family at this winery uses the land and takes care of it and its many inhabitants.

For $75 per person, I expected at least a chair to sit down for tasting. As we were ushered into a cellar, we saw a group of people seated outdoor with a nice view and a heat lamp above them for tasting. Meanwhile we were brought into a chilly and dark cellar room with wine bottles lined up on a metal table. We went through all the tasting pretty quick since it was NOT a relaxing environment. If you love Pinot, I think they have decent choices. However not enough to rock my world and not as good as Donum’s Pinot. I would not go back there again. This is not a criticism of their wine. It is more about the overpriced and under delivered tasting experience. We were cold and miserable. It felt like work and not pleasure. Not even a tiny slice of cheese came with the tasting or a stool to sit down for the hefty price for the area. After all this not Napa. When I visit a winery, it’s not just about wine. It’s more about the whole experience. That is why I pay more to taste wine from the winery itself. Otherwise, I might as well go to a wine bar.

Very personal and informative tour. Mr. Robbie Adams did a great job. His knowledge and passion for the craft clearly comes through. All the wines are beyond excellent, especially the Chardonnay and the Pinot blend. Littorai is a real find.

We booked the tour and tasting. Our tour guide Robbie was awesome: so friendly, warm, and deeply knowledgeable about the ethos of Littorai, farming practices, and wine. The wine was absolutely delicious as well. One of the highlights of our trip!

Boutique wine at its finest! Had the pleasure of being hosted by Robbie for an early morning tasting overlooking the back side of the vineyard. We explored six of their Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs varietals. I was blown away by the quality of their wines and hearing about their wine making philosophy. It was a no brainer to purchase a bottle as their wines are only in select restaurants and able to be purchased on site. What Ted Lemon has created is truly something special!

Tasting fee was ridiculous and pours were very small. Our host rushed us out within 45 minutes. Not a good experience

We discovered Littorai wines at Merriman's in Maui and these wines are now a bit sentimental for us. With this, the $70 tasting was worth it to us but could be a bit pricey if this isn't exactly what someone is looking for. The views were great and Robbie who helped us was great to hang out with too. And the 6 wines we tasted were amazing. Most of them were Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. While these aren't usually my favorite varietals, I loved the wines here. The tasting was also worth it too us so we could purchase bottles (we bought 2 Pinots, a splurge at $100 each but really really good). Otherwise only club members and email subscribers are able to purchase the wines and they go fast. If you love special wines and especially if you love Pinot, I'd recommend an appointment at Littorai!

Littorai has some of the purest pinots & Chardonnays that I have ever tasted. Approachable early on but all have the acidity to keep them fresh for a number of years. The pinots are distinctly red fruited with beautiful fine tannins. You can taste a cooler climate in their wines. Nothing is too heavy or forced. These wines are at the top tier...along with a handful of other high end cool climate coastal Chardonnays & pinot noirs...that I have ever tasted at any of the public & private wine tasting events held here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Steve D. Alameda, Ca

Littorai is a must see/tasting. The wines are out of this world. Both PNs and Chardonnays are beyond words

Littorai offers ethereal wines beautifully presented in a professional and captivating manner by invaluable team members such as Lalo Vela and Robbie Adams who thoroughly engage us with their wine knowledge, personal recommendations, tasting experiences, and joie de vivre. It's always such a pleasure and privilege to visit Littorai to taste their unparalleled wines while enjoying their beautiful setting. The sense of place in their wines can be treasured for years and the superior hospitality offered by Estate Educators such as Lalo and Robbie enhance the experience. As long time industry and trade veterans, we always appreciate every visit to Littorai. Grateful Cheers to the entire Littorai Team!

A vineyard tour and wine tasting at Littorai's biodyanmic domaine on Gold Ridge Road, perfectly perched atop the green and rolling Sebastopol Hills, may well be the best adult fantasy class field trip - ever! You almost feel like they should issue each guest a pair of rubber boots, leather gloves, Carhartt barn jacket, and a wool stocking cap (in autumn or winter) or straw sun hat (in late spring and high summer) to appreciate fully the hands on, root to glass journey through the vines. Any traumatic childhood memories you might have of teacher-led forced marches to museums, national monuments, parks, farms, and factories will almost instantly be healed. You will never look at group learning the same way again. Especially if you love organic gardening, wildlife conservation, and agricultural land preservation as much as you enjoy cool climate, Northern Californian grown Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, you and your closest friends will be thrilled by the immersive lesson in biodynamic farming and natural winemaking practices. It's like Montessori school for the wine lover with Wendell Berry on the reading list, but not Heidi Barrett. You will discover the many things besides grapevines that grow on a working wine estate: from herbs and plants that are dried and steeped to produce natural sprays and applications, to the sheep who graze the vineyard rows, to the cows who provide manure for composting, to the meadow grasses that will be made into hay for fodder to keep the operation running. Add in homes for pollinating mason bees, owl boxes to keep rodents and gophers in check, oak and pine forests for protecting raptors and other edge dwelling creatures, and you've got all the makings of a Pete Seeger song. Where have all the flowers gone? Here, Pete! Here!!! They are all growing between the Pivot Vineyard's immaculate rows of trellised vines. Anytime you need extra help harvesting chamomile flowers for another calming herbal tea to apply to distressed vines, Ted, just give us a call. Who knew that agroecology could be so fun? As far as the wine tasting portion of the group field trip goes, it actually makes places like Joseph Swan or Pellegrini seem like the lap of luxury. Bare bones does not even begin to capture the experience of tasting in the raw amidst the wine making tools of the trade. Its no-frills style evokes that of small, family-run domaines in Burgundy, where informal tastings might take place on a battered piece of plywood balanced on a pair of well weathered barrels. There are outdoor-style, infrared heaters set up in cooler months that can be turned on if requested, so you won't need to shiver and shake while you sip and swirl. The wines you will taste will never be the same, as much of Littorai's production is small and highly allocated to wine club members and Michelin-starred restaurants. The exceptions are the Sonoma Coast Appellation series - barrel aged Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, plus a lovely vin gris made from Pinot Noir grape juice - and an Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ("Les Larmes," meaning "Drops" or "Tears") crafted by blending from multiple vineyards (One Acre, Roman, Cerise, Savoy, Wendling). On any given day, you may get to taste a range of vineyard-designate and appellation series wines, but it would take multiple visits (or membership in the Littorai Vintner's Coastal Collection) to sample them all. We tasted 6 wines on a January 2019 visit: 2016 Chardonnay from the B.A.Theriot and Platt Vineyards; a 2016 Sonoma Coast appellation series Pinot; and 2014 Pinot Noir from Theriot, Roman, and Platt. I fell for the two Platt Vineyard wines for their exquisite balance of fruit, flower, and earth, their silky tannins, integrated oak, and soft caress. These were juicy wines that made me salivate. They finished cleanly and left me wanting more. Since the Platt Vineyard recently was sold by the widow of the original owner, these wines are among the last of their kind; this fact may have accounted for the emotional tug that they had on my heartstrings. When we open them, we will offer a silent toast to time gone by. The Theriot wines both struck me as ever so slightly off kilter, with some aromas and flavors more assertive than others - too much cedar and citrus in the '16 Chardonnay, a palate filling whiff of cracked peppercorn and drying, tannic roughness in the '14 Pinot. I didn't get rose petal, crushed violet, chopped herb, warming spice, or orchard fruit blossom, and I missed these familiar friends. It was like an orchestra where the horn section was playing too loudly to hear the strings, or where the percussion section wasn't entirely up to speed on a new composition. But I also had the sense that these wines, like a well conducted orchestra, would with time and patience find their perfect sound. All the more reason to revisit Littorai on another occasion: to see how these vibrant and wonderful things have grown, blossomed, rooted, composted, rested, aged, and changed.

What is it in this world that can make a baby elephant fly? Is it the power of a magical black feather or the belief that its power is real? Do illusionists need their fancy wands and arcane words to cast mesmerizing spells on their audiences, or does the true talent lie inside of sharp and clever minds? Can spiritual healers harness the life force of crystals and other precious gems, or is it their intimate knowledge of the human condition that makes their treatments seem so miraculous? And what will remain of value in this turbulent and timorous world once we learn to leave our fairy tales and illusions behind? I wonder about such things when I taste Ted Lemon's wines. He is as ardent an acolyte of Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic principles as any vigneron I have ever encountered. But are his feather's powers for real? Could he, like Disney's beloved baby elephant, Dumbo, soar into the clouds without an external aide? Are biodynamics the truth or merely another chimera? Where does fantasy end and reality begin? Littorai ("the coasts" in Latin) makes Burgundian inspired wines from Sonoma and Mendocino vineyards that are located close enough to the Pacific Ocean to receive a marked maritime influence. Expert tasters routinely rank them among the best of their type in the world. But Littorai is about much more than wine. It also heals wounded lands worn down by generations of repeated and often damaging human use. It restores woodlands, protects wildlife, nurtures farm animals, and cultivates meadows of fragrant grass and wildflowers. It tends lovingly to grape vines when they are stressed out by climate change, wild fires, noisy trucks, annoying people, sap sucking gophers, and protracted government shutdowns with regenerative elixirs of chamomile flower, Valerian root, dandelion leaf, dried yarrow, and wild nettle. It spreads dark, nutrient rich composts on the roots of young vines so that they express themselves in the ways that adolescent humans also often do: packed full of vim and vigor, boisterous and strong, sexually mature, ready to rock all night long, even if they don't yet really know how. The results? Wines of character that contain the power to replenish and restore your damaged sensory memory banks, which the relentless routines and frenetic pace of postmodern life in the online-urban interface have badly weakened. It's like a spa treatment for your tongue. Mouthwatering, golden-hued Chardonnays that taste like Kishu mandarin blended with tart Meyer lemon custard and a dusting of crumbled brioche. Ethereal, aromatherapeutic Pinots that smack of cracked white peppercorns, dried lavender, juniper berry, holiday baking spice, preserved strawberries, fresh spring cherries, ripe summer raspberries, green mosses, wild mushrooms, wet rocks, and fallen autumn leaves. Wines that exude rose petal, apple blossom, sweetgrass, and talcum powder; soft and alluring things that your great grandmother might have sprinkled and rubbed on a once lithesome body when the young women and men in town dreamed of taking her to bed while the stars and moon shone in radiant rapture in a darkened sky, as their naked bodies moved in time to the celestial objects high above. If only you had been alive to witness such scenes! If only it all were so real. Does Ted really need his biodynamic black feather to fly? Are all those herbal teas and composts the secret to his wine making success? Does he still need to listen to the lectures of Rudolf Steiner and Miguel Altieri to soar solo into the stratosphere? Maybe. Maybe not. I think that Ted loves the land beneath his feet. He breathes life and energy into his vines. He feels their pain. He wants to make them happy. He is their father figure. He promises them that they will continue to be supported and sustained long after he is gone. He is a Disneyfied Dumbo transfigured by decades of toiling in the grape fields, drying sheds, compost piles, and barrel rooms into an evangelical, Christlike figure bringing transcendent wines to the washed and coiffed masses. The highly affluent may not deserve such things, but they will consume them nonetheless. And for that, as for so much else, all will in time be forgiven. Will you enjoy Littorai wines as much as I did? Will they move you in the way that Hemingway once felt the earth tremble underneath his feet while dreaming of a sun eternally rising? Will time stand still as you sniff and swallow? Will they prod you to write your own unpublished Proustian novel? In truth, I do not know. But in my heart of hearts, I believe in the power of miracles. I know the magic is real. I trust that baby elephants can fly. So I will keep searching for my own magic feather. When I find it, I will proceed calmly to the edge of the nearest precipice. I will gaze deeply into that void. I will inhale, pause, and then gently exhale. And ready myself to take flight.

Hard to find. Hard to contact. Upon making a reservation, we were provided with a gate code but didn't think much of it. However, after taking a winding road into the middle of nowhere, we nearly passed it because there is no signage and the only reason we found it was because of trying the gate code on a unidentifiable gate. We got there and it was a ghost town. The staff ended closing early after we drove almost an hour to get there. Luckily, they were kind enough to refund us.

Littorai is hands down, in my opinion, the best California Pinot Noir producer. Our scheduled tour guide was under the weather so we were pleasantly surprised when both the assistant wine maker, Dan, and winemaker Ted Lemon took the time out of their schedules to talk with us! All of the wines were outstanding and Ted unexpectedly surprised us by letting us taste both the Chenin Blanc and a 2005 Pinot. This was, by far, one of the best tastings I've been to-thank you to everyone at Littorai for your gracious hospitality!

Winemaker Ted Lemon of Littorai is truly an artist. Having trained at a number of renowned estates in Burgundy, his pinot noirs are crafted very much in that style with extraordinary delicacy and complexity. Margie led me and my friends on a wonderful tour of the premise and I learned quite a bit about not only the wines, but the biodynamic farming that goes on making the entirety of operations sustainable and self-sufficient. One thing to note is that the cost of the wines is up there as the vast majority of the single vineyard pinots are $60+. If you're a fan of the varietal though, they're not to be missed and a couple of sips may very likely be all that it takes to get that wallet out of your pocket!

First of all, it is important to note that Littorai wines are lovely. If you love Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, you won't be disappointed. Unfortunately for Littorai, there are many other wineries in the area producing just as exquisite wines and most for a third of the price. I was informed that the $30 tasting fee would not be waived even with a wine purchase and I felt that price was a little high, but I had read such great reviews and figured for that price it would be an unforgettable tasting. You can imagine my shock when I realized that my $30 tasting was going to take place in the parking lot. With such a beautiful property, I am sure they could find a better place for the tasting. Honestly, if Littorai provided a discount to their wine club members, I might have joined the club and purchased more wine. As previously stated, the wine isn't the problem. I was just underwhelmed by the tasting experience and flabbergasted by the prices. I seriously thought I was in Napa. If you don't have a problem spending $70 on Chenin Blanc, I would highly recommend Littorai. Otherwise, I suggest you visit the myriad of other fine Chardonnay and Pinot Noir producers in the area.

Exceptional single-vineyard Pinot from some of the most interesting tiny blocks around Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley. Also, a Chardonnay or two that will blow you away. If you have $65-$85 to spend on a bottle of wine that will be even better after a few years of cellaring, there aren't many that can top these. Organic, bio-dynamic, native, and a beautifully simple facility that treats the wine and the earth with enormous respect. Bonus: friendly & knowledgeable staff. This is what Sonoma County winemaking is all about.

Iconic winemaker Ted Lemon has been making pinot noir and chardonnay wines for many years. Finally he and his wife Heidi have their own winery in a bucolic setting in central Sonoma County. The very "green" facility is built with straw building blocks and the juice flows with natural gravity. The grapes are sourced from vineyards in mostly coastal sites as well as the new estate. Each cuvee reflects the particular terroir and the distinctive flavors are preserved by Ted's low or no intervention. This is a wonderful opportunity to see a beautiful winery in operation and a fantastic setting. The wines are sublime.

If you get a chance to taste these wines make sure you buy a few bottles because outside of the winery these wines don't come cheap. Quite possibly some of the best pinot and chardonnay in the U.S.

Fabulous tour. You must contact them to make a reservation though and tours are limited to small groups. I loved their sustainable wine making practices and the fact that the tour walked us through the process. Their wines can be described as cool weather wines--so a restrained style compared to most California pinots--which my husband and I both prefer. We also got to try a white sweet wine during the tasting called the Gift Revisited (2006) which was amazing. If you have a chance to--buy this wine.

Littorai is definitely the perfect example of a winery built up on hype and fell short on expectations. Now let me say (without being a wine snob), I'm very familiar with high-end, small-production and hard-to-find wines. I've heard and read a lot about Littorai and I was extremely excited to give it a try. First off, you must make reservations, which was fine and I was totally cool with. Secondly it's a $30 tasting fee (that does NOT get waived upon bottle purchases). I was a bit annoyed with the $30 tasting fee mainly because most wineries in Sonoma County don't charge for a tasting or they waive it upon bottle purchases. I am aware that most high end Napa tasting rooms do charge, but let's remember that this isn't Napa and these wines aren't particularly 'hard-to-find'. So with the $30 tasting fee, you get to hear their whole spiel about their biodynamic farming practices and their 'teas' (for their wines) and a small walk through their estate. A pretty boring tour to be honest. Our tour guide was a little too into that whole hoopla. Anyways, we got to taste like 5 bottles, all current releases. I admit I was a bit disappointed that we were tasting current releases especially with the $30 tasting fee. WIth that amount, I would expect to at least taste a vintage vertical and/or ALL their wines. Unfortunately, we did not get to taste all their wines, which was also disappointing because I was really looking forward to trying their Hirsch bottle (which they did not open). For the most part, all their wines were all very young for 2011 vintage. They were clearly not ready to be opened the next day and will need some years to age. I understand that these are 'higher end' wines and are meant to be aged, but I found that they weren't even drinkable as they hit a lot of sharp notes, I would also argue that wines that ARE higher end and young are at least fairly drinkable from the get-go. Secondly, their wines are pretty expensive, as I said previously, if I'm paying nearly $75/bottle, I would expect a little more umph. However, to be perfectly fair, I thought the Mays Canyon Vineyard and the Platt Vineyard were definitely the standouts amongst the wines we drank. Oddly enough, all their estate vineyards that were farmed with biodynamic practices fell the most flat for me. Anyways, I left with a few bottles of the Mays Canyon and Hirsch (just simply because I collect Hirsch bottles from different wineries) mainly because I figure that I wouldn't be returning to try their wines again (at least until their next release). Maybe 2011 was a fluke. Maybe because I was at Williams Selyem before I came here that my expectations were set so high. Anyways, it was a disappointing showing for $30 that did not include much except a boring tour and a tasting of their blended and a handful of their single vineyard bottles.

Littorai is like Meca for cool climate pinot noir fans. Located in the bucolic rolling hills of wes Sebastapol this by appointment only stop is well worth the planning. Check out their Haven Vineyard Pinot Noir!

Loved coming here! You need to make an appointment and there is a $25 charge but I felt it was worth it - their wines are delicious. Alexa was great - very knowledgeable! The property is beautiful! And Beau the resident dog will come out to greet you! So sweet!

I was just about to buy some wine from Littorai online, and then they were going to charge $15 to pick the wine up at the winery. What in the world???

We took a small private group tour at Littorai (pronounced "litter-eye") recently and had a great time with our tour and wine guide Shannon. She explained winemaker/grower/owner Ted Lemon's philosophies about sustainability, green growing methods, mason bees, etc as well as other interesting facts about the buildings, grounds, and vineyards. Unlike reviewer Justin L, we found the tour to be very interesting, and Shannon made it fun and informative. Lemon's style and even the winery itself could definitely be considered "new age" or even "fringe", so come with an open mind... this is an immersive experience. (If you're just looking to drink some vino, maybe skip this winery and just purchase their wines at a restaurant) The tour/tasting took about 1 1/2 hours, and you must book in advance. The actual tasting was done outdoors and included several different vineyard-specific wines, all delicious... The wines here are REALLY good... some are young, yes, but will benefit from time in the bottle (if you can keep from drinking them immediately, which could be difficult for me.) We ended up buying the Theriot Chardonnay, and Pivot and Mays Canyon pinot noirs, as well as a membership in the wine club The tastings and wines are not cheap... That is not the goal here. If you're looking for some great, extremely low production wines (especially pinot noirs), Littorai is worth a visit. And you might learn something, too!

Took a trip to the wine country and decided to stop by Littorei. We were already familiar with their delicious pinots and purchased. Beautiful place, everyone is so nice. Beau, their dog, is lovely. Recommend to call for tasting appointment if you want to have quality time tasting their fabulous wines. Celeste A.

Great boutique winery. The line up was exceptional and all vineyards are biodynamic or in the process of becoming so. The tour was pretty good too. If you've done a few, you quickly realize that a lot of tours will leave you wanting, but Littorai's tour was pretty good. Since the vineyard was soggy, we went through a lot of the biodynamic process (which is interesting to see in full force even if you don't believe in it). Oh, did I mention the wines were pretty darn good (though pricey at $60+ per wine) and Ted Lemon is a master Burgundian winemaker.

i have a corked bottle of a 2001 sonoma coast pinot noir from littorai. i don't live far from the winery and offered to bring the wine if they would exchange it for a bottle of untainted wine. they refused !!! because i had not saved the receipt !!!! please don't ever gift me a bottle of wine, especially not a bottle of littorai. it might have a tainted cork, and then what ? should i send it back to you ? make sure you keep all your receipts !!! BTW that bottle was purchased in 2004. BIM ************************ below are two comments from friends that say it better than i could : ************************ This guy is nuts. For the sake of one bottle of wine, he looks like a jerk. I mean, are there tons of people bringing in corked wines that are eating away at his bottom line? Your integrity is not in question - his is. Looks to me like he won't stand behind his product as much as he stands behind his cheap ass replacement policy. You didn't want money back, right? Just a bottle of wine replacing the corked one you had. How much does that cost him at producer level? Not nearly as much as he will lose from the many people you know in the area! i will stay away from this wine for sure! Don't care how good or not - it's the juju that goes with it - and they ain't got none and as you well know there are plenty of good wines and winemakers dripping with good juju around here. Did anybody there ever read the basic marketing booking about making unhappy clients into loyal customers? I will pass your email exchange around to friends in wine country and wine drinkers. Cheers, Jim P.S. I CC him so he might know the reactions of friends of BIM. **************************************** BIM, Thanks for sharing. One the one hand I understand the Littorai owner's interpretation of a third-party purchase BUT!!!!!!!!!!!! read on: a) common sense (which we know is totally UNcommon) dictates that when a customer cares enough (and takes enough trouble to deal with it) to want to have a decent experience with your product, as an owner in particular one ought to make things right, right away, and with good grace. Totally true that at the producer/wholesale level it's not expensive (doesn't matter what the product is, even a fancy car), unless the pricing structure is faulty (ha ha, I know all about that one!)... It's smart, fast, and simple to swap the bad product for a good one. Many proprietors, when faced with such an easy way to gain good customer service points, take it at least one step farther and UPGRADE the product, or give two for one. I can't believe this man missed such a golden opportunity to get himself talked about as **the BEST vintner in a crowded field** by replacing the wine immediately, with gratitude to the customer for bothering with it. What we also see here is a total lack of manufacturer responsibility (he should have been on his knees about the bad wine, not worrying about the fine points of receipts!), and your pal may even want to call the Health Department on Littorai, just to stir things up. I know that's not advancing the ball, but sometimes, well, we just get mad. b) most manufacturers sell through third parties. When a product is defective or breaks, it's VERY COMMON to return the product, receipt or no, to the manufacturer, not the retailer, for repair or replacement. A bottle of wine will not become corked because of something a reseller does, unless the reseller is totally bored and wants to go around tainting corks. When I worked in customer service for a large retailer, their policy -- blessed by their accounting and marketing departments -- was to accept returns, with or without receipts, with very few questions asked beyond trying to improve products and customer experience. If one chomps the numbers, it is SOOOOOO much cheaper in $ to take care of the customer -- even if the customer is lying or thieving (the percentage of evil people is still thankfully lower than the % of honest people) -- than to do what Littorai's boss just did and engender the spread of negative publicity that we are now participating in. For him to assume bad faith on the part of the customer was wrong-headed (as we see it quickly pissed off a lot of us, who will now never buy this wine, at least not until there is a change of ownership). c) we can see that good wine is sometimes made under the auspices of bad-thinking people. d) most people write poorly, and I bet ten cents that the boss of Littorai would read his original message and think it was "businesslike" rather than the snarky tirade it is. I hope his wine (when not corked) is better than his writing. And he ought to hire me as customer service manager! Immediately!! Before he runs out of customers. e) is Littorai trying to get bought out by another winery, perhaps??? Maybe they need a big write-off this year??? Can't think of any reason to be so rude to a customer (receipt or no!). My buck-two-fifty, a.

Absolutely loved this place, great wines, great service, great philosophy. We had them recommended to us (never heard of them before) by Merry Edwards so we called them up and were able to make an appointment, they then email you directions and code to their gate which takes you down a bumpy road to this little oasis. Littorai does biodynamic farming and Margie took us through the vineyard and explained about their technique as we passed the Mason bee nest, chickens and compost into their vineyard. She then took us into the barrell room and we tried one outstanding chardonnay and phenomenal pinot noir and phenomenal pinot noir. My friend leaned and said "this is what a pinot is supposed to be like" Margie was personable and very knowledge...I would highly recommend this experience and I can't wait to tell my Pinot loving friends. Their winemaker Ted Lemon was been named "Winemaker of the Year" by the San Francisco Chronicle for 2010 and we now know why =)

Love the Pinots, I had them at Dry Creek Kitchen some time ago and it was the star of the evening.

Wonderful Chardonnays and Pinot's at premium+ prices that are beginning to outpace the quality of the wines. Four of us tasted here on a recent trip to Sonoma. The single vineyard tasting fee is $40 per person and it clearly states on their website that the fee is not applied toward purchases. We arrived on time for a 10am tasting and were ushered downstairs to a cold basement where our hostess rushed us through a tasting of a few of their wines. I had been here before and tasted/purchased their Hirsch Vineyard Pinot. This wine was not included in our tasting and when we inquired were told it wasn't available. I did see it however on a table set up for another tasting. Still we purchased two cases of their fine wine. While we understood the fee would not be applied to purchases we were a little shocked that the fee was not waived with a purchase of 2 cases of wine. It was our only tasting in two days (at some of the most prestigious Napa/ Sonoma wineries) where our fees were not waived with significant purchases. While I understand these fees are established to keep out the masses of "free drinkers" its a gracious gesture to waive upon a significant purchase. Rating 2 and a half stars. 4 for wine, 1 for hospitality. There are hundreds of wonderful wines and winemakers in Sonoma. We will not be back to Littorai.

If you're either very patient or extremely fond of discussing biodynamic farming, then you'll love Littorai. I'm mostly the former, though not opposed to hearing basic details of Littorai's philosophy and practices. You'll start with a nice, short walk on their beautiful property, probably meet their cute cat and then have a long talk about composting, teas, pruning, etc. Some of it's fascinating; some might be overkill for those not into the details. Either way, it's worth it because the wine is brilliant. And that's the catch: you won't be doing any tasting for at least 20-30 minutes...but you'll be thrilled you waited. Not only are the current releases approachable now, they will also do well with a little age - a fact Margie & Martina illustrated nicely by pouring a pinot with a few more years on it, along with a 2001 chardonnay. I'd highly recommend making an appointment and gettnig to know these beautiful wines!

First things first - you need a reservation. Reservations can be made online via the Littorai Website - www.littorai.com - You will have to pay for your reservation and it is not credited towards the wine (the website and confirmation email is very clear about this). When we arrived, my husband and I were the only ones with a tasting appointment at that time. Our guide led us out into the garden area and explained about the vineyard's philosophy - which is very "green". Other Yelpers have already gone into this, so for me to get into the minutia would be redundant. The grounds were beautiful and we snapped a few pics in the garden. We had our tasting out on the patio adjacent to another garden area. We sampled 4 different pinots and their chardonnay. All of the pinots were superb. We joined their wine club and bought 2 bottles to take home. We chose Littorai because we have had their wine at some very nice restaurants and have always said that when we go to Sonoma, they would be on our list of stops. Yes, the wine is pricey, but if you love pinot, then you will love Littorai.

Awesome experience! Definitely worth the fee. The wines are great but the tour and educational aspect of the visit is the best part.