Wine & Spirits - April 2020 - 48

like Yorkville Highlands and Mendocino Ridge didn't come
into play until the late 1990s.
The border between Mendocino and Sonoma at the
time wasn't a concern for Lemon, and it still isn't, maybe
because of the three vintages he spent making wine for
Burgundy's Domaine Roulot in the early 1980s. There he
developed a different understanding of borders than that of
most Americans vintners: He remains skeptical of parsing
coastal Sonoma and Mendocino, largely because it may be
too soon to consider them separate.
"Political differences reinforce existing cultural differences. When you draw a line, it does tend to become
a self-fulfilling prophecy," says Lemon. "There are subtle differences that can be important, but to us, Sonoma
and Mendocino were a unity." Though he does allow that
Anderson Valley is just far enough from Sonoma to have
some distinct differences: The growing season is much
more compact than in Sonoma. Bud break comes a month
later, autumn arrives sooner and more intensely, and the
first frost can appear while the vines are still active.
Lemon was drawn to Anderson Valley for the potential
he glimpsed in the wines -a character he describes as pinot
noir purity with a core of red fruit. Local producers like
Husch, Navarro and Handley had already started tapping
into that character but, at the time, none of the Valley's
mainstays were selling their fruit. It wasn't until he met
Richard Savoy, the retired San Francisco bookstore owner
who planted Deer Meadows, that he was able to score some
fruit. In 1993, the vineyard, at an elevation of 1,600 feet,
became the source of Littorai's first bottling of pinot noir.
Lemon called it "One Acre," because the deal, made against
the advice of his peers, may have been the first successful
by-the-acre contract in modern Californian winemaking
history.
One Acre sits just above Cerise Vineyard, which Kosta
Browne purchased in 2016. Both vineyards are on shallow
sandstone, the intense slope moderating the vigor of the
vines. At this altitude, it's common for One Acre and Cerise
to be picked three weeks later than vineyards in Boonville,
in direct view below.
During my visit, Lemon pours the 2017 One Acre and,
even in that warm vintage, the wine shows crunchy-tart
inflections within its dark fruit core and seamless structure.
"It's right in the air conditioning," he says.
Later, Lemon connects me with Paul Ardzrooni, who has
farmed in Anderson Valley since 1989 and owns one of the
Valley's two vineyard management companies. He picks me
up at the start of Deer Meadows Road, just a mile from the
foot of the ridge. Ardzrooni has driven up and down this
road for more than 30 years; in fact, his daughter lives in a
cabin at the top, as one of One Acre's neighbors.
While the uneven dirt road, slick from recent rain, jolts
us back and forth, Ardzrooni carefully revs his truck to keep
48

WINE & SPIRITS

APRIL 2020

"Compared to
the Sonoma
Coast,
Anderson Valley
is a dead end
for the fog.
It's very
unusual for the
fog to get over
to Ukiah."
- TED LEMON,
LITTORAI

us moving forward. It's difficult to imagine the same trek
with several tons of fruit in tow. The final destination is
worth it, though.
It's one thing to drive Highway 128 up to the 900-foot
elevation in Yorkville, then begin the descent into Anderson Valley. It's another to see it all from 1,600 feet. There's
a view to the thick line of redwoods on the West Ridge,
down along the spotty chaparral and oak trees that make
up the East Ridge, and farther down to the green lushness
of the valley floor nestled between them. The perspective
also clarifies how the two ridges and the Navarro river are
aligned, directing the fog and wind that travel through
them from the coast just northwest. And the distance
between everything is not as far apart as the maps make it
seem. For a region that is so compact, you'd think the wines
within this 14 mile valley would be easier to figure out.

ack at the base of the East Ridge, Ardzrooni
points out the way to Greenwood Road. It's a
15-mile pass through the redwoods of the western ridges to the Pacific coastline and the fastest
route to Jason Drew's estate on the West Ridge,
in Elk. When Drew first worked in the Valley
for Navarro Vineyards in 1996, he and his wife,
Molly, took this road to escape to the beach,
admiring an old apple orchard along the way.
They returned to the area in 2004 to build a
winery and plant vines-and that 26-acre apple orchard
was the first property their real estate agent showed them.
"People thought we were crazy. They didn't think we'd be

Wine & Spirits - April 2020

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