Lilo Vineyard - 2014 - John Locke et Alex Krause

Pinot Noir from the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation, produced from young vines of around 12 years old planted at an altitude of 300 metres on shale and sandstone soils. The Lilo Vineyards plot is particularly steep and offers a magnificent view over the entire Bay of Monterrey. Sustainable agriculture, low yields, harvesting is done by hand and with small crates. Vinification: total de-stemming, short maceration with a few cap punch-downs, spontaneous fermentation thanks to indigenous yeasts, followed by 12 months of maturation in barrels and demi-muids that have seen several wines. Neither filtered nor fined, with sensible use of sulphites.

John Locke and Alex Krause founded the Birichino estate in 2008 after collectively spending more than forty years wandering from vineyard to vineyard in Italy, France (including a stint with André Ostertag in Alsace) and California, where they finally met while both working at Bonny Doon vineyard. They became fast friends, sharing a common vision of wine (and of life!) and soon set out to create their own project from the ground up – literally. Their idea? A range of wines that would express the quality of each vineyard site and the excellence of the winegrower caring for it. The two men would source grapes from different sites and parcels, all of which would be cultivated at the very least using sustainable agriculture, and some of which were planted more than 100 years ago... And so the adventure began! More than ten years later, the verdict is beyond dispute: they have clearly managed to create solid relationships of trust with all their winegrowers, and their grapes are of ever-increasing quality. And in the bottle? These wines have it all… “If we can do right by the vineyard sites we are fortunate to draw on, and manage to impart the wonderment and excitement we feel for what we do, we have succeeded. We hope in some small measure what we produce will also add a little joy to the world.”