2005 Littorai Lemon's Folly

Community Tasting Notes (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View RationalDenial's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/1/2008 - RationalDenial wrote:

  For Tanglenet (this is from Ted Lemon's 2005 mailing list description of the '06; you sure you had an '05?):
  Lemon’s Folly: The estate property which produces both The Haven pinot noir and The Tributary chardonnay has a half acre of almost flat but difficult ground. Eighteen inches of loamy topsoil sit above massive and impenetrable clay. The result is an exceptionally low vigor soil. The best
  viticultural consultant in the country warned us not to plant it. But we couldn’t resist. The greater question was what to plant? The soils are too
  heavy for Pinot and Chardonnay. After much research we decided that a field blend of white varieties made sense. For now the dominant
  variety is Gewurztraminer with modest amounts of Sauvignon Blanc to lend the wine acid structure. As time passes we will add other varieties
  to the field as seem appropriate. For that reason we have chosen to call Lemon’s Folly a “Sonoma Coast White Wine” rather than
  Gewurztraminer. Besides, the idea of evolving field blends doesn’t sound much like the conservative, Littorai-style approach to pinot and
  chardonnay, so there must have been a moment of delirium which led to Lemon’s Folly. The first vintage is 2006 (the young vine 2004 was
  bulked out and the 2005 produced 35 lbs of fruit).
  
  We picked only by flavor at that moment when we felt that the gewürztraminer character was expressing itself most intensely. We paid no
  attention to the sugar level, but kept our eye on the acidity. At picking the wine was quite sweet, in German terms it would be a beerenauslese
  or in Alsatian terms a Selection de Grains Nobles. It has been made in a German/Austrian style: 9.5% alcohol with over 100 grams per liter
  residual sugar. So it is very sweet, but has more than enough acidity and backbone to stand up to the residual sugar. There is no botrytis in this
  wine, in other words no noble rot. Nor were there any raisins, the fruit was perfectly plump and ripe. It received 12 hours of skin contact after
  destemming but before pressing and was fermented entirely in a stainless steel barrel with native yeast and no malolactic fermentation. It will
  be bottled in early February, a mere 5 months after harvest! The result is an extraordinarily pure and vibrant expression of Gewurztraminer
  from this site, unadulterated by any manipulations and completely uninfluenced by jammy, raisiny or Botrytis qualities. It possesses all the
  classic aromas of great Gewürztraminer: rose petal, lychee, grapefruit and yes, lemon, associated with wonderful mineral notes and a very
  intense, lengthy finish. http://rationaldenial.blogspot.com/

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View tanglenet's profile
  • Report Issue

  8/7/2008 - tanglenet wrote:

  I couldn't find out much about this wine. Somewhere I saw that it was a Gewürztraminer, so when I brought it to the restaurant, I told them that I thought it was sweet and they put it on ice to be served with dessert.
  
  Opened and not decanted and served chilled. Taken to the Wood Tavern in Oakland. A heavy mouth feel with the consistency of fish oil. Lemon syrup notes; a touch of sugar and citrus, but it never goes overboard in sweetness. Good to Very Good.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.