Littorai: a plural noun formed from the Latin word litor-, which means the coasts.

Littorai Wines was founded in 1993 by Heidi and Ted Lemon. Littorai produces vineyard designated chardonnay and pinot noir wines from the true north coast of California: western Sonoma and western Mendocino Counties.

The word Littorai, with its reference to geography, reminds us that wine, this noblest agricultural product, arises from the weave of place (vineyard), time (vintage), and man.

Ted Lemon began his career by studying Enology at the Universite de Bourgogne. He apprenticed at several famous estates in Burgundy: Domaines Dujac, De Villaine, Roumier, Parent and Bruno Clair. He was the first American ever hired as a winemaker and vineyard manager of a Burgundian estate, Domaine Guy Roulot in Meursault. In the United States, Ted has worked as winemaker and consultant to many prominent wineries: Howell Mountain Vineyards, Reverie on Diamond Mountain, Green and Red Vineyard, Keller Estate, Estancia, Archery Summit and many more.

Littorai's philosophy of winegrowing is inspired by Ted's years in France and is based upon the concept of terroir. Terroir based winemaking postulates that wine of a single place produced by a single estate, is the greatest expression of winemaking. The pinot noir and chardonnay grape varieties are uniquely suited to this philosophy. If the site is not exceptional, the wines of these two varieties lack genius. All of the sites in the Littorai vineyard portfolio have been carefully selected by Ted. Many of these are steep hillsides where yields and ripening conditions are marginal.

The edge of the American continent north of San Francisco presents an extraordinary viticultural landscape. The geology is exceptionally diverse, creating soils of radically different types. One finds uplifted marine sediments, uplifted underwater volcanics, sedimentary and volcanic residues, often within short distances of each other. Mesoclimate variations are enormous depending upon elevation, aspect and exposure to our famous North Coast fog. This is an unparalleled incubator for terroir based winemaking.

The Lemons are life-long, family winemakers, passionately committed to their craft. They have not come from other walks of life and this fact is essential to understanding Littorai. Littorai is not motivated by competitions, ratings or trends, nor by the lure of publicity. It is devoted to the mystery of wine, not the science. Littorai seeks to create wines of elegance, length and finesse, wines which gain in complexity as they age. Littorai creates wines whose balance and proportion make them uniquely suited for dining and for great cuisine.