Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017 - 44

TOP 100 WINERIES 2017

Lioco
What started off as a shot across the bow-an effort to make racy, Chablisinspired California chardonnay without oak barrels-has transformed into a
project that's more about place than style.

Saveria, from another sandy Santa Cruz Mountains site not far from
La Marisma, is pure and fresh, with an herb-and-chokecherry snap
that feels almost alpine.

Paradigm Shifts: More than ten years ago, friends Kevin O'Connor (a
sommelier) and Matt Licklider (a wine sales rep) bonded over their
mutual distaste for the bombastic California chardonnays that dominated the market-and agreed to try to make a chardonnay they
would want to drink. They bought their first grapes in 2005, and soon
their Sonoma County chardonnay blend-made completely in stainless steel-was turning heads with its clean, unadorned expression
of California fruit. They loosened up their approach a bit when they
brought on winemaker John Raytek, of Ceritas, in 2011, allowing
some oak (mostly neutral) into the cellar. This year, the chardonnay
rock star was the 2015 La Marisma. It comes from a small vineyard
planted in sandy soil on the west side of the Santa Cruz Mountains,
not far from Monterey Bay. Fermented in neutral oak casks, it's a
product of a foggy site and a drought vintage, with snappy coastal
acidity focusing its delicious, stony yet sunny peach flavor into an
intense beam.

Goodbye (and Hello) to Demuth: There have been a lot of changes at
Lioco during the past year. Matt and Sara Licklider acquired sole
ownership of the winery, and longtime cellar master Kai Kliegl took
over for John Raytek as the winemaker. Plus, the Demuth chardonnay block-an old, heavily virused hillside planting in Anderson Valley that produced miniscule quantities of often-brilliant chardonnay
for Lioco-is finally being ripped out. If you've liked that wine in the
past, keep an eye out for the 2016 when it's released later this year:
That's the last there will ever be. As a consolation prize, Lioco will be
getting some Demuth pinot noir this year from the vineyard's new
owner, Kosta Browne, and has also gained access to pinot noir from
the Kaiser Vineyard on the extreme coastal end of Anderson Valley.

Less is More: Lioco has also worked with pinot noir since that first
vintage, searching out cool-climate vineyard sites. The team's mature
understanding of those sites is especially clear in a year like 2015,
when a poor fruit set and a protracted drought produced a tiny crop
of tannic, heroically concentrated grapes. Even the 2015 Cerise-
from a hillside vineyard planted on rocky, low-vigor soils that always
grows a fairly tannic wine-feels firm and balanced rather than overextracted, with a delightful rosy cast to its mineral grip. And the 2015

Lioco for Beginners: If Lioco's single-vineyard pinot noirs and chardonnays are out of your price range, you can always pick up the Sonoma
County Chardonnay, a white that's reliably bracing enough to handle
oysters. But you might also check out the Sativa Carignan. In 2012,
the team found a block of 70-year-old, unirrigated carignan that Jim
McCutchen farms on the flank of Pine Mountain, just north of Alexander Valley. The vines grow on volcanic soil at 2,000 feet of elevation, and in 2015 they produced a wild yet delicious red. Fermented
as whole bunches and aged in neutral oak, the fruit gave a rich, juicy
wine with herbal intrigue and racy acidity. It's a California wine for
Burgundy lovers-if the Burgundy you love happens to be cru Beaujolais. -L.S.

Sara & Matt Licklider

DETAILS & TOP WINES
Founded: 2005 * Winemaker: Kai Kliegl
Viticulturist: Prudy Foxx * Owners: Matt & Sara Licklider
Acres owned: none * Annual production: 10,000 cases
Estate grown: N/A * Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Website: liocowine.com

94 2015 Santa Cruz Mountains La Marisma Chardonnay $50 (10/17)
94 2015 Santa Cruz Mountains Saveria Pinot Noir $52 (10/17)
93 2015 Anderson Valley Cerise Pinot Noir $52 (10/17)

C ALIFORNIA
44

WINE & SPIRITS

BUYING GUIDE 2018

http://www.liocowine.com

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