Lioco Pinot Noir Comptche 2023
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The Land
Comptche is one of the smallest appellations in California and almost nobody has heard of it. The TTB approved it in April 2024 at 1,421 acres, with three commercial vineyards and just over 30 acres planted, and Pinot Noir is the only variety grown there commercially. It was deliberately excluded from the surrounding North Coast AVA because its two dominant soil series, Bearwallow-Wolfey and Perrygulch loam, are scarce in the North Coast and in California generally. The site sits 14 miles from the Pacific and only 300 to 400 feet above sea level, with the Albion Wind Gap funneling cold ocean air and damp fog straight into the valley. The federal petition described it as a borderline climate where only cold-hardy varieties will ripen at all. Densely forested, extremely remote, full of redwoods, black bears and steelhead. This is wilderness, and it happens to grow grapes.
The Wine
Pinot Noir from the neighboring Peterson and Costa vineyards, and the first bottling ever made under the Comptche AVA. Fermented with 25 percent whole clusters and aged 10 months in French oak, 28 percent of it new, then bottled unfined and unfiltered. The 2023 vintage in coastal California was the season winemakers had been waiting a decade for: no heat spikes, no fires, and October harvest dates of the kind that were normal in the 1990s, which gave Lioco long hang time at low sugar. Sour red plum, rose petal, coriander seed and forest floor come first, then wild blackberry, red cherry, hibiscus and black tea run through a light-bodied, structured frame. Fine tannin, high acid, graphite on the finish. It drinks like the deeper-end Anderson Valley sites a few ridges away.
The People
Lioco was conceived in 2005 in the alley behind Spago Beverly Hills, where wine director Kevin O'Connor and wine salesman Matt Licklider, both fed up with the heavy-handed California wines of the era, wondered whether the state's soils could produce something with more nuance. They owned no vineyards and still do not. The model was and remains negociant: find the growers, buy the fruit, keep the alcohol low, keep the new oak minimal, and let the site do the talking. Matt and Sara Licklider run it today, sourcing from small family ranches spread across 400 miles and five counties. Comptche exists as an appellation because frontier growers John Peterson and Saul Ramirez spent years petitioning for it. Lioco was there for the first vintage.
Food Pairing
Duck confit with a bitter chicory salad is the anchor pairing, since the wine's acid slices the rendered fat and its tea-leaf tannin picks up the char on the skin. Braised kale with chorizo works on the same logic in a cheaper register. A mushroom and thyme galette with gruyere meets the forest-floor aromatics directly. And roasted beets with goat cheese and walnuts lock onto the earthy, hibiscus side of the wine. Serve it with a 20-minute chill. This is the red for a rainy Tuesday when you want something with tension rather than comfort.
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Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
This region includes wines labeled "North Coast", which are often blends including Sonoma and Napa counties. This expansive area encompasses established regions like Mendocino and Lake Counties, as well as newer vineyard sites pushing towards the Oregon border. Mendocino County is known for its varied climates, from the Anderson Valley's cool, fog-influenced areas ideal for Pinot Noir and sparkling wine, to warmer inland spots. Lake County, further inland, offers volcanic soils and a warmer climate suitable for Cabernet Sauvignon and other varieties. Beyond these, even more northerly locations are being explored for their unique terroir, contributing to the evolving identity of California's northern wine production.
California - North Coast & Far North
Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned, notoriously difficult-to-grow, low-yielding grape that finds its ancestral home in Burgundy, France, where it produces some of the world's most elegant and nuanced wines. While Burgundy remains its spiritual heartland, Pinot Noir has since traveled the globe, finding success in other cooler climates, notably in California, Oregon, New Zealand, and Germany. This grape is a challenge for any grower, as it requires specific conditions to show its best, and yet the wines it produces are capable of such a captivating and singular character.
