Lioco Pinot Noir Saveria Vineyard 2022
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The Land
Saveria sits in a maritime canyon off Pleasant Valley Road near Aptos, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, at the specific line where the Pacific fog stops being a solid blanket and breaks up into patchy sun. That boundary is the entire growing proposition: enough sun to ripen, enough marine cool to slow it down, and a long hang time as a result. The soil is a deep colluvial fan of sand mixed with calcareous marine deposits, material washed down the canyon over millennia, and it drains almost too well. The Pinot Noir here was planted in the late 1990s to clones 115, 667, and 777. The Santa Cruz Mountains have never been a volume region, which is why so few people can name a vineyard in them.
The Wine
100% Pinot Noir from that single vineyard, made with a portion of whole clusters left in the fermentation, which is what gives the wine its stem-spice lift and a firmer, more savory structure than a fully destemmed version would. This is the Lioco house style applied to red wine: nothing extracted hard, nothing corrected, and no new oak sitting on top of the fruit. 2022 in California was marked by a severe early-September heat event that pushed harvest forward and cut yields, and cool marine sites like this one weathered it better than the valley floors did. The wine runs to red cherry, cranberry, dried rose, orange peel, black tea, and forest floor, light to medium in body with fine tannin, bright acidity, and a long savory close. Coastal Pinot with tension rather than weight.
The People
Lioco was founded in 2005 by Kevin O'Connor, a sommelier, and Matt Licklider, a wine importer, and the name is a compression of their surnames. The project began as a reaction against what California was doing to Chardonnay at the time, with a stainless-steel, unoaked white that argued the fruit could stand on its own. The same argument runs through the reds: source from cool, marginal, often overlooked sites, pick early enough to keep acidity, and stay out of the way in the cellar. They work with growers rather than owning vineyards, which lets them chase specific parcels across California instead of being stuck with whatever they planted.
Food Pairing
Light enough to serve cool and structured enough to sit at dinner. Roast chicken with mushrooms and thyme, grilled salmon, duck confit with lentils, or a mushroom tart with gruyère. The tea-leaf and forest-floor character meets earthy cooking directly, and the acidity handles a pan sauce. Fifteen minutes in the fridge before opening will do it a favor.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
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.
