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Noble search for New World terroir

Make good pinot and the regional accolades will come, says celebrated American winemaker Ted Lemon.

Jane Faulkner

Good earth: Mist over Littorai vineyard.
Good earth: Mist over Littorai vineyard.Supplied

What's striking about California-based winemaker Ted Lemon is just how ordinary he appears. Slim, with mousy hair and sporting jeans, he blended into the largely winemaking crowd at last month's Mornington Peninsula International Pinot Noir Celebration. But looks are deceiving.

There's an inner strength, insight and resolve to Lemon. And he has a way with words. On a panel on day two of Australia's most significant pinot fest, Lemon started matter-of-factly with a polite note of thanks to the organisers. After all, they were showcasing his Littorai wines. Then within seconds, the audience went quiet. Very quiet. His impassioned speech, more a polemic on wine, had everyone mesmerised .

About 30 years ago, Lemon read Roger Dion's History of the Vine and Wine in France, which describes how wines made in Paris during the 16th century rivalled the very best of Champagne's. Lemon was shocked to discover this ''in a country where the vine enjoys the greatest prestige, the public is utterly ignorant of this important past''.

Ted Lemon, owner of Littorai wines.
Ted Lemon, owner of Littorai wines.Supplied
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''As a young man living in Burgundy, these words struck me like thunder,'' Lemon says.

''There was a great and forgotten wine in Paris? So the great terroirs are not set in stone. A single detour here and there and the great sparkling wine of France could have come from the region of Paris.

''Great terroir does not exist. It is built. It is built from the millions of blocks of historical, cultural, economic scientific and agronomic pieces.''

Littorai corks.
Littorai corks.Supplied

Lemon was provocative but hardly controversial. This theme, a concept of noble place, as he calls it, is not new. He wrote about it in 2006 as part of Jacky Rigaux's compilation Terroir & The Winegrower and Lemon's been espousing the idea for much longer.

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''Dion's words freed me. Great dirt is neither sentimental nor xenophobic,'' Lemon says.

''This concept, which lies at the origin of all the great viticultural regions, is not only distinct from the notion of terroir but precedes it. Noble places, ready to reveal their secrets, are hidden all over the temperate regions of the earth. They lie hidden in European vineyards, which were once famous but now lie forgotten. And they lie hidden in the virgin regions of the so-called New World.

''Rather than us presuming to have terroir, let us challenge ourselves by asking instead, do I have a noble site?''

Lemon was a French literature major before he turned to winemaking. In 1984, at 25 , Lemon became winemaker and vineyard manager at Domaine Guy Roulot in Meursault.

He was the first American to run a Burgundian estate. The story is extraordinary because he was given an insight into the arcane word terroir and its proponents.

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However, his good fortune came out of tragedy. Guy Roulot died too young (aged 53) in 1982, and at the time, his actor son Jean-Marc was not ready to takeover the domaine.

If anyone believes Lemon had it easy at Roulot, he did not.

The work was challenging and the traditional Burgundian environment was macho. Accepting of the difficult conditions, he humbly adds: ''I wasn't there to revolutionise. I was there to continue a tradition. Roulot was a serious estate and Guy was a very good winemaker and he had systems in place.''

A few years before, Lemon spent time - internships he calls them - at extraordinary domaines such as Domaine Dujac or learning from a privileged fraternity that included Burgundy gurus Jacques Seysses and Aubert de Villaine from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Jean Marie Roumier and Bruno Clair. It was an experience he calls a gift.

While Lemon returned to the US in 1985 and went on to work, then consult, at various high-profile wineries (he's also the winemaker of the new Burn Cottage in Central Otago in New Zealand ), he always wanted his own noble sites. He found them in Sonoma and Mendocino. It is now 20 years since he and his wife Heidi established Littorai with biodynamics at the heart of their enterprise.

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Lemon suggests ''there will never be pure, great and true New World terroirs until we accomplish the aesthetic and cultural parts of building the edifice''. At the conference, he proffered seven guidelines for this process, one of which was to consider biodynamic practices.

''Abandon the quest to make great pinot noir,'' Lemon says. '' Your job is to craft wines which are the most honest, crystalline expressions of their place and then let others decide if they feel that your efforts are worthy.''

Ted Lemon's wines

LITTORAI LES LARMES PINOT NOIR 2011 $75

Les Larmes is a regional blend of young or declassified fruit aimed at more immediate drinking pleasure. It's medium bodied, pure and juicy with lots of bright red fruits especially tangy sweet raspberries, supple tannins and decent acidity before a long finish. Utterly appealing and delicious now.

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LITTORAI SAVOY VINEYARD PINOT NOIR 2010 $100

The Savoy vineyard is at the base and cooler end of the Anderson Valley yet a warmer site that is reflected in the excellent fruit. It's deep, rich and ripe without being mawkish. I love the purity of the 2010; it's aromatic, all florals and spice with ripe round tannins and a persistent fine finish.

LITTORAI MAYS CANYON VINEYARD PINOT NOIR 2010 $110

From the Russian River appellation and the most structured of the Littorai wines. There's depth , a core of rich fruit, powerful yet ripe tannins and plenty of cleansing acidity. Needs time hence it's a pinot for cellaring and will reward the patient. The 2005 tasted recently was drinking perfectly.

Littorai wines are available at Prince Wine Store.

Ted Lemon's speech is on mpva.com.au.

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