To many wine lovers, the names Littorai and Pinot Noir are synonymous. And, if there could be any truth to California Pinot Noir having a French Connection, Littorai would likely have first claim to the title.
It was an auspicious start for a young Ted Lemon – while studying French Literature at the University of Dijon, he also happened to take a wine appreciation course from the director of Burgundy’s tourism office. The result was a natural affinity to Burgundy and to Pinot Noir – so much so, that he was offered a job in France if he ever decided to take up winemaking.
After graduating from Brown University, Ted returned to France to study enology and viticulture at the University of Dijon, and went on to work at many prestigious estates in Burgundy, including Chateau Dujac.
Then, after returning to the U.S. and working with Josh Jensen at Calera, a surprising thing happened. In 1982, at 25 years of age he was offered the reins of Domaine Guy Roulot in Meursault, and became the first American winemaker and vineyard manager in Burgundy.
Join us as we hear from Ted Lemon about his wine making, and his philosophy for making classic Pinot Noir.
For More Info: www.littorai.com
Sponsor: Wine Blue Book: www.winebluebook.com
Click Below to Play the Show:
(48:40 min 35 MB)
Thanks for the tip on Littorai. I am always looking for new Pinots and I was not familair with this producer. He sounds like a great guy and I hope his wines are as well. Jeff L.
It seems shocking that so few Americans been involved in the French wine industry. I know we are still neophytes in this business but you would think with all the growth in demand and production here in the USA we would have more people traveling to Europe to learn their secret. I know many Frenchman have moved to Calif to pursue their dream here.
Great show Rusty. One problem, I just felt my allocation go down!
Dear Grape Radio Team,
First of all I have grown to become obcessed in listening to your show. You guys do an incredible job overall. I started listening to Grape Radio about two months ago, because of a tip from a friend of mine whom I make wine with and the fact I bought an Ipod.
I started just picking shows at random. Ones that I might be interested in. Then it dawned on me that I should really listen to the evolution of the show by starting from Episode 1. Which is what I did. Today during my commute and during my lunch break I completed this task. It was pretty interesting and funny to see the progression of Grape Radio since it’s inception. You certainly improved the quality of the show in a very short period of time.
I just finished your most recent show with Ted Lemon. I thought it was a good interview. But, I would have liked the whole crew there to interact more with your questions. In person or over the phone. Also the audio quality was quite poor. I just think that listeners could have received a much better insight into a man with an obvious wealth of knowledge in winegrowing.
Thanks for all of your hard work. And keep the podcasts coming.
Jon
While off the topic, sort of, I just saw the pieces you did for Williams Selyer and they are terriffic! You should put up a l link to them.
Jon,
Thanks for the comments. We all do like to do the shows unfortunately we cant always make all the trips.
There is so much to cover and so little time it is hard to do it all. We have to rely on a few quality correspondants to go out and help us out.
As far as the audio quality - We were experimenting with some new equipment and did not have the settings adjusted correctly (its good now) but we felt the quality of the interview content was so strong we needed to put it out there.
Thanks for listening.
Your GrapeRadio Crew
Tad-
There are more American Pinot Noir winemakers that have spent a portion of their training in France than I think you realize.
Jon-
Ted Lemon is a busy guy. It is difficult to get him into our studio 500 miles away where the whole crew can interact. I would like to know exactly what additional insight you would be interested in. This would help me in the future with winemaker interviews.