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Some wine club members sitting at our bar told us they were farming a vineyard on the roof of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This happens a lot. Vineyard owners come into our tasting room hoping to win a new fruit client. We always listen, but the vast majority of these opportunities are not a good fit. These two hopefuls at our bar kept hitting the right notes though. "Farming it all by-hand...lived on site at the vineyard...entire ranch was organic...a rare clone of Sauvignon Blanc smuggled in from the Italian alps... soil so depleted weeds would barely grow...cooled by ocean winds." We drove down to take a look at Ascona a few days later. As soon as we got out of the car we could smell the sea. And not long after that, we were selecting our vineyard blocks. Ken & Abby Swegles would soon become friends—real bon vivants with whom we‘d break bread and open many epic bottles. Not surprisingly, the wines we later bottled from Ascona became cellar-favorites. Different than the vineyards down below in foggy Aptos, but equally "fringey" at 2,500 feet facing the Pacific Ocean. Ken offered a poignant comment on the subject, "the most challenging sites—offset with strident farming—produce the most interesting wines."

At less than 1/4 square mile, the Cole Ranch AVA is the smallest appellation in the United States. It is located between the Russian River and Anderson Valley at elevations ranging from 1400-1600 feet. Surrounded by forested hills, it is unique for its terrarium-like setting and late ripening relative to neighboring Ukiah. This 55-acre vineyard was originally planted in 1971 by John Cole, but is now owned by Mike Lucia & Jill Shadek, who are farming it organically. Our Ojo Rose—long without a perennial home—has finally settled in this majestic little valley. We picked out 1.74 tons of Pinot Noir (82%) and .37 tons (18%) of Chardonnay on the morning of Sept 25. The fruit was gently crushed and sent direct-to-press. It was co-fermented on wild yeasts in neutral French oak. The 2023 Ojo will be a suitable dance partner for the warmer months ahead. It’s a snappy, copper-colored wine that smells like white peaches, tangerines, and wet stone, and has complex flavors that keep you returning to the glass—is that pickled strawberry, chervil, Rainer cherry, saffron?

Vintage 2024 unfolded with remarkable precision. The wines show fresh, lifted aromatics, vibrant yet integrated acidity, and impressive flavor intensity without heaviness. This SoCo installment features two exciting new vineyard sites that compliment the stalwart sources from John Balletto's ranches in the extremely cool Sebastopol Hills. Namely some organically farmed, old vine Wente from Frank Johnson (17% of blend) and some top tier stuff from a cooler pocket of the Alexander Valley (Gamino Vineyard). Like the 2023, this wine was fermented and aged in 100% stainless steel — homage to the mouthwatering wine that inspired it: Louis Michel Chablis.

There's a reason winemakers around here are calling 2023 'the best vintage of their careers.' And a reason the wines are getting gaudy scores from the critics (including 96 points for this Chardonnay). It was a near-perfect vintage with no heat, fires, or drama of any kind and mid-October harvest dates like we used to see in the 1990s. This 2023 Estero got a pedigree bump too-- the final blend was 57% Burnside (which borders Littorai) + 19% Piner + 10% Tidal Break + 8% Skycrest + 6% Casa Seca. And it's 100% delicious. We've been over-vintaging this wine for the past few vintages, so it gets the long elevage and the complexity and flinty reduction that comes with it. The 3.3 pH means your mouth's gonna water.

Vintage 2024 unfolded with remarkable precision, as if the season followed a perfectly written script. Abundant winter and spring rainfall replenished soils and established healthy water reserves ahead of the growing season. Flowering arrived under dry, warm conditions, encouraging excellent fruit set and uniform cluster development. Throughout summer, consistently warm days paired with cool nights allowed grapes to ripen steadily while preserving natural acidity. Notably, the absence of summer rain reduced disease pressure and gave growers the freedom to fine-tune ripeness decisions. As harvest approached, conditions remained ideal—cool, sunny weather enabled calm, deliberate picking at optimal maturity. These balanced, on-time conditions translated directly into the character of the wines, particularly Chardonnay. The resulting wines show fresh, lifted aromatics, vibrant yet integrated acidity, and impressive flavor intensity without heaviness. Skycrest Vineyard stands out as an extreme expression of mountain fruit in this vintage. Elevation and site are unmistakable, delivering a pronounced chalky texture, distinct salinity, and striking minerality, all expressed with brightness, precision, and vineyard authenticity.

We're gonna go on record and say it: this wine is ONE OF ONE. There simply is not another Mendocino Pinot Noir being bottled today that claims such a wide range of vineyard sources. From the interior valleys to the far coast. Like the 2023 before it, the 2024 installment was elevated by an exciting new vineyard source in the densely forested coastal hamlet of Comptche. The Comptche lots were blended with stalwarts from the Anderson Valley, The Cole Ranch, and the Potter Valley. We feel this wine from disparate but essentially Mendocino ranches gives a wide aperture view of this wild evergreen county, and makes for an authentic expression of Mendocino Pinot Noir.

We went back to Pocket Canyon in 2024--the sweet little vineyard that gave us pea-sized berries and a gusher of sour red fruit last year. The site is planted with prized Swan clone on a steep slope enclosed by redwoods in a fog-choked canyon west of Forestville. It's "dry-farmed by default" because the coyotes chew on the drip lines. The other component in the wine is from the Sealift Vineyard on the West Sonoma Coast near Annapolis. Just a few miles from the Pacific, Sealift provides a savory, saline quality that marries well with the pretty red-fruit notes. The wine showcases what we love about Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir — energy, mouthwatering acidity, and signature tone.

After years of petitioning, frontier growers John Peterson and Saul Ramirez were awarded appellation status for their vineyards out on the far Mendocino coast. Comptche is defined by its low lying elevation (300-400') and proximity to the nearby Pacific Ocean (14mi) with it's damp fog and cool air. The proximate Albion Wind Gap channels the ocean influence into the coastal valleys. Densely forested, extremely remote, and alive with black bears, bald eagles and steelhead—this is wilderness wine. The wines remind us of the premier deep-end sites in the nearby Anderson Valley—shot through with dark berries, blue florals, and coniferous—but for half the price. New frontiers often bring value so go ahead and join the pioneer party!

Tucked between the first and second ridge, this neighborhood continues to stand out as a premier zone for high-intensity Pinot Noir. We selected a block along the spine of the property with an East–West row orientation and a true north-facing aspect, optimizing both sunlight and airflow. Even in these cooler sites, climate change continues to shape vineyard decisions. A decade ago, south-facing slopes were favored to maximize sun exposure; today, the priority is protecting fruit from harsh afternoon heat while preserving acidity and delicate aromatics. The nearby Pacific Ocean serves as a reliable natural air conditioner, allowing grapes to ripen slowly under hazy, cool light. This measured pace enhances photosynthesis while maintaining balance and complexity. In contrast to warmer areas like the Russian River Valley—where heat accelerates sugar accumulation and forces earlier harvests—this site produces Pinot Noir with greater nuance. The 2024 vintage captures both intensity and finesse, offering vibrant structure, layered aromatics, and bright, persistent acidity that defines this coastal appellation.

Vintage 2024 unfolded on time, as if the season itself had been orchestrated. Generous winter and spring rains refreshed the soils, giving vines a deep reserve of water heading into a warm, dry flowering that produced beautifully set clusters. Summer brought warm days and cool nights, allowing grapes to ripen slowly while maintaining vibrant acidity, and the absence of rain kept disease pressure low. Harvest arrived under cool, sunny skies, enabling careful, deliberate picking at perfect maturity. Edmeades Vineyard was LIOCO's first foray into the lower-elevation sites (250') on the south side of Highway 128—those with more shading from afternoon sun allowing the fruit to develop more slowly, preserving freshness and nuance. The resulting wines carry a lower pH than those on the hillsides across the street, and a palpable freshness and taught structure on the palate. In 2024, we harvested all three clones (115, 777, and Swan) on the same morning and co-fermented them with 10% whole clusters (which was a first). The resulting wine shows layered aromatics, supple tannins, and a natural vibrancy.

Here is your Wednesday Night Red. As in: whatever you're making for dinner on a Wednesday, Indica will be a fine accompaniment. The 2023 shows the once-in-ten-years fruit quality that this vintage is becoming well known for. It is a blend of three historic Mendocino ranches—all dry-farmed since the 1940's. This blend of 87% Carignan + 13% Valdiguie rocked 50% whole clusters, with a good bit going through carbonic maceration to highlight the crunchy freshness of this wine. The result is chillable, medium weight red—with some grip—that reminds of us Cote de Brouilly but is unabashedly Californian.

A LIOCO Cabernet Sauvignon? How? Why? The short is: because Sara and I are geeks who enjoy authentic wines from all varieties, around the world. We love the old school Cali Cabs from the 1970s and 1980s and still have some prized bottles in our cellar. The inspo for Fondo was 1966 Mondavi Reserve—a wine at 12.3% abv, no noticable oak, with a streak of green pyrazine running through it. Could we still make wine like that in the era of climate change? Fondo explores this question. When our friends Morgan and Chris at Bedrock told us they had just wrapped the final year on a 30 year grape contract with Mondavi (long a source for that legendary estate's Reserve Cabernet), and offered LIOCO some of that old vine, field sprawl Cab, we jumped. Our inaugural vintage 2021 gave us the confidence to wade into the sharky waters of Cab Sauv. And our follow up bottling in 2022 has determined us to continue. LIOCO is now a Cab house ;). This wine is a barrel selection made from Bedrock and (California Grand Cru) Monte Rosso. It is a deeply saturated wine that still maintains buoyancy and drinkability.

"Bistro Red" is not an official wine category, but it's what we call those food-friendly, medium weight red wines poured in bistros everywhere. This box features our whole-cluster fermented Carignan (smells like wild herbs and blackberries). Plus a sappy, red-fruited Pinot noir from the Sonoma Coast.

You're throwing a party. You need a crisp white to get things started, and you need a dinner wine. This box features a bright, stony Chardonnay that would make Chablis blush, and a forest, ocean-cooled Pinot from California's newest AVA, Comptche. The white will stimulate conversation; the red will enhance whatever you pull from the oven. Ding!

Pinot Noir is like the O-Negative Blood Type of wine. It works at every table, with every season, but sings especially true this time of year. This trio from the heavily forested, ocean-influenced county of Mendocino show the snap, crackle, and pop this zone is famous for.