Owner Larry Stone was an influential master sommelier who served at Charlie Trotters, Four Seasons and Rubicon. In 2012, he purchased the Janzen farm in the Eola-Amity Hills with proceeds from the sale of his personal wine cellar and assistance from his relatives. He named the 66-acre site LS “Larry Stone” Vineyard and planted it to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. In 2015, Larry co-founded Lingua Franca with Dominique Lafon of the family estate, Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Beaune, France.

The 2021 Lingua Franca “The Plow” Pinot Noir is sourced from three upper blocks of the Lingua Franca estate vineyard. This site is composed of rocky Gelderman-Jory sub-soils with a layer of large gravel. The wine is fermented with wild yeast and spends 12 months in 25% new and 75% neutral French Oak barriques before an additional 5 months of aging in stainless steel tanks. French native, Tom Savre worked with prestigious estates such as Domaine de la Romanée Conti and Domaine Dujac in Burgundy before overseeing winemaking at Lingua Franca in 2015.

This Pinot Noir has a glimmering garnet color. In the glass, it reveals an intoxicating floral bouquet of macerated Morello cherries and freshly tilled earth that evolve with each swirl. Within the juicy core is a burst of freshly picked, red berries with an underpinning of garrigue, thyme, underbrush and rustic spices. The complex mid-palate is silky with finely grained tannins and enough tension to give the wine a supple framework and balance. The wine stays lively through the long and memorable finish. When you taste the wines from Lingua Franca, it is as though you are transported to the countryside of Beaune, France and sense the expression of terroir in each of these wines.

W Peter Hoyne