Sebastopol Hills – from apples to grapes

'We’re in the heart of Gravenstein apple homeland', Ted Lemon of Littorai tells me. We’re standing on the crest of a hill in Littorai’s Pivot Vineyard, the label’s estate property at the centre of the Sebastopol Hills. The sun’s morning glow is luminescent here. 

Black-bodied bees lumber by to feast on a mix of indigenous plants next to the vineyard. They are native pollinators rather than European honey bees, I’ll discover later, integral to Lemon’s focus on the diverse ecosystem of a healthy vineyard.

Lemon’s...