While Kenny Likitprakong grew up in Sonoma with a constellation of winemaking and grape-growing parents, aunts and uncles, he always gravitated toward surfing, skateboarding, and the work of his favorite authors. Fortunately for us, that all changed during Kenny's first trip to Europe in the 1990's. He returned home inspired, and soon enrolled in UC Davis' famed viticulture and enology degree program. Unlike most of his local winemaking peers in the early 2000's, Kenny was adamant about bottling wines both moderate in alcohol and balanced in fruit driven, savory and mineral elements. Over the last decade and a half, Kenny has honed his craft in the cellar while also becoming a respected vineyard manager in Northern California. Today, he commands a dizzying and impressive array of small vineyard plots in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Santa Cruz counties, almost all dry farmed and organically grown. He bottles these small lots under a variety of labels, but his Ghostwriter wines represent the pinnacle of his talents in the cellar and vines. This wine, the 2013 Ghostwriter “Amaya Ridge” Pinot Noir, is without question the finest Pinot Noir I’ve ever tasted from Kenny.

If you start at Santa Cruz’ world renowned Pleasure Point surf break and drive 25 minutes due east up into the mountains that hug the coast, you will find yourself at Amaya Ridge. This is a small 2.75-acre vineyard grafted primarily two of California’s most celebrated clones, Calera and Saintsbury. The property’s sandy loam soils impart ample energy and lift, but this is historically the most generous of the Ghostwriter bottlings. And despite its significant elevation (1,110 feet), over the last few years, this organically/dry farmed vineyard has proven to be especially tolerant of challenging weather and drought. Its vigorous, healthy vines produce a wine with broader shoulders and slightly darker, riper fruit than that of his other cuvées.