While Kenny Likitprakong grew up in Sonoma with a constellation of winemaking and grape growing aunts and uncles, he always gravitated more toward surfing, skateboarding, and literature. 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 that were moderate in alcohol, while balancing fruit driven and savory and more 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 small lots under a variety of labels, but his Ghostwriter wines represent the pinnacle of his talents in the cellar and vines. 

Today’s wine, the 2013 Ghostwriter “Ahlgren/Mount Madonna” Pinot Noir, is particularly impressive. Grapes are hand harvested from hillside vineyards high up in the Santa Cruz mountains south of San Francisco—the Ahlgren vineyard (which accounts for roughly 70% of this cuvée) is at 1,300 feet and the Mount Madonna parcel (30%) is over 2,000 feet. Kenny fully destemmed all fruit from these vineyards before fermenting in stainless steel, then the wine rested in neutral oak barrels and bottle for 1.5 years before release.