Winemaker to Watch (again!)

Last year it was Robert Pellegrini of Pellegrini Family Vineyards, this year please meet Kevin Kelley from LIOCO...published in the San Francisco Chronicle today and pictures I took while visiting with Kevin last December.

Most wine loves start with a memorable glass. Kevin Kelley's started with a memorable book. As a history-obsessed high schooler in south San Jose, he dove into Charles Sullivan's "Like Modern Edens," about the Santa Clara Valley's wine roots.

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"Little did I know he was an English teacher," points out Kelley, now 32. "He was Mr. Sullivan, teaching English at my high school."

The Pinot Noir long grown on nearby slopes at Saratoga's Mount Eden Vineyards intrigued the science-minded Kelley enough to abandon his medical ambitions and head for UC Davis, though not before marrying his high school sweetheart Jennifer Hatley, who attended UC Berkeley.

If Davis loaded him with practical winemaking skill - he researched topics like the presence of multiple fermentation yeasts in wineries - he increasingly found Burgundy on his brain. When a visiting professor from Dijon arrived, Kelley pounced. "The first day I met him, it was like, 'Hi, I'm Kevin Kelley. I want to go work in Burgundy.' " He began a student internship at Domaine Meo-Camuzet in Vosne-Romanee just after graduation in 2000.

Back on these shores, he became assistant winemaker to Wells Guthrie of Copain, and eventually ran Copain's custom crush facility, working for more than a dozen clients while starting his own label, Salinia Wine Co., in 2003.

Through one of his growers, Charles Heintz, he met the founders of a new project called Lioco. Kelley's goal with Salinia was "to try and find colder and colder sites, and make leaner and leaner wines" with little oak influence. Lioco's founders, Matt Licklider and Kevin O'Connor, wanted to express the flavors of specific Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vineyards with the least intrusive winemaking possible.

"When we sat down and started talking," Kelley recounts, "it was like, 'You really want to do this? Great.' "

Kelley now views his time at Davis as "learning the rules so I know what and when to break." So not only does he insist on no added yeast but he doesn't raise the tank temperatures to spur fermentation. His 2005 Salinia Heintz Ranch Chardonnay took 10 months to ferment, with another eight for malolactic fermentation. The 2006 was just bottled, two years later.

The resulting wines won't appeal to partisans of the extracted California style. But they have a rapidly surging popularity among younger customers who prefer the higher-acid, red-fruit flavors that come from picking as early as Kelley prefers to - often two weeks before fellow winemakers. The Lioco wines, too, have gained attention for their clean, pure expressions. (Kelley also makes more traditional Pinot Noir for Heintz himself, plus several wines for Spot-On Cellars.)

The Kelleys reside in Windsor with their 2-year-old son, Kian, with their winery across from a Baptist church in a generic Santa Rosa industrial park, complete with a long communal table made from the pallet that contained his winery's glycol cooling unit.

Though Salinia produces a mere 350 cases, the tiny footprint allows Kelley to keep breaking more of those rules. So when a slightly murky white he pours draws a puzzled look, he's quick to explain. It's skin-fermented 2008 Chardonnay. He plans to sell it for quick drinking in reusable bulk containers that require only carbon dioxide, not sulfur dioxide, to preserve the wine.

"We're right here in Wine Country, and you can't get fresh wine," he continues. "The freshness is something I want to capture."

The wines

2006 Lioco Michaud Vineyard Chalone Pinot Noir ($45) This Central Coast vineyard shows itself distinctly in this finely toned, almost coppery wine, with dusky cherry, a fascinating hibiscus-like note and moist loam.

2006 Salinia Heintz Ranch Chardonnay ($45) Powerful and mineral-focused, with real punch, a fine example of Kelley's style. Lots of tart Meyer lemon, mango and peach, with honeycomb and salted almond highlights, surround that expressive mineral core.

What he does: Demonstrates the ability of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to reveal their terroir using cold-climate fruit and almost no new oak.

Weeknight wine: Cru Beaujolais like the Domaine Chignard Les Moriers Fleurie

Quote: "Bringing in fruit at the levels I do is not typical. It doesn't appeal to a mass audience like the riper fruit-forward Pinot Noirs do."

(LIOCO is distributed in Texas by Avante Beverages)