Tom Litwan’s vineyards are in northern Switzerland in the Aargau. This land is a vibrant rolling farmland with hills topped in islands of forest. The Aargau has the same Jurassic limestone bedrock as is found in Jura, Neuchâtel, and Burgundy, but because of its proximity to the Alps, eons of glacial advance and retreat have left a wondrous mosaic of topsoils in the region—from rocky exposed clay and limestone to fine silt loams and everything in between. There are myriad microclimates and exposures to make use of in the region and this variety and complexity was what inspired Tom Litwan to plant his vineyards in the region. Litwan didn’t aim to become a winemaker. After school, he worked as a stone mason but a lucky stay in Chablis for a job resulted in a friendship with Samuel Billaud. Tom’s encounters with Billaud’s family cellar of grand cru Burgundy lead him straight to wine school in Switzerland where he focused on biodynamics. His sites in the Aargau are situated at 500m and because of their proximity to the Alps and the surrounding forests, they are some of the last sites in the region to ripen. He farms heritage clones with massale selection, harvests by hand, and ferments spontaneously. His wines age in seasoned French oak barrels using only a small amount of SO2 for stability. These wines are Swiss secrets that disappear as soon as they are released.

2021 marked a devastating vintage for Litwan with enormous losses in the vineyards due to Peronospora. Rot is the assembled fruit that was left from all the single crus that Litwan bottles. Still only 2,063 bottles were filled. The grapes were hand-harvested and natural yeast fermented in neutral oak before aging a year in neutral wood. The wine has a startling clarity of red berries and elegant cherries intertwined with toasted spices, iron, and cherry liqueur. There is a silken, stony elegance to it that escapes words, like a statue out of red marble.