Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another head-turner is the 2016 Pinot Noir Double L, which was also destemmed and spent ten months in 50% new oak. It’s a tight, vibrant, youthful effort offering medium-bodied notes of blackberry and black cherry fruits intermixed with plenty of spice, scorched earth, and background oak. With beautiful purity, terrific balance, and again, a vibrant texture, it will be better with a year of bottle age and keep for upwards of a decade.
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Tasting Panel
Soft cherry and earth nose; silky texture with notes of cherry and spice; showing ripe fruit and good length. Aged ten months in 50% new French oak.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Morgan Double L Vineyard Pinot Noir lines up well against Burgundy's top Premier Crus. TASTING NOTES: This wine is persistent, elegant, and long. Its aromas and flavors of dust, red fruit, earth exhibit superb persistence and length. Pair it with mint-accented grilled lamb chops. (Tasted: August 19, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Perhaps the most highly regarded appellation within Monterey County, Santa Lucia Highlands AVA benefits from a combination of warm morning sunshine and brisk afternoon breezes, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and fully. The result is concentrated, flavorful wines that retain their natural acidity. Wineries here do not shy away from innovation, and place a high priority on sustainable viticultural practices.
The climatic conditions here are perfectly suited to the production of ripe, rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These Burgundian varieties dominate an overwhelming percentage of plantings, though growers have also found success with Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris.