Morgan

Morgan is our sort of American winery. The prices are affordable, there is no inexplicable over-reliance on shiny new barrels, there's no elitist mailing list for the top cuvees, and above all, the wines are balanced, elegant and delicious with food. It's a winning combination.

The winery was founded by Dan and Donna Lee in 1982 as a side project focusing on Chardonnay (at the time Dan was making wine full-time elsewhere). By 1984 they had moved house to their new winery in Salinas and starting working full-time at Morgan. Four years after that they planted the grape that was to make the winery famous: Pinot Noir.

Both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir flourish in the cool Santa Lucia Highlands area of Monterey County with its cool climate and limestone soils. The area is also proving very suitable for organic viticulture as Morgan's Double L vineyard shows.

Morgan's wines are ripe and full of rich fruit - this is still California, after all - but there is nothing sweet or exaggerated about them. Most importantly of all, they pass the Hugh Johnson Test: that it is the first duty of every wine to be refreshing. If only we could say the same of all Californian wines, especially the Chardonnays.

A recent development at Morgan has been their planting of Rhone varietals Syrah and Grenache, which come together in the brilliant Cotes du Crows. Cool climate Californian Syrah looks to have a very exciting future and we look forward to seeing Dan and Donna work their magic on these Rhone varietals, having already mastered those from Burgundy.