2022 Morgan Winery, Chardonnay, Double L Estate Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands.
The regular Double L Chardonnay 2022 bottling, which is a stunning wine, feels a bit weightier and is more flamboyant than the ’21, maybe due t the warmer year, but this expressive and exotic Chardonnay is still energy filled and has a nice mineral crispness. The full bodied palate of this pale golden hued Double L Estate has a luxurious layering of apple, pear, peach, lemon curd and golden fig fruits, along with vivid tropical fruits, including pineapple and mango, as well as clove spice, vanilla, lime blossoms, wet stone and a rounded creamy mouth feel. The acidity keeps things lively and lifts the finish, making this vintage great with fleshier cuisine, with roast poultry, salmon and swordfish steaks being good choices, as well as double and triple cream farm cheeses. The Double L Chardonnays, which I highly recommend, are typically fermented and aged in 25% to 35% new French oak, where they mature for close to 9 months, seeing between 90%-100% full malo-lactic conversion, depending on the year, with 2022 getting 33% new wood and 100% malo, and see some lees stirring to help round out the feel with a focus on balance, a bt of tension and richness of texture.
The Morgan Winery, led by Dan Lee and his family, is on a roll with a top notch collection of estate and non estate wines in the lineup, but especially with their awesome organic estate bottlings of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with wines like the classic Double L Estate Chardonnay. Morgan Winery founder Dan Lee’s Double L Estate Vineyard was originally planted back in 1997, today Morgan’s and is the only fully certified organic vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands, which has proven itself to be one of the top sites in the region with its cool climate and quality small yields producing exceptional grapes. This cru is located at the northern end of the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, and as Lee notes, the vineyard’s north-south row orientation provides optimal wind and sun exposure here, with the sandy loamy soils giving good drainage and promotes deep roots for added concentration and complexity in the wines. I must say, this 2022, which I wasn’t expecting to capture my attention, due to the year’s heat spikes, really impressed me and shows off the quality of this terroir, vineyard and the winemaking team here at Morgan and while I may end up liking the upcoming 2023s more, I can wholeheartedly recommend this one for mid term drinking pleasure.
($48 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive