Redwood City Hits the Road: Santa Lucia Highlands and Chalone
Just a few short weeks ago the K&L Redwood City sales team went on the trip of a lifetime. We traveled to the vineyards gently climbing the coastal mountain range that separates Salinas Valley from the coasts of Big Sur. We entered the valley bright and early, headed hastily to our first stop of the day: a tour of Pelio Vineyard with Samuel Louis Smith’s winemaker, Sam Smith. Our van scrambled up the mountain roads of the coastal range until we reached the peak and, much to the dismay of our motion sickness-prone passengers, began the dizzying, winding descent down the other side. At 1,000-ft elevation, we came to a stop at the mountaintop Pelio Vineyard. Just six miles from the Pacific Ocean and overlooking Monterey County’s Carmel Valley, the weather shifted back and forth from sun-soaked and comfortable to foggy and bone-chilling during our hour-long tour. Such is the climate at these stunning sites. Even more stunning were the chunks of diatomaceous shale that littered the land. Sam Smith, who is also the winemaker at Morgan Winery, tasted us though a stunning lineup:
2021 Samuel Louis Smith "Montañita de Oro" Monterey County Pinot Noir $29.95 Lean and linear with excellent cut and not an ounce of surplus fat, Sam Louis Smith’s Monterey County Pinot Noir is humming with tightly wound, nervy energy. Beautifully perfumed on the nose, the palate is a razor-sharp balance of fruit medley—strawberry, red plum skin, and rhubarb—and floral tones of lavender, crushed rose, and white peppercorn. All that energy is framed by fine-grained tannins that should bring this wine through the next eight years, at least.
2021 Samuel Louis Smith “Sandstone Terrace” Santa Cruz Mountains Syrah $29.95 The pretty, lifted nose of this wine screams one thing: Syrah. Right out of the gate, this is Syrah through-and-through, albeit in an elegant, fresh style. Wild blackberry, cracked black pepper, and crushed graphite swirl into a vortex of intensely aromatic complexity. Fresh violets, white pepper, and subtle white smoke join the fray, and the longer your nose stays in the glass, the more aromas float forth. Upon first sip, that same nervy energy is immediately apparent—these are wines with something to say; a story to tell. Bright, crackling acidity washes over chalky tannins and carries the wine through a vibrant and spiced finish.
With a wave goodbye to Sam Smith, we wound back up and down the coastal range to check in with a man who has been producing classic Santa Lucia Highlands wines at stunningly affordable prices for more than 40 years: Dan Morgan Lee. We met Dan at Morgan’s Double L Vineyard, a property he and his wife purchased in 1996, just five years after the Santa Lucia Highlands became established as an AVA and a decade after he began working with SLH fruit. From there we had an unadulterated view of the Salinas Valley: from the heights of the Gavilan Mountains on the far side to the flat, fertile valley floor that grows much of our state’s vegetables to the vineyards that climb the coastal range and form the Santa Lucia Highlands. Equally apparent was the roaring, frigid wind that gets funneled into the valley from the Monterey Bay and provides the vital cooling influence that balances the appellation’s abundant daytime sunshine throughout the growing season. And with that, Dan led us through his many great wines:
2022 Morgan Arroyo Secco Albariño $19.95 Immediately fresh and crisp with layers of citrus fruit. Zesty lemon, lime, and orange drive the nose and palate with a touch of salted melon adding complexity. This is the perfect wine for mid-hike picnic breaks or a sunny day spent on the coast.
2021 Morgan “Highland” Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay $29.95 Nearly half of the fruit for the 2021 “Highland” Chardonnay comes from Morgan’s own Double L Vineyards, with the other half sourced from neighboring McIntyre and Tondre vineyards. The wine is fermented in French oak barrels, 27% of which are new, adding layers of richness and creamy texture that is well balanced by freshness. Rich texture never turns to buttery flavors, however, instead steering toward lemon curd, baked pear, red apple, almond, delicate white flowers, and subtle baking spice.
2019 Morgan “Twelve Clones” Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir $29.95 A blend of 12 different Pinot Noir clones from both Double L Vineyard and neighboring properties in the Santa Lucia Highlands, “Twelve Clones” is ripe and rounded with ample black cherry, pomegranate, and black plum fruits up front. The midpalate is where that special SLH something comes in, lacing together the lush fruit with aniseed, cardamom, and fresh roasted coffee bean. At just under $30, this is incredibly complex Pinot Noir.
With the tremendous Morgan wines lingering on our palates, we made our way to the birthplace of Santa Lucia Highlands wine. Pisoni Ranch is a wonderland for the wine nerd and a bucket list destination for me, personally. The Pisoni family began farming in the Salinas Valley in 1951, but it wasn’t until Gary Pisoni, a man of unrivalled legend and insane drive, decided to plant vines on the sloping mountain sides in 1982 that the region became a source of high-quality wine grapes. Gary wasn’t just called crazy for wanting to make wine, he was called crazy for nearly leading his family to financial ruin in his 8-year search for water on the property. As the story goes, his parents would leave in the off season and Gary would bring in crews to dig for water. Year after year, efforts would come up dry and his parents would receive bills in the mail. Year after year they would tell him enough is enough. Year after year he would try again until, shortly after planting his first vines at 1300-ft elevation, and with no water source, he discovered groundwater under several hundred feet of granite.
Today, the Pisoni Ranch is meticulously farmed by Gary’s son, Mark Pisoni. Mark has crafted an entire ecosystem on the family ranch in true regenerative farming fashion, with consideration given to every detail, down to the very microorganisms that grow in the soils. The ranch grows their own fruits and vegetables, has a full insectary to attract natural predators to the critters that would harm the vines, and composts everything down to the pomace left over after making wine. The level of attention given to the land is precisely the reason that the Pisoni family grows some of the most pristine, intense fruit in the Santa Lucia Highlands.
2021 Lucia “Estate Cuvée” Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay $49.95 A blend of Chardonnay from Pisoni and Soberanes vineyards, the wine is rich and layered with red apple, white flowers, crème brulee, and white peach. The wine continues to unfold through the midpalate, with lemon oil and crushed stone flavors adding brightness and complexity while baked pear, clove, nutmeg, and brioche linger through the long, densely packed finish.
2021 Lucia “Estate Cuvée” Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir $54.95 A whopping 60% of the fruit that goes into the Lucia “Estate Cuvée” Pinot Noir comes from the Pisoni Estate, with the rest coming from Gary’s and Soberanes vineyards. The wine is rounded but well-structured with aromas of strawberry compote, black cherry, black plum, clove, and sandalwood leaping from the glass. Fuller-bodied by Pinot Noir standards, but beautifully elegant and well balanced with flavors cranberry, fig, black cherry, black plum, clove, vanilla, sage, and lavender rolling over the palate in waves. This is wine that is approachable now but should develop wonderfully over the next five to ten years.
With bellies full of fresh produce from the Pisoni Ranch and after a wild ride through the vineyards in Gary’s famous Jeep, we headed across the valley and up the steep, rocky slopes of the Gavilan Mountains to the oldest producing vineyard in Monterey County. Perched at 1800-ft elevation with a direct line of site to Pinnacles National Park sits Chalone Vineyard, a property that has been producing intensely mineral wines on these high-elevation, limestone-rich soils since 1966. Their grape-growing history goes back much further, with original Chenin Blanc vines from 1919 still producing a current-release wine every year. The gnarled, twisted vines show the long, storied history of the property, and, even today, the winery is making some of the most distinct Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the world.
2021 Chalone Vineyard “Estate Grown” Pinot Noir $26.95 The 2021 Chalone “Estate Grown” Pinot Noir perfectly balances the lush fruit of California Pinot Noir and the intense minerality that comes from vines grown on such drastic limestone mountainsides. Plush cherry, red plum, and pomegranate complement underpinnings of graphite and wet river stones beautifully while fresh rosemary and thyme layer over top. Fresh, juicy acidity carries both red fruit and minerality through a lingering finish and into each next sip. How so much complexity is wrapped into a sub-$30 package is baffling, but you won’t find me telling anyone to raise the price.
- Alex Leonardini, Redwood City Staffer