Morgan Winery

Dan Lee and his Morgan Winery in Salinas are best known for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but this wine shows that he has a sure hand with Syrah, too. The name Tierra Mar comes from the Spanish words for earth and sea – “two important parts of our terroir,” Lee says. The wine is a six-barrel selection of Morgan’s Syrah. Half the grapes come from the Morgan estate vineyard, called Double L, which is in the cool northern end of the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, while 40 percent are from the warmer Paraiso Vineyard to the south. The remaining 10 percent are from Coastview Vineyard, on the east side of the Salinas Valley.

The wine spent 14 months in French oak barrels, 35 percent of them new and the remaining ones 1 and 2 years old. This is a big Syrah, dark and dense, with ripe black raspberry and blueberry fruit, along with notes of smoke, spice and white pepper. It also has fairly big, drying tannins, so you could easily lay the wine down for a few years. The more impatient could drink this Syrah now with some sort of hearty grilled meat dish.

Reviewed July 18, 2007 by Laurie Daniel.