Morgan’s Double L: An Organic Gem in the SLH  

July 19, 2022 – It had been quite a spell since I’d visited Double L: the last time was at least 10 years ago with Dan Lee. We walked through row after row as he pointed out the different shapes and sizes of Pinot Noir clusters, ecstatic at how good the vineyard looked. This was well before he put in a grassy knoll underneath the huge oak tree, where participants in the Santa Lucia Highlands Somm Tour gathered last week to taste through the current Morgan lineup of SLH wines. 

The 2020 Unoaked Metallico, 2020 Highlands Chardonnay and the 2021 Double L Riesling, were much enjoyed, as were the 12 Clones, Double L Pinot Noir and Syrah. They were accompanied by sweet water Hog Island oysters, expertly shucked by Brooke Sveum, Morgan’s enologist, and Jackie, one of Dan and Donna Lee’s twin daughters, who is now director of communications. Marketing coordinator Jason Auxier had his truck, the back of which was filled with ice to keep the oysters and the wines cold, parked next to Dan’s vineyard office, which is actually a very nice Airstream trailer. Such a splendid spot. Dan says he sleeps there during harvest. 

Donna and I looked down at a clearing below the oak tree that felt a lot like the footprint of a potential winery. Was building imminent? No, said Donna. Their location in downtown Salinas was actually pretty convenient, considering. They are still debating. 

The grapes, however, are not. The tee-shirt weather we were enjoying was just a prelude to the serious heat that is over us now, courtesy of one of the largest high pressure domes that has ever blanketed the country. Veraison had already begun on the heat-stressed looking La Tache clone at the top of the hill—by the way, an 8% slope—with purplish berries rapidly outnumbering green ones. The other clones of Pinot Noir, including the Romanée-Conti, had not gotten there yet, but this heat will surely give them a shove. “We usually pick this top part first,” noted Lee. “It is windier at the bottom part of the vineyard, and that ripens later.” 

Double L, which was first planted in 1997, is currently home to 48 vineyard acres, of which 28 are Pinot Noir, 18 are Chardonnay, one of Syrah and one of Riesling. It is still the only organic vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands. It might be more work, but it is worth every penny. “We never used herbicides. Our girls were five years old when we got this property, and we didn’t want them exposed to chemicals. We compost, use organic mildew sprays only, and we have a healthy soil biome, which we think best expresses terroir. Good healthy soil produces good wine. We’d rather feed our vines organic food than Snickers and Coke!” 

Lee says that while there might be more hand labor for both hand and mechanical hoeing to control weeds, the farming costs of going organic are pretty much even with conventional. So, why wouldn’t you go organic? 

And that’s not the only thing that makes Double L vineyard special.

“Look over at the neighboring vineyards,” said Lee, standing in an almost flat spot on the slope and pointing to the north. “Notice those rows are running East/West. We are running North/South here at Double L. Why? Because it provides much more even sun exposure all day long. We also don’t have to hedge as aggressively as with an East/West orientation.”  

What makes the SLH unique, besides that constantly Pacific-influenced climate? He explained that the soils here go deep. Vines are good with that. “In Carneros, for example, there is only 3 feet of topsoil before you hit hardpan. Here, we have 50 feet of soil. Roots go straight down and don’t crowd each other.”  Another factor that boosts grape-growing here in this part of the northern SLH bench, is the capacious aquifer, which he says is deeper than Lake Tahoe. Grok that for a moment. 

He then pointed towards the tawny haunches of the Santa Lucia range looming behind us, branded by its fire scars. In 2020, the fire burned that entire hillside right down to the fence that surrounds the vineyard in which we were standing. It was a terrifying time. Morgan lost all of its red grapes. As if that wasn’t enough, in January of 2021, a heavy rain brought a mudslide that washed down the creek that borders the vineyard, taking tons of debris that had been sitting in that canyon for decades, and deposited it on his property. “We lost 30 or 40 vines, and it took three months to clean up,” he recalls.

Dan explained they have 13 clones of Pinot Noir and 8 clones of Chardonnay, because he thinks this is the best way to build a complex and distinctive wine, year after year. When asked by one of the somms if there was one clone he would sacrifice if he could, he said “NO!” without hesitation. “I talked to many growers of Pinot Noir at the time, in Oregon, Carneros and the SLH, and got their recommendations. I also spoke with Brian Talley. I used to have 14 clones here, including the Spanish clone, which did not do well, so I sacrificed that one. The Vandensvil 2A didn’t work great, so we only have ½ acre left of that.” You get the idea that if he found another new clone out there, he might make room. 

With such demand in the market for their wines, Morgan soon ran out of fruit for the Highlands and 12 Clones wines, so they are now supplementing Double L fruit with that from several neighbors down the road. They also source Sauv Blanc and Albariño from Arroyo Seco, as well as Tempranillo. 

Lee told us, “We get about 200 tons of fruit from Double L which makes about 30k cases. We put all our money into producing a great product, so that’s why we don’t have a fancy chateau. Instead, we have a ‘cluster thruster,’ a machine that shoots the Pinot Noir clusters very slowly into the destemmer. We are the only winery in the SLH with one of those.”  Everyone laughed at the name, but for Dan, it was clearly a point of pride. 

Before we departed, he wanted everyone to try the 2019 Double L Syrah. “We have only one acre. And it is on the cusp to ripen here. We love challenges!!” 

This is an impressive wine, with distinctive white pepper, blueberry and a big pop of smooth, almost hedonistic blackberry. Lipsmacking, for sure.

As we left, I teased Donna that by the time I came back, the winery might actually be built. She laughed and said, “Oh, I don’t know. I think we’ll leave that for the kids to decide!” With both daughters now involved, I might have to come back sooner.