Santa Lucia Highlands - Forbes.com

Forbes.com
By: Cathrine Todd

Another well-known figure in the area is Dan Morgan Lee, no relation to Adam Lee. He has been a winemaker in Monterey County for over 40 years and started to focus on Santa Lucia Highlands around 20 years ago with his winery, Morgan Winery. Although the Pinot Noir wines from Santa Lucia Highlands have gotten a lot of attention, Dan said that Chardonnay initially put them on the map such as the ones made by Talbott Vineyards and his winery. But it makes sense since great Pinot Noir and outstanding Chardonnay go hand in hand in finding the ideal grape growing region.

Yet Dan is not only proud of their fabulous Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but that they continue to safeguard the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA name by making sure that only vineyards that fit particular criteria are included in the official appellation. A few years back, Dan initiated the need to have the wine region evaluated by a professional geographer and viticulturist who examined the geological formations. The areas that were truly highlands were added, or if already existing within the AVA were allowed to stay in it, compared to the flatter land removed from the appellation, so some land was added while a lot more land was taken out. It is undoubtedly an atypical course of action to have less total acreage after a new AVA assessment is done.

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