As with the appellation Chardonnay, I loved the 2019 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands, This beauty offers everything you could want from a Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir. Loads of framboise, ripe strawberries, leafy herbs, spring flowers, and baking spices all make an appearance on the nose, and it’s a forward, medium to full-bodied, textured effort ideal for drinking over the coming 3-5 years.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Soberanes Vineyard is also terrific, with lots of spice red and black fruits, spring flowers, and chalky minerality. It’s beautifully textured, medium to full-bodied, and just about seamless on the palate, and while it brings loads of fruit and texture, it stays beautifully balanced and elegant. It’s already impossible to resist yet should cruise for 7-8 years in cold cellars. I’d certainly be thrilled with a bottle on the dinner table.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Garys’ Vineyard gives up slightly more savory, earthy nuances in its ripe red and black fruits as well as scorched earth, toasted Asian spices, and orange zest aroma and flavors. Rich, medium to full-bodied, and concentrated, it has ripe, notable tannins, good freshness and purity, and a great finish. It will keep for over a decade.

Starting with the appellation 2019 Chardonnay Santa Lucia Highlands, this light gold-hued effort has a big, exuberant bouquet of honeyed melon, pineapple, chalky minerality, and subtle toasty nuances. Beautifully textured, medium to full-bodied, and balanced, it’s perfect for readers wanting to see the quality coming from the Santa Lucia Highlands, or the style of this label. It will keep for 4-6 years, if not longer, although there’s no need to delay gratification.

The 2019 Chardonnay Soberanes Vineyard is cut from the same cloth as the appellation release yet offers more minerality as well as stone and orchard fruits, dried herbs, crushed stone, and green almonds. Deep, layered, medium to full-bodied, and nicely structured, it’s a serious Chardonnay that will benefit from a year in bottle (or two years) and shine through 2029 or beyond. It’s impressive.

Lastly, the 2019 Syrah Garys’ Vineyard is another inky hued Syrah from this team offering a smorgasbord of Syrah goodness. Blackberries, white pepper, cedarwood, and bacon fat notes just about soar from the glass, and it’s medium to full-bodied, with wonderful purity, lots of tannins, and a great finish. All of the 2019s Syrah from Lucia have boatloads of tannins, so give them a few years.

I loved the 2019 Syrah Soberanes Vineyard. This beauty gives up a dense purple hue as well as a Hermitage-like perfume of black raspberries, spring flowers, ground pepper, leather, and exotic spices. More bacon fat and mineral notes develop as it sits in the glass, and it’s full-bodied, with a layered, seamless texture, ultra-fine tannins, and a great finish. It has enough tannins to warrant 2-3 years of bottle age, but this is beautiful stuff.

More black fruits, graphite, scorched earth, and peppered meat notes emerge from the 2019 Syrah Susan’s Hill, a tannic, full-bodied, structured Syrah that has a meaty, bloody character that needs bottle age. Do your best to hide bottles for 2-3 years and it will keep for a solid decade or more.