Wine of the week: Covenant, 2022 Lavan, Sonoma Mountain Chardonnay

The epiphany came to Jeff Morgan more than 35 years ago, when he least expected it.

The then-34-year-old saxophone player realized he was more interested in what he was drinking after a gig than what he was playing during it.

“I made music,” he said. “Why not make wine?”

Today, the winemaker/vintner is behind our wine of the week winner — the Covenant, 2022 Lavan, Sonoma Mountain Chardonnay at $42. This striking chardonnay is elegant with great minerality, a supple texture and a citrusy finish.

A high-altitude wine, the Covenant Lavan Chardonnay is sourced exclusively from the Scopus Vineyard at the top of Sonoma Mountain. For more than a decade Morgan has made Lavan from this vineyard, one with 25-year-old vines steeped in red soils loaded with limestone.

Morgan credits his friend and mentor, winemaker David Ramey of Healdsburg’s Ramey Wine Cellars, for teaching him how to source pristine fruit and make great wine.

“Dave’s understanding of chardonnay is legendary, and I’m grateful to have seemingly learned my lessons well,” he said.

The winemaker said his background as a wine writer continues to benefit him with a palate that’s both well-versed and well-traveled.

For eight of the 15 years Morgan wrote about wine he was the West Coast editor of the Wine Spectator.

“My job was to seek out the best wines in the world, and this allowed me to develop a palate geared toward high quality,” he explained. “I’m simply trying to produce wine as good as my favorite producers worldwide.”

Taking a leap from the printed word, Morgan started his rosé brand SoloRosa with Daniel Moore. Then co-founded Covenant in Napa with the late Leslie Rudd in 2003.

Today, the founding winemaker, now 70, makes 8,000 cases a year of wine at his Berkeley winery.

Prior to 2021, Morgan also made his Covenant brand at a facility in Israel’s Galilee. But he said politics there didn’t influence his decision to streamline operations in Berkeley.

“We stopped in Israel to better focus on our much larger California production,” he said. “We are a winery, not a political institution. However, we are all concerned for our friends, families and colleagues in Israel.”

Because of his former business ties to the region, Morgan said he’s well aware of the impact of the ongoing war with Hamas.

“One of my favorite biodynamic vineyards in the Galilee (region) was recently bombed by someone in Lebanon,” he said. “We don’t even know who or why. Many vineyards in the north were threatened during harvest and winemakers were called up to their reserve units in the (Israeli) army.”

Stateside in Berkeley, Morgan said, it’s business as usual.

“We’re growing about 20% every year,” he said. “Our urban winery — where we have been for 10 years — is perfectly situated for grape deliveries coming from all over the state.

Morgan said his winery doesn’t own any vineyards. Instead, it sources grapes from some 20 sites stretching from Santa Barbara north to Lodi, Sonoma County, Napa Valley and Lake County.

From the beginning Morgan traveled the crooked road and it has served him well.

A saxophone player, who studied at the French National Conservatory of Music in Nice, he began his wine odyssey as a wine writer. But ultimately, he couldn’t resist making wine.

“Not many vintners have covered all the bases I have,” Morgan said. “I think it has made me a better winemaker and advocate for our industry as a whole.”

You can reach Wine Writer Peg Melnik at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @pegmelnik.