Matt Morris Bien Nacido spotlight
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this 2020 Matt Morris Bien Nacido Vineyard Syrah, Santa Barbara County across the open market. Their published U.S. low is $33.04 and the average is $60.79. Our slash is $33.00.
2020 Matt Morris Bien Nacido Vineyard Syrah, Santa Barbara County
Francoise Peschon's Bien Nacido Syrah, crushed berries and graphite from rows Maggie Harrison gifted, a 2020 you can open at thirty-five dollars.
The 2020 is cool-climate Syrah from Bien Nacido: crushed berries, black ink, graphite, and a stony, juicy close, now $33.
Maggie Harrison's gifted rows, Francoise Peschon's first Syrah
Matt Morris is a Napa photographer who fell into wine through Charbono. When he needed Syrah, Maggie Harrison sent him to her Bien Nacido rows, the original plantings Manfred Krankl started with and later gifted so she could leave Sine Qua Non and start Lillian. Francoise Peschon, after decades of Napa Cabernet, made this as her first non-Bordeaux wine since the 1980s. James Suckling 93. This is the bottle that argues cool-climate Syrah from those rows can still be a table wine.
The house
Matt Morris Wines began with Charbono beside Benoit Touquette. The Syrah chapter starts when Maggie Harrison insisted he take her Bien Nacido fruit.
The site
Bien Nacido in the Santa Maria Valley is a benchmark cool-climate Syrah source. These rows carry the Krankl and Lillian lineage.
The scores
James Suckling 93: crushed berries, black ink, graphite, a stony undertone, juicy and savory, drink or hold.
The drinker
Berry and pepper first. Decant 30 to 45 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Lamb or short ribs.
Crushed berries, then ink, graphite, and stone
James Suckling called the 2020 fresh and firm, with crushed berries, black ink, hints of graphite, and a stony undertone. Medium body, juicy and savory, lightly chewy. That is cool-climate Bien Nacido Syrah, not a warm, jammy California speech.
A hard California year of heat and fire. The wines that stayed clean from cool sites still show savory fruit and structure. This Syrah drinks as crushed berry and stone, not smoke theater.
Crushed berries, black ink, graphite, white pepper, a stony mineral line.
Medium body, juicy, savory, lightly chewy tannin, cool-climate concentration without heaviness.
Stony and persistent. Decant 30 to 45 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
A Cabernet hand on cool-climate Syrah
Francoise Peschon made her name on Napa Cabernet, including a long run at Araujo. This Bien Nacido Syrah is her first non-Bordeaux wine since the 1980s. The glass still reads as precision: dark fruit, graphite, pepper, and a finish built on shape rather than sweetness.
Maggie Harrison told Morris to take the fruit. Those rows are the original Bien Nacido Syrah plantings tied to Manfred Krankl and to Lillian. That pedigree is the cellar brief.
Serve slightly cool. A 30 to 45 minute decant opens berry, ink, and stone without flattening the savory line.
A photographer, a gifted vineyard, a Cabernet winemaker
Matt Morris Wines is a small Napa project that reached Santa Barbara because Maggie Harrison would not let the fruit go unused.
Morris ran a photography studio in wine country before bottling Charbono with Benoit Touquette of Realm. When Realm stopped custom crush, he had to decide whether the label was real.
Harrison, after Sine Qua Non and Lillian, sent him to her Bien Nacido and White Hawk blocks and told him to take the fruit. Francoise Peschon joined for Syrah.
The 2020 Bien Nacido is that story in one glass: gifted rows, a Cabernet winemaker on Syrah, cool-climate fruit with ink and stone.
Lamb, pepper, and a slow braise
This Syrah wants rosemary lamb or a short-rib pot. Dark fruit, pepper, and graphite need protein and a little smoke.
Two plates. One rack of lamb. One short-rib braise. Both can take Bien Nacido Syrah.
Decant 30 to 45 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Syrah or Burgundy stems.
Braised Lamb Shanks
Slow lamb, herbs, and a wine-dark sauce. The plate this Syrah was built for.
Why it works: Rosemary and collagen meet pepper and graphite. Fat softens the lightly chewy tannin.
View Recipe for braised lamb shanks (opens in a new tab)
Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs
A slow braise when the 2020 is the whole table wine.
Why it works: Reduced sauce mirrors dark fruit while richness meets the savory, stony frame.
View Recipe for red wine braised short ribs (opens in a new tab)Put this Bien Nacido Syrah in the cart
Maggie Harrison's gifted rows. Francoise Peschon. James Suckling 93. Thirty-five dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is the Matt Morris bottle for a table that wants cool-climate Syrah with a real vineyard name.
