The Peter Michael Winery – Sommelier Summit

Sommeliers’ Diaries

The Napa Valley
by Ronan Sayburn MS
Part 3

This week, our Head of Wine, Ronan Sayburn MS, is travelling in the Napa Valley. We are delighted to share with you his exciting trip, discoveries and tasting notes.

10 Sommeliers at Sir Peter Michael’s winery

“I was invited to attend the Sommelier Summit at Sir Peter Michael’s winery in Knights Valley; located on the western slopes of Mount St Helena it is in Sonoma County and covers a square mile of volcanic soils at high altitudes, up to two thousand feet, where it is influenced by the fresh winds of the Pacific that lies fifty miles to the east.

Englishman Sir Peter (entrepreneur, engineer, founder of Classic FM and a 67 PM member) started the winery in 1983 with a six-word credo ‘Family owned, mountain vineyards, classic winemaking’ and has followed it by his 100×100 future plan to be 100% family owned for 100 years. Two further generations of Michaels are lined up to follow in his footsteps – with son and daughter in law, Paul and Emily heavily involved in the business”.

The perfect line-up

“10 Sommeliers from all over the world were asked to attend, and we tasted a comprehensive range of their wines – at present 15 different wines, three Cabernet Sauvignon blends, four Pinot Noirs, two Sauvignon blends and six Chardonnays – with the exception of two Chardonnays who are barrel selection bottlings all the wines are site-specific, single vineyards.

From vineyards around the winery in Knights Valley comes the flagship Bordeaux style blend Les Pavots (the poppies) – an elegant and streamlined red comparably to great St Julien and its baby brother L’Esprit des Pavots.

Two Pessac-like Sauvignon/Sémillon blends are here also – l’Après Midi and Coeur à Coeur. Further up the mountain lie the four chardonnay vineyards – La Carrière, Mon Plaisir, Ma Belle-Fille and Belle-Côte. Unashamedly rich and oaky with nutty and lactic overtones but an underlying thread of pure volcanic acidity that put these wines on par with the great whites of the Côte de Beaune. Two wines Point Rouge and Cuvée Indigène are barrel selections of the best chardonnays – a tradition started by the first winemaker Helen Turley.

By the Pacific ocean four Pinot Noirs are produced from the Sonoma Coast appellation of Fort Ross Seaview – Ma Danseuse (for me a bright Volnay like wine), Le Caprice (a silky Vosne-like expression), Moulin Rouge and Clos de Ciel (the warmest vineyard and dare I say their Richebourg, a rich wine with weight complexity but ethereal delicacy). Winemaker Nicolas Mortlet adopts a Henri Jayer/ Méo-Camuzet philosophy of one hundred percent destemming to capture the purity of fruit in his Pinots.

The last wine in the collection is Au Paradis, a Cabernet from Oakville (the Pauillac equivalent in Napa) from vineyards next to Dalle Valle. A wine of a riper Napa fruit profile but with the elegance of a great Napa first growth such as Harlan or Colgin.

I have been a fan of these wines for over twenty years and am happy to see them as regular features on our wine list”.

Discover more about his expedition and tastings in the days to come!

More Information

Peter Michael Winery