“Sharing wine together is the civilized man’s Facebook.”
— Sir Peter Michael, Founder, Peter Michael Winery
I am three-quarters of the way through my 99 wines. This has been more daunting than I expected. Identifying my 99 wines has proven more difficult than writing about them. The upside is the memories of the bottles and, more importantly, the people with whom I shared them. These wines are still vivid to me.
79. Peter Michael Les Pavots 2013
A single glass of this benchmark Bordeaux-style Napa blend revealed a depth and elegance that stayed with me long after the evening ended.
I enjoy a well-executed wine-paired dinner, the kind in which the wine and food are thoughtfully matched so that each reveals something new in the other. The best of these dinners will have exceptional food, of course, but they will also provide an education, a chance to have a glimpse of the history of the winery, the winemaker or owner’s philosophy, and the breadth of a portfolio that often extends well beyond the labels you already know. If you are lucky, you also get to meet the people behind the bottle and hear, in their own words, what they hoped to achieve in the glass.
To my mind, Marché Bacchus consistently hosted the best wine-paired dinners in Las Vegas.* The food was always creative, and the wines curated with care and intelligence. I have written about several of Marché Bacchus’s outstanding dinners as part of this series, including evenings that featured wines such as Dalla Valle and Husic.
One exceptional dinner several years ago at Marché Bacchus introduced me to a wine that has stayed with me ever since. The dinner featured wines from Peter Michael Winery. I had previously enjoyed the winery’s Au Paradis Cabernet Sauvignon, and I was eager to explore the broader portfolio. The evening did not disappoint. I left the dinner with a deeper appreciation for the estate and a clear sense that the winery offered far more than just Cabernet Sauvignon.
Sir Peter Michael and his wife, Lady Maggie, founded the eponymous Peter Michael Winery at Knights Valley Ranch, at the foot of Mount Saint Helena. Sir Peter, a British businessman whose early career was rooted in the technology sector, set out to unite Old World sensibility with New World expression. Over the years, the winery has benefited from an extraordinary lineage of winemaking talent, including Mark Aubert and Helen Turley. Today, the wines are crafted by Nicolas Morlet.
That evening, I learned just how varied and compelling the Peter Michael portfolio truly is. We began with L’Après-Midi Sauvignon Blanc, followed by Belle Côte Knights Valley Chardonnay 2017. Next was an amazing Le Caprice Vineyard Estate Pinot Noir 2017, paired with small bites of Beef Wellington. I had not realized that these wines were part of the estate’s repertoire. Each wine broadened my understanding of what Peter Michael Winery does so well.
We then moved into Cabernet Sauvignons and Cabernet blends, beginning with L’Esprit des Pavots 2015, a Cabernet Sauvignon Blend. Excellent as it was, the wine that captured me most fully that night was Les Pavots 2013. This Bordeaux blend is composed of 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Cabernet Franc, and rounded out with 9% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot.
This wine is powerful yet gracefully composed. Its deep purple color opens to aromas of blueberry, herbs de Provence, flowers, tobacco, cedar, and baking spices. The palate is layered and complex, revealing mocha, chocolate, blackberry, Amarena cherry, licorice, anise, and a subtle gaminess. Firm tannins, notable minerality, and medium acidity carry through to a long, lingering finish.
Each grape variety plays its part with precision, as if a section of an orchestra. Cabernet Sauvignon is a varietal that gives a wine structure and concentration. Cabernet Franc contributes aromatic complexity and elegance. Merlot is renowned for providing soft, plush texture and approachable tannins. Petit Verdot is a varietal valued for contributing deep color and reinforcing the wine’s tannic backbone. Together, the wine’s harmonic blend produces a glorious symphony in the glass. At 15% ABV, this wine is best enjoyed slowly with time and attention.
Les Pavots, French for “The Poppies,” is a powerful, yet polished wine, produced in relatively small quantities and built for aging. The wine was superb, but I had it too soon. It should just start finding its way into glasses now.
It was another wonderful wine dinner at Marché Bacchus. I discovered some new wines from a stellar producer and came away with incredible wines I was delighted to add to my collection. After all, that is what this wine journey is about.
80. Fairchild Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Stones No. 1 Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard 2012
An off-the-radar, unapologetically luxurious Cabernet Sauvignon that pairs elite vineyard sourcing with precision winemaking, proving the substance more than matches the spectacle.
I read an article in The Wall Street Journal about 20 years ago on the lavish sums producers were spending on wine labels. At times, a striking label serves as a bit of sleight of hand, in a feeble attempt to draw the consumer’s eye away from whatever indifferent plonk awaits inside the bottle. A unique wine label may catch your attention, but it is not enough to sustain a genuine interest, let alone to cause you to buy a second bottle.
I recalled that article the first time I saw a bottle of Fairchild Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Stones No. 1 Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard. Fairchild Estate, undoubtedly, spares no expense on its presentations, but there is anything but plonk inside. Each Fairchild wine bears a label as distinctive as a signature. Fairchild Estate’s Stones No. 1 Cabernet Sauvignon’s metal label is amongst the most elegant I have encountered. Thankfully, the wine rises to meet the grandeur on the bottle’s exterior.
Fairchild Estate’s flair extends well beyond the label. Its wines are not just visually distinctive. They have been called the “Hermès of wine,” a comparison that immediately caught my attention, as Hermès is my favorite designer. Fairchild is the vision of Lawrence “Larry” Fairchild, who was raised on a cattle and crop farm in Nebraska. Thus, he has a grounding of terroir, the importance of land and place.
Larry Fairchild is also an avid art collector, drawing inspiration from contemporary artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. That sensibility is unmistakable in the visual language of his wines. These bottles are not merely vessels for the wine; they are objects of design, unmistakable statements of intent.
Amongst the estate’s most arresting creations is Perrarus, part of The Museum Series. The wine is bottled in a hand-blown vessel modeled after an ancient Greek amphora, making the wine feel as much artifact as indulgence. Perrarus is amongst the most expensive wines Napa has produced: A single bottle of the Perrarus 3: The Museum Series was priced at $11,500.00. The Perrarus series is not sold in the usual way, by allocation, but instead offered by invitation to purchase through a lottery, adding yet another layer of mystique.
Invitations for the Perrarus 6 lottery have been released. I have not had any of the Perrarus series. I mention it only for context, as it remains, for me, just a tad outside my budget and beyond the reach of reason.
The Fairchild presentation drew me in, but the question remained: Is the juice worth it? I was intrigued, first by the label, then by what I read about the estate. I became determined to track some down for myself.
Let me get this out of the way: Fairchild is one of those rare estates for which the extravagance feels earned. Whatever Fairchild spends on its wine labels or bottles is fully justified once you taste the wine. The wines are crafted by the gifted winemaker, Philippe Melka, the brilliant mind behind Châteaux Haut-Brion and Petrus, Hundred Acre, Dominus Estate, Byrant Family, Dana Estates, Moone-Tsai, and many more. That was the first clue to what awaited in the bottle.
The first Fairchild wine I tried was Fairchild’s Stones Chardonnay, and it was revelatory! (Don’t worry, it is on my list!) The bottle alone was unlike anything I had ever seen, but the wine inside was even more compelling. It was a Chardonnay described as a “non-California Chardonnay,” closer to a Puligny-Montrachet than to the broad-shouldered, buttery style so often associated with the region. From that moment on, I knew I had to taste a Fairchild Cabernet.
Fairchild Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Stones No. 1 Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard 2012 from St. Helena is, to my mind, the very embodiment of the “Hermès of wines.” This is a world-class 100% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from two highly acclaimed California vineyards: Beckstoffer Georges III and Sigaro. Luxurious, yes, but also impeccably composed. I decanted the wine for about three hours, and it unfurled beautifully.
The wine was elegant, rich, and balanced. In the glass, it showed a dark purple color, hinting at the richness yet to come. The nose was sumptuous with opulent floral notes and scents of cassis, dark cherry, dark plum, layered with grilled meats, pencil shavings, licorice, white chocolate, and a tantalizing aroma of cigar box and cedar.
The wine had a stunningly rich, concentrated, and seamless mouthfeel. The tannins were powerful, but not overwhelming, giving the wine architecture without austerity. It was full-bodied and balanced with medium-low acidity, gracefully flowing over the palate in undulating waves, each one revealing another facet.
Delicate notes of dark plum, blackberry, dark cherry, and black currant gave way to secondary notes of vanilla, sous-bois, and tobacco spice. A tertiary thread of smokiness, drawn from fermentation for approximately 22 months in French oak, carried through to a graceful, lingering finish.
This is not simply a wine to drink; it is a wine to inhabit. Fairchild Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Stones No. 1 Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard 2012 is a wine you will want to share with an intimate group of close friends, preferably, whilst sitting in comfortable, cushy leather chaises in a cool wine cave in Napa, before finishing the rest of the bottle at dinner, paired with a Wagyu steak.
However one chooses to enjoy this wine, it is a bottle that makes any occasion feel worthy of itself. Now, if only someone would offer me a glass of Perrarus from The Museum Series.
81. Fairchild Estate Chardonnay Stones Russian River Perrarus Block A3 Chardonnay 2017
I bet you will want to keep the empty bottle.
This is the same Fairchild Estate that produces the Cabernet Sauvignon Stones No. 1 I just wrote about. Fairchild works in exceedingly small production lots, typically just 120 to 200 cases. This Chardonnay is, without question, one of the five finest Chardonnays I have ever tasted, and it was also my introduction to the house.
I previously wrote about Fairchild’s flair for presentation, but this bottle elevates both label and packaging to another level entirely. It is, quite simply, a work of art. Imagine a bottle designed to stand either upright in the traditional manner or poised at roughly a 45-degree angle. A metal label runs vertically down the bottle’s length, lending an unmistakable sense of drama and design. It is the sort of bottle that makes you hesitate: Do you open it, or simply admire it? The correct answer, of course, is to open the wine! You can always keep the bottle.
The Stones Chardonnay, as it is called, is a beautiful expression of what a New World Chardonnay can be when handled with ambition and restraint. The wine shows a luminous golden hue, though the color is the only buttery thing about it. This is emphatically not a California butter bomb! The nose offers minerality, lemon, white peach, apple, pear, oak, and honey, with a suggestion of vanilla.
The palate reflects its Russian River source with poise and precision. There are descriptions of lemon, vanilla, tart apple, almond, and pencil shavings revealed. The wine is balanced and full-bodied, lifted by medium acidity. This Chardonnay is reminiscent of a Burgundian Puligny-Montrachet. Close your eyes, inhale the wine deeply, and take a sip. You will be instantly transported to Côte de Beaune. As I said, this is not a California butter bomb.
Clearly, I am taken with this wine. However, there is a downside to opening the wine now. Stones Chardonnay 2017 promises even more with age. I fully intend to resist the temptation to drink my last bottles too quickly, if only so I can discover what this wine becomes in another ten years.
Cheers!
*Marché Bacchus’s long-time owners, Jeff and Rhonda Wyatt, sold the restaurant after 17 years. The new owners have had a few wine-paired dinners. I hope they will do more. I thank Jeff and Rhonda for their friendship and for many great meals and wines over the years. They are greatly missed.
