2014 Peter Michael “La Carrière” Chardonnay
The Winery
Photo ©Michael Kelly
From their website: ‘La Carrière’, French for “The Quarry”, reflects the vineyard’s spoon shape and tremendously rocky soils. Situated between 1,200 and 1,700 feet (366 and 518 meters) above sea level on steep mountain slopes exceeding 40 percent in grade, the vineyard has ideal southern and southeastern exposures. The shallow, rocky soils provide excellent drainage with restricted fertility, resulting in lower fruit yields with profound richness and character. ‘La Carrière’ provides a signature complexity and liquid minerality from its mountainous origin
The winery produces other top rated wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon blends, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.
The history of Sir Michael David is a great read on their website.
The Wine – “Wine is bottled poetry” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The 2014 Peter Michael La Carrière Chardonnay is a wine that can be aged similar to many top shelf French Chardonnays. The deep and rich golden color was striking along with its minerality (La Carrière translated mean the quarry), almond, jasmine, lemon and pear notes. The intense creaminess was the hallmark of this wine coupled with a heavy viscosity. The finish provided jasmine and pear with a touch of butter scotch. Robert Parker gave this wine 96 points. Currently on line it is running around $130/bottle.
The Food and Wine Pairing – “Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost. United and well matched, they are as body and soul: living partners” – Andre Simon
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Paired this evening with a sun dried tomato, spinach & cheese stuffed chicken breast. A new and delightful dish consisting of a homemade Italian dressing of Dijon mustard, lemon juice, sugar, olive oil, Italian seasonings with salt & pepper. This was “basted” inside and outside of the cut pocket with the dressing. Then stuffed with gorgonzola cheese, crumbled bacon, spinach and sun dried tomatoes. Accompanied by rice and a fresh salad of butter lettuce with purple onion, blue cheese, crumbled bacon served with Champagne salad dressing.
A beautiful and delicious food and wine pairing for the evening. It tasted like somewhere between Italy and France. Peter Michael always makes my Best Wines tasted during every year.
Sláinte,
Michael