Peter Michael Winery
2015 Peter Michael ‘La Carrière’ Chardonnay – A Great Pairing With Blackened Salmon
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. As stated by their marketing ‘La Carrière’ provides a signature complexity and liquid minerality from its mountainous origin”.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The winery produces other top-rated wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon blends, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. Their winery is located in Knights Valley in Somona County.
The history of Sir Michael David is a great read on their website listed below.
The Wine – “Wine is bottled poetry” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The 2015 Peter Michael La Carrière Chardonnay is a wine that can be aged like many top-shelf French Chardonnays. The deep and rich golden color was striking along with its minerality, 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 butterscotch. Wine Advocate gave this wine 95-97 points. Currently online it is running around $170/bottle. It should be noted that this is one of the few American Chardonnay’s that is age worthy. I generally drink them 8-11 years after the vintage date.
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
The Friday Night Wine & Dine Group met last evening (Saturday) to enjoy some good food, wine, getting caught up and laughter! Ordered the blackened Salmon with lemon-butter sauce on the side, served over herb risotto, accompanied with sautéed fresh vegetables. Besides the fish being excellent, the risotto and vegetables were extremely tasty.
The Chardonnay provided a cooling down effect on the slight spiciness of the blackened Salmon. A beautiful and delicious food and wine pairing for the evening. Peter Michael consistently makes my Best Wines tasted during every year.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
We also enjoyed some other delicious wines this evening from Sonoma and Calaveras Counties with various dishes.
Sláinte,
Michael
https://californiawinesandwineries.com
A Wonderful Birthday Dinner
Stayed home this evening for some of my favorite foods and wines. A bit of difficult choice as I enjoy many foods and wines. Did settle for the following items.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Paired this evening with an assortment of sashimi from Shiro Ninja restaurant in Angels Camp. A combination of Maguro (tuna), Hamachi (yellowfin) and Sake (salmon). Served with wasabi and ginger. This is only the third time enjoying the fish from Shiro Ninja and very happy with the freshness of their offering.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The food and wine pairing were excellent with the richness, delicate flavors and texture of the fish, complimented by the mouth feel and voluptuous wine. Did need to reduce the amount of soy sauce and wasabi for each bite so as not to overwhelm the sashimi.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The 2014 Peter Michael La Carrière Chardonnay is a wine that can be aged like 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 butterscotch. Robert Parker gave this wine 96 points. Currently online it is running between $100 to $130/bottle. It should be noted that this is one of the few American Chardonnays that is age worthy. I generally drink them 8-11 years after the vintage date. Peter Michael in their notes today states the 2014 can easily go another 10 years!
Photo ©Michael Kelly
For the first dessert was a homemade pineapple upside down cake baked by Susan Kelly. This is one of my three favorite cakes the others being NY style cheesecake and German chocolate cake.
After a few other phone calls, video calls and emails, we sat down to watch a very intriguing movie on NETFLIX’s called Now You See Me. A mystery and suspense movie with a great ending!
As we watched the movie we enjoyed the second dessert, a 2013 Outpost Wines True Vineyard Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
On the eyes a deep purple, almost black color like none other with medium-heavy viscosity. On the nose a bouquet of floral aromas wafted into the senses. Once on the palate, blueberries and blackberries were the dominant flavors with a slight sweet vanilla tobacco hiding. The finish was invigorating with what felt like fireworks bursting with flavors on all corners of the palate. It was the quintessential throwback to Napa Valley historical roots of what a Cabernet Sauvignon should taste like. Robert Parker stated “the finish was close to a minute” long. It seemed longer and small sips were taken to savor the experience. It was rated 99 points and current pricing ranges from $189 to $249/bottle and up.
And that is how my simple and enjoyable “58th birthday” concluded.
Sláinte,
Michael
https://californiawinesandwineries.com