2022 Proprietary Red Les Pavots

Auslieferung im Frühjahr 2026!
Delivery in spring 2026!

(Knights Valley AVA, Sonoma County; 63% Cabernet Sauvignon; 23% Cabernet Franc; 8% Merlot; 6% Petit Verdot – all on volcanic terroirs on the side of Mount St Helena; aged for 18 months in around 70% new French oak barrels; 15.9% alcohol; tasted with Robert Fiore, the winemaker since 2020, over Zoom at the CVBG press tasting; first produced in 1988). Small clusters and low yields. Ever so slightly oxidative aromatically at first but it settles very quickly. A lovely cedary note gathers around the dark stony and berry fruits – damsons and blueberries, black berries and a little black cherry too. Graphite. Lilac. Violet. Soft, elegant, refined, subtle and quite delicate. Fleshy and cool at the core. A twist or two of the white peppermill. Some fresh mountain herbs, even a little sprig of rosemary and heather. Juicy too. Succulent in fact. More and more crystalline and gracious as it inhales. Succulent. Lifted. Layered. Broad and quite ample but very ‘floaty’. One does notice the alcohol here but the aerial elegance of this is exceptional as is the lushness of the mid-palate. Liquorice root and saline mineral notes gather on the finish. Not at the level of the 2021 for me but still deeply impressive. A wine that settles so well in the glass and really benefits from aeration.
97/100 Colin Hay; The Drinks Business

Intense and sculpted and full of intensely fragrant dried herbs, garrigue, cassis, olive tapenade, savoury and lifted. Touch of dried fruits on the finish, fig and prunes, reflecting the heat of the vintage, and this had one of smallest yields in decades. Harvested through to mid October. 70% new oak for ageing, Morgan Maureze head winemaker at Peter Michael since 2019.
94/100 Jane Anson