2022 Le Caprice Pinot Noir
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Tasting notes
Pouring a youthful ruby/magenta color, the 2022 Pinot Noir Le Caprice offers a beautiful nose with spice and a floral perfume of fresh violets, scrubby herbs, saline, and wild berries lifting from the glass. Medium to full-bodied, it’s very elegant on the palate, with refined, ripe tannins, and it continues to become more refined and pure though the finish. It’s maybe one of the best offerings of Pinot Noir from this team I’ve tasted to date, offering more focus and clarity than I can recall. Bravo. Drink 2026-2046. Sir Peter Michael founded his eponymous winery in 1982, inspired by the wine of Chateau Montelena, which led him to California. In 2020, Robert Fiore took the helm as winemaker, while former winemaker Luc Morlet remains as a consultant. Robert studied at the Colorado School of Mines, which led him to a career in environmental geophysics before finding his path into the world of wine. He went on to UC Davis to study Viticulture and Enology. Most recently, Robert was a member of the winemaking team at Continuum in Napa. Vineyard manager Javier Avina has championed the land since 1991. Each of the sites are steep hillsides in Knights Valley that modulate with varied exposition and soils. Sir Peter’s son Paul and his wife Emily oversee the management of the winery today.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Erin Brooks, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2022 Pinot Noir Le Caprice unfolds very slowly on the nose and is worth the wait: red cherry, cranberry and tangerine peel give way to wafts of shiitake mushrooms and moss. The medium-bodied palate is elegant and layered with silky tannins, mouthwatering acidity and a long finish evocative of bitters and rooibos tea. 560 cases were made.
About the producer
Founded in 1983 by Sir Peter Michael CBE and his wife Margaret, Peter Michael Winery produces some of California’s finest wines.