It is no mean feat finding Peay. The road you take from Geyserville twists and turns its way across high barren ridges and through densely wooded valleys, traversing a tectonically crumpled stretch of land as you head west, straight towards the Pacific Ocean– it is not a road where you can easily make up lost time, as I found out on my visit there in February 2013. A mere four miles from the Ocean, surrounded by dense forest, on a slightly undulating ridge, sits the Peay Estate Vineyard; a one hundred year old clearing originally used to grow apples by local loggers. It is a fairly extreme place, right out on the limits, where vineyard pests can include bears. And it’s home to one of the great Sonoma Coast vineyards.
Back in 1996 Andy and Nick Peay set out on the hunt for
a parcel of land on which to grow their own grapes to make their own wine.
Their search led them to a little travelled area in the very north of Sonoma
that many at the time said was too cool to fully ripen grapes. Having
been raised on great European wines, this was music to their ears; just the
sort of place to produce wines of purity, restraint and tension.
Keeping a keen eye out for the presence of moss and ferns, sure
fire indicators of the presence of water, and fog, they finally located the
21ha parcel that today is home to their specific clonal selections of Pinot Noir
and Chardonnay, plus Syrah and a little Marsanne and Rousanne.
Planting took place in 1998, all done by Andy and Nick. The first
harvest was made in 2001 (though all of this was sold to the likes of Williams
Selyem and Failla). In the intervening years Nick had met and started to date
Vanessa Wong a winemaker raised in San Francisco. Vanessa’s CV included stints
at with Chateau Lafite, Jean Gros in Burgundy, and more recently at Hirsch in
Sonoma, before working as winemaker at Peter Michael. By the time wedding bells
rung in 2002 Vanessa was firmly ensconced as winemaker at Peay.
Vanessa’s philosophy stems entirely from her decision on
when to pick the fruit. She is a meticulous collector of data, making notes on
everything from bunch formation to cane lengths, bud break and leaf nutrient
samples. The aim is simple to give her and Nick the greatest possible picture
of what is going on in the vineyard at any given time. Vineyard work is carried
out by hand by a small team of 8 full time workers (a rarity and luxury that
allows the people working the vines to really know the vines “our workers touch
each vine over 13 times per year” they proudly state). Once harvested the
grapes are transferred to the Peay’s own purpose built winery 40 miles away in
Calistoga. From this point in the winemaking can best be described as gentle. The
aim is simply to transmit the particular qualities of their land, through the
prism of great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The result is wines of great refinement, nuance and clarity.
The 20 hectare Peay vineyard itself sits on a ridge in a
clearing just four miles from the chilly Pacific Ocean, one ridge removed from
the actual coast. When you’re located so
close to an ocean, fog comes to be an unavoidable feature of life. The Peay vineyard sits just above the
inversion layer, and therefore just above the fog line, cooled by ocean breezes
yet just out of the dangerous damp of the fog itself. Whereas further inland the heat from the
valley floor radiates warmth more strongly to the lower vineyards, out here on
the coast, the cool coastal winds mean that the lower you are, the cooler you
are. At Peay they feel their position just on the edge of this cooling fog
gives rise to the very idea conditions for producing wines of nerve, refreshing acidity and purity. Concentration
is achieved through careful vineyard management, which in turn is shaped by
some very careful clonal selection. The wines are split into two camps, those
that come exclusively from the Peay vineyard and those that contain a small
percentage of fruit from other sites on the Sonoma Coast. Both are cared for
with the same passion and zeal.
We’re delighted to be importing these fascinating, cool climate wines. It
is the first time they have ever been seen on these shores, just in time for
their stunning 2012 vintage. They are set for release at the end of May 2014, so please
do watch this space. In the meantime, you can watch this short video presented
by Nick Peay about the vineyard.
