Paul Michael didn't plant his first vines by choice. He was seventeen years old, on a family holiday in California, when his father climbed out of a rented Cadillac in the middle of Knights Valley and announced they were coming back to plant. That was 1982. What followed is one of the great origin stories in American wine.
Paul and his wife Emily join Matt Weiss to talk about the multigenerational vision behind Peter Michael Winery, the accidental tasting that started it all, how a five-year-old waking up above the fog line named one of their most celebrated wines, and what it means to build something designed to outlast you.
They also reveal the four bottles Paul would open for someone who had never heard of Peter Michael — vintage specific. Write them down.
Recorded at Fearrington House, Pittsboro, North Carolina.
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