Peirson Meyer Wine

Peirson Meyer Wine was founded by Robbie Meyer, winemaker and Alan Peirson, a ceramicist and sculptor. Peirson was the first employee hired at Peter Michael Winery and for 20 years was an integral part of their development as estate manager, including being involved in development f their vineyards. Some of his sculpture are on the grounds of Peter Michael and he is still their Resident Artist and Art-In-Residence. He is no longer involved in ownership of Peirson Meyer Wines. Robbie considers Alan a mentor and mastermind. Robbie discovered Peter Michael wines at age 18; he moved to California in his early 20s and took a job at Peter Michael as a harvest intern and worked his way up to Assistant Winemaker. During his five vintages there he worked with winemakers Marc Aubert, Vanessa Wong and Luc Morlet. It was there that he met and became friends with Peirson.

Meyer is originally from Marietta, GA (near Atlanta); he discovered his love for wine when he was only 14 years of age. He has been a self-proclaimed wine nerd for most of his life. His father, an aerospace engineer, was never into wine and Robbie did not grow up in a wine culture. During his last year in high school Robbie worked at a restaurant in Atlanta as a wine steward. It was here that his palate was exposed to numerous wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux dating back to the 1940s and 1950s.

Early on at Peter Michael, Robbie was working 100-hour weeks, fueled by passion, ambition and the seemingly endless energy of youth. Alan lived on the property; one day he invited Robbie over to his house to try a diversity of wines. This invitation turned into regular meetups; both men discovered they shared a passion for wine and enjoyed similarly styled wines. These early get-togethers led them down the path of starting their own wine brand.

Robbie graduated with a B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Georgia. While working at Peter Michael, Robbie studied at U.C. Davis, ultimately graduating with a Master’s Degree in Enology.

Their first vintage was 300 cases of a Russian River Chardonnay, followed by additional wines in subsequent years including Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. Robbie has worked with some of the same vineyards since the early 2000s. This wine brand is highly personal; Robbie makes wines that he wants to drink. And consumers who have similar palates have found his wines over several decades. Robbie is patient when it comes to vineyard sources, preferring to wait until he finds the right vineyard for the right variety.

In addition to helping craft the wines early in his career at Peter Michael Winery he has made wine for a number of other wineries including Lewis Cellars, Jericho Canyon and Kenefick Ranch and is currently making wine for Del Dotto, Malk Family and Bowers Family Wine. Several individuals in the wine industry whom he considers mentors include George Vare (died 2013), who Robbie refers to as almost like a surrogate grandfather, and winemaker Marc Aubert.

Select Wines
Whites
Sauvignon Blanc
The 2023 Peirson Meyer Sauvignon Blanc, Ryan’s Vineyard Napa Valley is medium gold in color; the brightly lit bouquet is distinctive enough from most Napa Valley wines of this variety to warrant special attention. Its aromatics include honeysuckle, apple blossoms, a light note of grapefruit, white nectarine and Babcock peach and a spicy herbal/citrus character including a hint of lemongrass. An aromatic spiciness keeps the bouquet highly intriguing. A superbly balanced expression of the variety that showcases Napa Valley but without ever crossing into the territory of being green or the opposite direction of being tropical either. The palate offers flavors of kiwi berry, lime juice, apple, and finishes with a note of dill and tarragon. Never green or grassy. Its texture is rounded with a silky and almost briny element that holds the mouth feel in tandem with flavor on the finish, supported by a lively but not bracing acidity. And like the bouquet, the finish offers a lingering spicy character, including white pepper.

Robbie gravitates toward southern Napa Valley for Sauvignon Blanc, looking for minerality and floral characteristics while staying far away from the green, grassy style of this variety. Canopy management is key in the vineyard; sunlight needs to reach the clusters. He doesn’t want melon or overly ripe characteristics either. Photons of sunlight reaching the skins help mitigate the green and grassy characters, but it is always a balance; too much exposure and the grapes can become raisins and too little results in the grapes not ripening fully.

Robbie chooses his vineyards carefully. This was the last wine Robbie introduced to his lineup, because he couldn’t find the right Sauvignon Blanc site in either Napa Valley or Sonoma County.

Ryan’s Vineyard

Chardonnay
The 2022 Peirson Meyer, Chardonnay Sophia’s Vineyard Russian River Valley is deep gold in color; this wine offers plenty of California sunshine and generosity up front in terms of its aromatics. Its aromatics smell fully ripe and sweet and include a honeyed character, including honeycomb and honeysuckle, with additional notes of apricot, yellow peach, Asian pear and tropical fruits including fully ripe papaya and Alphonso mango. There are also notes of crème brûlée and butterscotch. This wine expresses everything we love from this variety, while staying far away from being overly oaky or buttery. As flavorful as the bouquet leads one to believe, this wine tastes like creme Brule, peaches in light syrup, apricot, vanilla and butterscotch. Finishes with a perceived sweetness but this is balanced nicely by the bright acidity. This wine shows a nice tension between flavor, acidity and texture. The mouth feel is silky and runs across the palate as smoothly as running one’s fingers across the fur of a young puppy.

The 2022 Peirson Meyer, Chardonnay Charles Heintz Vineyard is medium to deep gold in color; deeply layered with aromatics expressing honeycomb, creme Brule, butterscotch, vanilla and a light nutty character. The aromatics on this wine have a crowd friendly feel. Rich and layered across the palate, this wine delivers the intensity that can be pulled out of this variety. On the palate there are flavors of baked apples, ripe apricot, yellow peaches in light syrup, ripe papaya, mango, creme Brule, vanilla pudding, butterscotch. This wine finishes with a note of vanilla and a light spicy, barrel influenced note, but in no way oaky. The palate offers a broadly distributed mouth feel with a rounded but never heavy character, supported by a generous and vibrant thread of acidity. This is a rich and full octane expression of the variety.

As a grape grower and winemaker Robbie admits that he is OCD and perhaps that is one of the best traits to have as a winemaker. He farms vineyards he sources grapes from his way, but always relative to the individual sites. He is extremely involved in farming decisions in all vineyards he works with including both Charles Heintz and Sophia’s vineyards. He farms with the same philosophy, letting the site speak for itself in his wines.

Charles Heintz Vineyard is located at 900 feet ASL and Sophia’s Vineyard is at 200 feet in elevation. Charles Heintz is a colder site but above the fog line with vines dating to 1980; they are UC Davis clone 4 (cleaned up old Wente). Both vineyards are in Goldridge Sandy Loam soils. The vines at Charles Heintz are planted on AxR1 rootstock. Charles Heintz Vineyard is located a short distance east of Occidental in far Western Sonoma County while Sophia’s Vineyard is more inland, closer to Graton. Acclaimed producers who make wines from Heintz Vineyard include Dumol, Littorai, Spring Mountain Vineyard, The Calling and William Seylem.

Numerically the acids are similar between both Chardonnay vineyards at time of harvest. Regardless of site, Robbie always achieves beautiful ripeness, richness and a balancing acidity. As he puts it, these are not, “slutty wines”. Robbie always makes dry Chardonnay, yet each bottling as he calls it has to be, “voluptuous”.

Reds
Pinot Noir
In addition to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir is a variety Robbie has long enjoyed. When he was a young child he first learned about Pinot Noir. It can smell and look beautiful, but to him, it must deliver a certain sensation on the palate; he compares its desired character to a sophisticated woman, soft, elegant and beautiful.

The 2022 Peirson Meyer, Miller Vineyard Russian River Valley is medium ruby in color; the nose is a ripe expression of the variety, showcasing the varietal’s inherent fruit characteristics rather than the sweaty characteristics. Its aromatics include sweet cherry, blueberry jam, red plums, raspberry, licorice, fig jam, and strawberry jam. Be patient here and look deeper beyond the fruit, because there are other non-fruit layers, including cinnamon stick, rose petals, violets and a light note of chocolate. Robbie calls these aromatics “beauty defined.” Generous across the palate with flavors of red cherry, dark raspberry, red licorice, boysenberry, red plums, and currant. Finishes with a light and lingering savory spicy note on the finish – not from the barrel but from the fruit – tracking like dried herbs and or white pepper. This spicy character lingers with tannins that are rounded and lightly dusty, sporting a creamy mouth feel. This is a ripe expression yet a cerebral expression. In the vineyard, he always lets the grapes ripen and flourish, but never go beyond ripeness.

Red Blend
The 2022 Peirson Meyer, Maquette Red Wine Napa Valley is deep ruby and nearly opaque with an amaranthine color; in general, this wine is around 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. Smells delicious and crowd friendly with layers of ripe fruit including blackberry, dark cherry, dark plum, and sweet florals including lilacs. And there is a comfortable complement of oak sitting in the background – providing a sweet complement of baking spices including allspice, cinnamon and clove. Ripe but in a balanced state of being in terms of acidity and texture, this wine tastes like cherry pie, boysenberry jam, Santa Rosa plum, blueberry, blackberry and a light note of dried herbs on the finish. The tannins are rounded creatures, broadly spread across the palate with a light gravelly and dusty character, which persists beyond the fruit on the finish. One word describes the palate at four years post vintage – delicious.

The inception of this wine came in the early 2000s, when Robbie blended Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and, in particular, Merlot. After putting the blend together, he asked Alan what he thought of the wine. Alan’s response was, “This is beautiful.” Robbie said that if he were going to make more of a Right Bank-style blend, this would be his blend of choice.

Alan responded, “So this is your Maquette.” The term comes from sculpture; before creating a full-size work, a sculptor often builds a small model known as a maquette. In this case, Robbie had essentially modeled the wine after the blends of Right Bank Bordeaux. Robbie’s response was something along the lines of, “This is the fucking coolest name ever.” The entire conversation, from creating the blend to naming the wine, transpired in about 20 minutes.

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The simple but elegant red visual on the front label comes from a painting that was hanging on the wall at Alan’s home. Robbie spotted the painting and told him that he didn’t really understand what he was doing with shapes in his art, but this particular painting stood out to him. The artist, Yasuhiro Esaki, also focuses on shapes and dynamics in his artwork.

Alan asked Robbie what he liked about the painting. Robbie responded, “You know what this reminds me of? I’m a nerd, and it’s like RNA and DNA translating and all the proteins feathering out.” Alan replied, “You nailed this exactly.” Yasuhiro is not a biologist, but he was drawn to this particular shape and form.

During 2020 and 2021 Robbie sold through his library vintages, so he doesn’t have older wines anymore. The Peirson Meyer wines tend to be released a little later than those from most wineries and in terms of quality, they overdeliver for the price. The wines are primarily sold direct to consumer but also have select distribution through a number of online retailers. All SKUs are produced in quantities of up to 200 cases each. For more information and or to purchase current releases, please visit: www.peirsonmeyer.com