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Wine Profile: Peter Merriam |
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Written by JoAnn Actis-Grande
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 Merriam Vineyards, Sonoma, California
When did you become interested in wine?
For me it was not early on or something I grew up around. There were no ethnic wines around my house. Having grown up in central Maine, beer was more popular and I was interested in home brew. During college, I met my wife, Diana, and we married soon after. We decided to go to France for our honeymoon. We fell in love with all the wine we tasted and shortly after we returned to New England, we started collecting wine. We knew then that wine would be an important part of our life together.
When did you get into the wine business?
I purchased a package store in Massachusetts in the 1980’s. I sold a variety of wine and started to notice an increase in wine sales. Customers were starting to ask questions about wine and wanted to try new varietals. It was clear that wine was starting to take off in the U.S.
What inspired you to start making your own wine?
Our trip to France, having the wine store and collecting wines. Also, Diana and I have good friends who live in Sonoma and are involved in the wine industry—we visit them as often as we can. We decided this was where we wanted to buy a vineyard and one day build a winery. We started seriously looking in the late 90’s and purchased our first vineyard in 2000. We named it “Windacre”, after our beach house on the coast of Maine. The 2000 Windacre Merlot has won several medals including a silver medal in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
Where are your vineyards located?
The vineyards are on the edge of the beautiful Russian River Valley in Sonoma. The climate and soil conditions are much like the Bordeaux region in France; well-suited for growing merlot and other Bordeaux-style grapes.
What types of wine are you currently producing?
Merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, malbec, petit verdot and some chardonnay. All our wines are from single vineyards and made in the traditional Bordeaux style—hand-crafted and using only the finest French oak barrels.
What’s new at Merriam Vineyards?
Los Amigos, our new winery and visitor’s center! The building is state-of-the-art, “green”, and we are doing sustainable farming. But the winery has the look and feel of a New England cape. Our 2008 harvest is being produced in the new facility and we will open to the public this spring. We have doubled our acreage for planting and we will also be producing pinot noir and sauvignon blanc. All our wines will be available at the winery and we are starting a wine club—this will allow us to ship wine to most states in the US. We are very excited about the new developments at Merriam Vineyards
What’s new for you?
I have been spending a lot of time at the winery, traveling back and forth between California and New England so that I can oversee all aspects at the new winery. When I’m not at the winery, I have been spending a lot of time working with our distributors, opening new territories, attending wine events, festivals and Merriam wine dinners.
When you’re not at the winery or on the road, what do you do for fun?
In the summer, Diana and I love staying at our Windacre beach house. We really enjoy entertaining there and it’s a great place for us to spend quality time with our four children. During the winter months, we ski as much as possible. Of course, at the end of the day, we love to relax with a bottle of wine!
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