Monday, December 22, 2014

Benovia Knows Pinot



Mike Sullivan has lived in Sonoma County all of his life. He attended Fresno State, earning a degree in fermentation science. He has worked for several wineries in his 18 years in the wine business, most recently, Hartford Court.

At Hartford, he won many awards including being named “Wine Personality of the Year” by Robert Parker and “Winemaker of the Year” by Ronn Wiegand of the magazine Restaurant Wine. Mike won the sweepstakes award for both his Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. He is the only winemaker ever to win the sweepstakes award for both a red and white wine. Robert Parker has said of Mike, “I’m a big fan of winemaker Mike Sullivan as he seems to have the brilliant ability to convert Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel into wines of considerable character and individuality.”

Mike focuses on three important aspects of winemaking. First, he is very attentive to the terrior of each vineyard. He walks the vineyards on a weekly basis to understand all aspects of each vineyard's life cycle. He uses this knowledge to intensively farm each vineyard and produce the highest quality grape possible. Once these grapes are harvested he exercises extraordinary care in the winemaking process to allow the grapes to transform into the finest possible expression of wine.

Mike is married with two boys, a weimaraner and several cats. When not in the cellar, the vineyards or at home, Mike can be found on one of Sonoma County's many beautiful golf courses.

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