California Vintner Mike Bonaccorsi Found Dead

The former Spago sommelier had been making a success of his new wine company, releasing some outstanding Pinot Noirs

James Laube
Posted: January 16, 2004

Mike Bonaccorsi, a rising star among California winemakers, was found dead in his apartment in Buellton, Calif., on Jan. 15.

The popular Santa Barbara County vintner and master sommelier, who was 43 years old, failed to show up for a wine tasting in Los Angeles the night before, friends said. Although he and his wife live in Santa Monica, they kept a residence near their Bonaccorsi Wine Co. operations. Police were asked to check that apartment, where Bonaccorsi's body was found.

No immediate cause of death was known, authorities said, but the Santa Barbara County coroner's office said it was investigating the matter and had scheduled an autopsy.

"This is very bad news. We're floored," said Kris Curran, a friend of Bonaccorsi and the winemaker for Sea Smoke Cellars, in the Santa Rita Hills appellation. "It's a hard thing to take."

Passionate about Burgundies and Pinot Noirs, Bonaccorsi founded Bonaccorsi Wine Co. in 1999, with his wife, Jenne Lee, and ran the boutique operation out of a winery in the Santa Maria Valley. His newest Pinots, from the Santa Rita Hills and the Santa Maria Valley, recently earned outstanding reviews in the Dec. 18 edition of Wine Spectator Weekly, which he said had cast him in a new light.

"I get the feeling my life is changing," he said the day the reviews appeared. "My Web site lit up like a Christmas tree this afternoon and the phone won't stop ringing."

Bonaccorsi was a 22-year-old University of Illinois graduate working in a restaurant when he packed his bags and left the land of Lincoln for San Francisco. His first gig was unloading wine and stacking boxes at the Jug Shop in the city.

He didn't know then that he wanted to become a winemaker, but the allure of wine continued to work on his psyche. "I loved reading about wine," he told me in an interview last year. "I remember reading Hugh Johnson's Atlas of Wine and poring through the pages."

Bonaccorsi's thirst for wine knowledge led to a stint as sommelier at Masa's restaurant in San Francisco. While there, he studied for and passed his Master Sommelier exam, which helped him land a job at Spago, Wolfgang Puck's trendy restaurant in Beverly Hills. He met his wife, who is the maitre d' there, at the original Spago on Sunset Boulevard in 1994.

Along the way, Bonaccorsi worked harvests at Kistler and Williams Selyem wineries in Sonoma County. In 1997 and 1998, he worked in Burgundy for Domaine Georges Roumier, an experience that sealed his fate.

"There wasn't a point where the light bulb went off," Bonaccorsi admitted, "but the Burgundians have a reverence for vineyards and low yields and that's probably the main thing that I took away from that experience." (He and Jenne even got married in Burgundy, in Le Clos St.-Jacques vineyard in Gevrey-Chambertin in 2002.)

"[Mike] was a very passionate man about wine. He loved every aspect of it," said Tor Kenward, an executive with Beringer Blass Wine Estates who knew Bonaccorsi as a sommelier and in his young winemaking career. "You could argue that he was the most powerful sommelier in Southern California, but he really loved winemaking. He really was happy with what he was doing."

Perhaps Bonaccorsi's biggest break came when he discovered some young barrel samples of Pinot Noir from Santa Rita Hills wineries, causing him to rethink where the best Pinot sites in California were. "This was really head and shoulders above anything I'd tasted before," he recalled. "There seemed to be so much potential to be realized in Santa Barbara, but Santa Rita in particular."

Bonaccorsi had the good fortune to lock in some tremendous grape sources, tapping Sanford & Benedict, Fiddlestix, Melville, Cargasacchi and Arita Hills vineyards in Santa Rita Hills. His Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills 2002 (94 points, $34) and his Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley 2002 (92, $34) both gush with rich, plush, concentrated flavors. The former wine is one of the best I've tasted from Santa Rita, the latter is one of the tops from Santa Maria. He also made single-vineyard bottlings from Fiddlestix and Melville.

Bonaccorsi also excelled with Syrah and Chardonnay. His Syrah Central Coast 2001 (90, $32) is concentrated and spicy with supple tannins, while his Chardonnay Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido Vineyard 2002 (91, $30) is rich, complex and polished.

He also produced a wine called Red Monkey, a whimsical name for the leftovers that didn't make it into his red blends; both Pinot Noir and Syrah have appeared under this value-oriented label. The Pinot Noir Red Monkey 2002 (90, $23) was complex and elegant.

"He was an inspiration," said close friend Steve Clifton, a cofounder of Brewer-Clifton winery in Santa Barbara County.

Bonaccorsi said he dreamed of owning a little winery and vineyard in Santa Rita Hills one day. "I'm not kidding myself that I'm making Burgundy in California," he said. But his new wines helped set a new standard for excellence in Santa Rita Hills.

No funeral or memorial services had been announced as of today.

--MaryAnn Worobiec Bovio contributed to this report.