The Peter Michael Collection
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Sir Peter Michael Biography
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Sir Peter Michael, CBE - Biography
The pet project of one of Britain's leading industrialists, The Vineyard at Stockcross, is a monument to the highly personal passions of Sir Peter Michael, representing his zest for fine food and wine, combined with his desires to promote the role of music and the arts.
Sir Peter made his fortune in electronics as the founder of the Micro Consultants Group. He went on to found Quantel, which became the world's most successful digitised special effects company for television and film production, renowned for the now universal graphic-arts tool, 'Paintbox'.
In the 1980's, Sir Peter's private interests merged with UEI and he became Chairman of this public company that also included the Grand Prix motor racing company, Cosworth in its portfolio.
During this period he consummated a long infatuation with Californian wines by building the Peter Michael Winery (PMW) in the Sonoma Valley, California, which has been producing hand crafted wines on allocation since the first vintage in 1987. Robert Parker includes this winery in his book "The World's Greatest Wine Estates".
A wine lover who had been sceptical of the inflated reputation of Old World wines ever since an encounter with a couple of corked bottles in 1972, Sir Peter now produces wines that rival the great names of Burgundy and Bordeaux at his California vineyard. Robert Parker rates these wines as amongst the very best in the world and says "Life is too short not to experience a bottle of PMW Chardonnay".
1989 was a key year, as UEI was valued at £500 million in a merger with Carlton Communications and Sir Peter, having received a CBE in 1983, was knighted for his services to industry. In that same year a consortium of city institutions asked him to turn around the fortunes of Cray Electronics, a company drowning in £45 million debts. Three years later, Cray had achieved a £30 million profit with net assets valued at £65 million.
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As a lover of classical radio music Sir Peter founded Classic FM in 1992 the first ever national commercial radio station in the UK. The formula of classical music and relaxed presentation was a spectacular success. With some eight million listeners internationally, Classic FM has become the largest radio station in the UK after the BBC. Classic FM has since merged with GWR and Capital Radio to form the largest radio group in the UK, where Sir Peter continues to chair Classic FM and is also a director of GCap Media plc.
In addition to his love of music, wine, skiing and tennis, Sir Peter's private passion is sculpture. He served as Vice Patron of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (RBS), where Her Majesty The Queen is the Patron, and Chairman of the Society’s commercial arm.
Sir Peter's public service activities have included advisory roles for the Cabinet Office and the DTI. He was a director of the NCB during the Scargill years 1983-86 when the UK was riven by flying pickets. As a resident of the Newbury area, he led an initiative that brought together a partnership of local business interests with the District Council to form the Greenham Common Trust, which purchased the infamous former air force base from the MOD for the benefit of the local community and has since distributed over £5m to the local community.
Sir Peter is Chairman of the Pelican Cancer Foundation, the only charity that is dedicated to 'cures for cancer now', through the development of precision surgery and other new specialist techniques. Pelican concentrates on cures for cancer "below the belt" specifically bowel and colon cancer, liver cancer, prostate and bladder cancer.
"Through my business and personal life
I have had the good fortune to experience the sublime pleasure that fine wine, music, art and sculpture can bring" Sir Peter Michael, CBE
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