Melville

Melville Team (left to right): Brent Melville, Ron Melville, Chad Melville, Greg Brewer

Country of Origin: USA
Location: Sta. Rita Hills
People: Ron Melville, Owner | Greg Brewer, Winemaker

History: In 1989, Melville Vineyards, a family-owned and operated enterprise was founded in Sonoma County's Knights Valley, where Ron Melville grew high quality, much sought after Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. In 1996, Ron's desire to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay brought Melville Vineyards and his sons Chad and Brent, to Lompoc's Sta. Rita Hills appellation, located in the western Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, California. Since then, they have also developed an interest in Rhone varietals, particularly Northern Rhone Syrah and Viognier. The Melville estate achieves quality through the integrity of its farming practice and its respect to the microclimate.

Vineyards:The soil is Lompoc dune sand, with various blocks possessing clay loam with shallow hard pans of Monterey shale. The vineyard is planted at a spacing of 8 x 3 (1812 vines per acre) and are oriented North/South.139 acres planted with 255,000 vines of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and two Rhone varietals, Syrah and Viognier between both Sta. Rita Hills location and Verna's Vineyard in Los Alamos. There are 14 different clones of Pinot Noir, 9 different clones of Syrah and 6 different clones of Chardonnay all grafted on a variety of low vigor rootstocks. 100 acres on Verna's Vineyard in Cat Canyon, 2 miles North of Los Alamos in the Santa Barbara County Appellation, which is primarily dedicated to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah. Vines are all vertically shoot positioned with aggressive canopy management to insure proper ripening and varietal development.

Winemaking: At the time of harvest, they consider the wines to already be made, and take every precaution to not interfere with their own natural path of evolution. Compromised fruit is dropped before the time of harvest, and fruit is sorted at picking to eliminate any possibility of marginal fruit entering the winery. The Chardonnay is gently whole-cluster pressed at a cool temperature, is cold-settled overnight and then gravity transferred to French cooperage for fermentation and aging. The Pinot Noir and Syrah are either de-stemmed or transferred directly to small, 1.5 ton fermenters where they are cold-soaked for five to eight days before the initiation of fermentation. Upon the completion of fermentation, the wine will remain in contact with the stems and skins for an additional seven to ten days allowing for the development of long chain, supple tannins. At pressing, the fermenters are dumped directly into the press with the wine then transferred directly into barrel. Upon elevage on gross lees with no SO2, the wines are pressure racked once following the waning moon after the Summer solstice, and are bottled two lunar cycles thereafter with neither fining nor filtration. Melville's strength as wine growers consists of careful selection of vineyard properties, isolation and study of vineyard blocks, calculated composting, complex cover cropping practice and deficit irrigation, matched with a tremendous amount of crop reduction and canopy management.

"Winemaker Greg Brewer and grower Chad Melville continue to knock it out of the park with these Melville releases. Focusing on site, if not plot, specific releases, neutral oak, no SO2 until racking and varying degrees of whole cluster are the norm here. The wines have individual characters and, stylistically, lean toward the more complex, finesse-driven side of the spectrum. They 'wow' more for their balance and nuance than their power and richness. They also remain reasonably priced!" - The Wine Advocate 8/2013

Melville wines are vegetarian. No egg or fish products are used.

Media Links
cdsavoia YouTube: Atypical Wine - Winemaker Greg Brewer
cdsavoia YouTube: Potential to be profound with simplicity...

Social Media
Melville Facebook

Current Items from Melville

Cat #		Pack-Size	Net	Reviews
6315	Melville 2011 Chardonnay, Verna's, Santa Barbara	12-750	$198	IWC 91
7011	Melville 2012 Estate Chardonnay, Sta. Rita Hills	12-750	$240	IWC 91
6579	Melville 2012 Viognier, Verna's, Santa Barbara	12-750	$240	WA 90 IWC 91
7393	Melville 2012 Estate Pinot Noir, Block M, Sta. Rita Hills	12-750	$540	492 Exp:
6678	Melville 2011 Estate Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills	12-750	$304	WA 91 IWC 92
7415	Melville 2012 Estate Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills	12-750	$320	IWC 92
7394	Melville 2012 Estate Pinot Noir, Terraces, Sta. Rita Hills	12-750	$540	492 Exp:
6679	Melville 2012 Pinot Noir, Verna's, Santa Barbara	12-750	$240
6580	Melville 2011 Syrah, Verna's, Santa Barbara	12-750	$240	WA 92 IWC 91