Melville Sta. Rita Hills Estate Pinot Noir 2012

  • 92 Robert
    Parker
3.1 Good (5)
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Melville Sta. Rita Hills Estate Pinot Noir 2012 Front Bottle Shot
Melville Sta. Rita Hills Estate Pinot Noir 2012 Front Bottle Shot Melville Sta. Rita Hills Estate Pinot Noir 2012 Front Label Melville Sta. Rita Hills Estate Pinot Noir 2012 Back Bottle Shot

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2012

Size
750ML

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Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

This is 100% Melville fruit from our Sta. Rita Hills Estate, and is a collection of 16 pinot noir clones. 40% of the fruit was fermented as whole-clusters with 60% gently de-stemmed in small (1.5 ton) open-top fermenters. Total skin and stem contact averaged 30 days (7 day cold soak, 2 + weeks of fermentation and 1 + week extended maceration). From the press, the wine was transferred directly into neutral barrel (old French oak), where it remained sur lie without sulfur until June, when it was gently racked for the first time and prepared for bottling in August.

Professional Ratings

  • 92
    The 2012 Pinot Noir Estate Sta. Rita Hills is a smoking value. Seeing 40% whole cluster and 11 months in neutral oak, it offers beautiful cherry blossom, pepper, white flowers and hints of underbrush to go with a rich, layered and impressively textured feel on the palate. You don’t see this quality at this price very often (for Pinot anyway) and readers need to get a hold of a few of these.

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Melville

Melville

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Melville, California
Melville The Story of Melville Winery Video

Melville is a family-owned, 100% estate, organic vineyard and winery in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA of Santa Barbara County.

They produce Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, and a small amount of Grenache. All their wines, from the flagship Estate

Pinot Noir to the Small Lot Collection Donna's Block Syrah, are hand-grown and hand-made 100 cases at a time.

Their founder Ron Melville carefully selected the location of the estate for its proximity to the Pacific Ocean as well as

the soil composition - predominantly sandy loam and diatomaceous earth with sections of clay. You can be too close

to the ocean and struggle with getting fruit ripe, and you can also be further away and struggle with temperatures that

are too hot...Melville is in the sweet spot.

The Melville's have been practicing responsible farming for over three decades, and since 1997 in the Sta. Rita Hills

when brothers Chad and Brent Melville planted the estate vineyards (before the AVA was formally established). They

take great pride in their commitment to "winegrowing"…working in harmony with Mother Nature to nurture their land

through organic and sustainable farming practices to ensure that all of the most crucial work is done in the vineyard.

The Sta. Rita Hills AVA is incredibly unique for a few reasons:

• It lies within a transverse mountain range, meaning that the mountains on either side of the valley are running

east-to-west from the ocean rather than north-to south. This is the only transverse mountain range in North

America.

• It has the longest growing season in North America. The growing season starts early (bud bread in late

February) and ends relatively late (Melville is often harvesting into late November) because they have a mild winter

and a cold, sunny summer. This environment of consistent "cold sunshine" allows for a long, slow ripening

and wines that showcase high acidity with ripe aromas/flavors.

Stylistically, They choose to only use neutral wood. With the vines being 25+ years old, they have reached a maturity

that Melville is proud of. The vines are creating the best fruit ever and they want their customers taste the flavors of Sta.

Rita Hills and Mother Nature in their purest form.

Stem inclusion during fermentation has been a key to Melville wines. They create aromatic lift, add tannins, and can

bring another dimension of flavor to the palate, including savoriness and spiciness. When using stems, it is important

to ensure they are fully ripe to avoid green, unpleasant, vegetal flavors. Fortunately, the Sta. Rita Hills' long growing

season allows for fully ripened stems.

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Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”

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Sta. Rita Hills Wine

Santa Barbara, California

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A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.

The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.

CHMMLV3501012_2012 Item# 131637

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