Why it matters
The producer
Melville began as a family winery in 1989, but its present shape came with the 1996 move to the Sta. Rita Hills. Ron Melville selected the area for cold-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah; Grenache now joins them in the estate plantings. The consequence is a range tied to a single vineyard holding rather than a blend of bought-in fruit: each bottle starts with varieties grown by the family on their own land.
The family founded Melville in 1989, then redirected the project to the Sta. Rita Hills in 1996 to pursue cold-climate varieties. The first commercial vintage followed in 1999, after the family retained part of its grapes to make wine rather than selling the whole crop. That decision turned vineyard fruit into an estate label, and it remains visible in the current structure of the business: Ron and Chad Melville continue to work with fruit from vineyards the family owns and tends.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
The Sta. Rita Hills is Melville’s address within Santa Barbara County, and it is the place Ron Melville chose specifically for cold-climate grapes. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah therefore sit at the centre of the estate’s original planting decision, while Grenache extends the estate-grown range. On a Melville label, the connection is direct: the grape is not merely a style cue but fruit raised in the same Sta. Rita Hills vineyards that supply the cellar.
Melville farms 120 acres at a planting density of more than 1,800 vines per acre, with rows laid out on an eight-foot-by-three-foot spacing. That close planting puts many vines into a limited area, making vineyard work central to the fruit that reaches the winery. Annual soil testing and cover-crop choices are part of that work: the estate selects cover crops partly for beneficial nutrients and insects, linking the ground between the rows to the condition of the vines carrying Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah and Grenache.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Melville’s estate approach starts with water and canopy decisions before harvest. The vineyards use drip irrigation with half-gallon emitters, while water is withheld between fruit set and veraison, the period when grapes begin changing colour and ripening. Together with dense planting, soil testing and cover crops, those choices focus attention on how each vine carries and ripens its crop.
The cellar receives fruit from those same estate blocks. For the 2019 Estate Syrah, grapes came in unusually late, from mid- to late November, then spent an average of 35 days with skins and stems. Skins supply colour and tannin; stems can add savoury, spicy edges and a firmer frame. The wine was first pressure-racked in June and bottled on July 23, 2020, giving that Syrah a long route from late harvest through extended contact before bottling.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range is organised first by grape: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah and Grenache all come from Melville’s Sta. Rita Hills estate vineyards. Chardonnay brings the white-wine side of the property, while Pinot Noir, Syrah and Grenache show the red-fruit, dark-fruit and spice-bearing possibilities of the same estate setting.
Within Syrah, the Estate Syrah and Donna’s Block Syrah offer two useful levels of focus. Estate Syrah gathers the broader estate fruit into a wine shaped by its late harvest and extended skin-and-stem contact, with body, tannin and savoury structure at the fore. Donna’s Block narrows the view to a named block and is presented as the more structured, longer-lived Syrah. Neither bottle needs to stand in for the whole range: together they show Melville moving from estate-scale fruit to a more specifically sited red wine.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the 2019 Estate Syrah. It is estate-grown Sta. Rita Hills Syrah, harvested in mid- to late November and held with skins and stems for an average of 35 days before its 2020 bottling. Expect dark fruit, spice and earth over a full-bodied palate, with dry tannin, savoury texture and a long finish. It brings together the estate’s vineyard ownership, late harvest and deliberate skin-and-stem handling in one bottle.