Melville 2023 Estate Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills

The Melville 2023 Estate Pinot Noir opens like the hush of evening in Sta. Rita Hills—crunchy pomegranate and black raspberry rise first, then fold into whispers of native sage, dusky oolong tea, and dusted stone. It isn’t about flash. It’s about place—a coastal ridge etched into every shimmer of fruit.

On the palate, it moves with quiet precision. Fruit arrives bright and focused, framed by taut acidity and fine-grained tannin. There’s a mineral line that threads through, salty and dry, tightening the finish into clarity instead of blur. This is coastal Pinot that breathes in fog, not heat—or character that resists exaggeration.

Melville brings you here by way of soil and sun. This wine is 100% estate fruit, a mosaic of seventeen clones, with a calculated 40% fermented as whole clusters. The rest were gently de-stemmed, fermented in small open-top bins, then aged sur lie in long-rested French oak—not to impress, but to frame. That layering in site, not in cellar theatrics, gives it dimension.

Sta. Rita Hills tells the story of east–west ridges, cold ocean fog, and limestone-rich soils that sharpen rather than soften. Melville lives in that tension, crafting wines that feel suspended—cool, not cold; expressive, not extroverted. The 2023 vintage followed that pattern: cool hang time, precision harvest, and a Pinot that pushes toward purpose before power.

This is wine you let sit at the table as the night light fades. Pour it alongside mushroom ragù, roasted trout, or let it fade into your thoughts. It doesn’t need a stage—just company.

Melville 2023 Estate Pinot Noir—Sta. Rita fog in fruit, structure in restraint, echo in a glass.