2010 Chardonnay Clone 76 Inox

Greg Brewer, who has been at Melville since its first vintage, says that his winemaking approach here is "less radical" than his practices at Brewer-Clifton (100% whole-cluster fermentations for the pinots, virtually no new oak) and with his Diatom project (all stainless steel, blocked malos). Here the chardonnays are allowed to do their malos and there's more oak influence, and destemming is mostly practiced on the red grapes. Brewer's light touch is in evidence with the Melville wines and pricing is extremely fair, especially at the entry level. The coolness of the 2010 growing season "helped us get the sort of fruit we want to make bright, fresh wines, which is the style we're after," he told me. Unfortunately, the spring frost curtailed yields. "You can always count on nature to throw some kind of curve ball, so we have exactly the quality we want, just not enough of it," said Brewer.