2008 Syrah Melville Vineyard

This year's set of releases from Chad Melville's own project confirmed that this is one of the bright new stars of the Central Coast, especially if your tastes run more to finesse than to massiveness. "As far as I'm concerned," said Melville, "2008 has turned out to be a pretty awesome vintage. The yields were naturally low because of the spring frosts, and there's a brightness and precision to the wines that I prefer to the '07s, which can be a little muscular, or even really muscular." Melville is fully committed to fermenting with whole clusters "if the stems are ripe, which is not a huge concern here. The fragrance that they bring to a wine drives me crazy, and if I can use them I absolutely will. Pretty much all of my favorite red wines from anywhere in the world are made with whole clusters, and so far I'm really happy with how mine are turning out." All of this year's pinots finished at 14% to 14.6% alcohol but showed no heat. As a matter of fact I doubt I would have guessed that any of them crested 13%, based on their freshness and clarity.