We all love wine, right?
You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t!
I love wine for so many reasons. It brings people together, has brought me so many new friendships, given me a passion to follow, lets me taste a piece of the past…
One of the best parts of wine tasting to me is being able to physically see where the wine I love to drink is made.
Melville Winery is offering an awesome way to connect their guests with their wine.
In their new tour, “Winegrowing 101,” we had the chance to walk through the vineyards, the winery and taste in the barrel room for a very thorough and encompassing experience.
Our tour started off in the vines of the estate’s High Density Syrah. Visiting at the end of October meant that the grapes were days away from harvest so we were able to taste a few grapes straight from the wine to experience the sweetness levels just before they were picked.
Melville prides themselves on the saying that their wine is made in the vineyard, not in the winery. It was very clear that the estate took great pride in their crop as well as practicing organic and sustainable farming, even though they are not technically certified.
By happy accident, we ran into assistant wine maker Lee while exploring the winery and he let us geek out on the grapes in different stages of the wine making process.
We explored their cold soak room where the grapes were taking a nice chilly bath in their skins before fermentation. This helps extract extra color and flavor.
Next, we got to swirl our fingers around in the cap of fermenting Pinot Noir before the juice was pressed from it’s skin. This was such an awesome experience for me and one of the highlights of our trip. Something about seeing the wine you love being made really makes me appreciate the finished product even more.
Finally, our tour came to an end in the reserve room where we were treated to a seated tasting of a flight of 5 wines:
NV Estate Blanc de Blanc
2014 Estate Syrah – High Density (the vineyard where we started our tour!)
2009 Estate Pinot Noir – Terraces (library wine)
2017 Estate Pinot Noir – Anna’s
2018 Estate Chardonnay – Clone 76, Inox
The 2009 Pinot was to die for, but I think my absolute favorite was the 2017 Anna’s Pinot Noir.
Overall, this tour was extremely informative and perfect for any wine lover that wants to go behind the scenes to get a thorough look and the process of how wine is made from vineyard to bottle. If you ever have the chance to go, tell them I sent you!
Book your visit HERE!
