Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 33

Top 100 Wineries

King Estate

Melville

OREGON | WILLAMETTE VALLEY
For almost 30 years, King Estate has championed pinot gris,
highlighting the breadth of the variety in small-lot bottlings.

CALIFORNIA | STA. RITA HILLS
With the top-scoring syrah along the central coast, Melville
proves the grape can thrive in the cool Sta. Rita Hills.

BRENT STONE

RESTING AT THE SOUTHERN END OF the Willamette
Valley, King Estate is closer to the coast and
cooler than the valley's sub-AVAs to the north.
Ed King III is carrying on his father's legacy in
his stewardship of the land: The estate's 470
planted acres form the largest biodynamic vineyard in the US (Demeter certiﬁed in 2016). That
farming may have helped the team produce a
cool-toned Domaine Pinot Noir in the relatively
warm 2016 vintage. It also sustains King Estate's
reputation as a leading producer of Oregon
pinot gris. Over the past ﬁve years, COO/winemaker Brent Stone has expanded his site-speciﬁc
bottlings, exploring the nuances of pinot gris
across the Willamette Valley-some from vineyards they have worked with for decades. His
team picks clones and blocks separately, generating as many as 400 active fermentations during
harvest, providing a broad bench for blending
each of King's cuvées.-S.L.

CHAD MELVILLE

2016 Willamette Valley Domaine Pinot Noir
($70, 92 points) King Estate's Domaine Pinot Noir
comes entirely from their biodynamically-farmed site
in Southern Willamette Valley and often reﬂects the
coolness from its proximity to the coast. The 2016 is
beautifully aromatic, with whole-cluster scents of lilac
and thyme adorning a black-cherry core of ﬂavor.

FOUNDED:

1991
OWNERS:

The King family
WINEMAKER:

Brent Stone

CHAD MELVILLE WAS THERE ALONGSIDE HIS father,
Ron, and winemaker Greg Brewer when they
started their winery in the Sta. Rita Hills in 1997.
Together, Chad and his brother Brent planted
the original vines that still grow at the Melville
estate, including their Donna's Block syrah and
Sandy's Block pinot noir (both planted in 1998).
When Brewer left in 2015, Chad, who had been
playing the role of viticulturist, started to oversee winemaking, too. He focuses on small-lot
wines, tailoring the farming and winemaking to
each parcel, and taking a light hand in the winery to let the terroir differences show through.
(He hasn't used new oak in more than a decade.)
The Melvilles farm mostly pinot noir, but they
also have the largest planting of syrah in the Sta.
Rita Hills. They produced two dynamic syrahs
from close to 20 acres of the variety, and they
continue to plant more. -S.L.

2018 Willamette Valley Johnson School Vineyard
Pinot Gris ($26, 92 points) From an estate vineyard
in the Chehalem Mountains that's farmed biodynamically, this pinot gris is a fruit-driven counterpoint to
the austere expression seen from King Estate's site
at the opposite end of the Willamette Valley. There's
warmth from the notes of raw almond, honeyed white
ﬂower and pink grapefruit, matched by a salinity and
mineral tone that gives the wine a pearl-like radiance.

2018 Sta. Rita Hills Donna's Block Syrah ($48,
95 points) Donna's Block is four acres of syrah growing in sand, a well-drained soil that keeps the vines'
natural vigor at bay. Early on, the fruit growing there
showed an intensity that the Melvilles encouraged
with restricted irrigation, aggressive vine thinning
and, in this cold climate, lots of exposure to the sun.
They've fermented their syrah as whole clusters for
15 years now, gaining a reputation for spicy, aromatic
wines like this 2018: It's wildly aromatic, with scents
of green olive, dried venison, lavender and thyme,
and ﬂavors of dewy blue and black berries at its core.

2018 Willamette Valley Backbone Pinot Gris
($28, 91 points) Brent Stone bases this blend on
pinot gris from King's home vineyard, supplemented
with smaller portions from four estate holdings
throughout the Willamette Valley (including Johnson
School). In 2018, those components made for a complex and well-built pinot gris with bright and creamy
layers of crisp apple fruit and nougat.

2018 Sta. Rita Hills Estate Syrah ($38, 94 points)
Apart from Donna's Block, the remainder of Melville's
syrah goes toward this estate bottling, a cold-climate
syrah made with some whole clusters (40 percent)
and neutral oak barrels. The 2018 brings to mind a
cool morning with scents of pine needles and red
roses. The ﬂavors are darker, with blackberry compote refreshed by the wine's thread of acidity.

FOUNDED:

1997
OWNERS:

Ron & Chad
Melville

VITICULTURIST:

WINEMAKER/

Raymond Nuclo

VITICULTURIST:

ACRES OWNED:

Chad Melville

1,033
(470 planted)

ACRES OWNED:

ANNUAL

PRODUCTION:

150,000 cases
ESTATE GROWN :
60%

10,000 cases

120

ESTATE GROWN:

100%

2018 Sta. Rita Hills Sandy's Block Pinot Noir
($50, 93 points) Sandy's Block sits just above Donna's in the most northwest corner of Melville's estate,
where the soil is entirely sand. It's been bottled as its
own cuvée since 2009, when then-winemaker Greg
Brewer started to notice the fruit's ﬂoral aromas, concentration and bright acidity. The 2018 has spicy bergamot and violet scents and earthy strawberry fruit
that energizes the wine.
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