Winemaker Philippe Melka
Winemaker Philippe Melka has degrees in geology, viticulture and oenology and has been instrumental in selecting our site and designing the planting. Philippe selected the varietals, the clones and rootstocks, the trellising system, the vinerow spacing, and the row orientation. He was also intimately involved in the design of the caves and the winery building.
Philippe spent much of his early life in Bordeaux, receiving his geology degree in 1989 from the University of Bordeaux. In his final year of study, he took a wine course out of sheer curiosity, and from that moment on realized his passion--and future--lay in the world of wine.
In 1991 he completed a masters program in Agronomy and Enology under the direction of Professor Sequin, a well regarded terrior specialist. Philippe was fascinated by the relationship between soil and wine quality and his appreciation of the study of soil agronomy continues to this day in his work as a viticulturist as well as winemaker.
Philippe set out for the New World to discover its wines and expand his knowledge in the process. In 1991-1992, he worked for Dominus in both winemaking and vineyard management. He split 1992 between working harvest at Chittering Estate in Western Australia, and returning to Dominus to study grape maturation and ideal picking times.
In 1993, Philippe studied soils at Badia a Coltibuono in Italy as well as the emerging Sangiovese varietal. In the spring of that year, he was once again on French soil, joining the J. P. Moueix company in Libourne, where he stayed until returning to Napa Valley in 1994 to devote himself to winemaking and continuing soil studies.
Fifteen years later, Philippe is one of the most sought after winemakers and viticulturalists in California. His client wineries represent a diverse range of vineyard sites and soil types, from cool-climate, shallow, volcanic soils to deep, rich, warm-microclimate clay. Philippe's wines express the voice of the soil as much as that of the winemaker.