The 2009 Melville Inox Chardonnay is a wine of immense minerals, long and ripe fruit notes and bracing, vibrant acidity. Unoaked and prevented from going through malolactic fermentation, the Melville Inox differs from many un-oaked Chards in that it is sourced from the ripest Chardonnay grapes on the estate instead of the least ripe. The result is a wine of precision and focus that offers an underlying current of fruit and weight that is hard to fathom at first, but that with each moment in the glass and trip across the palate seems to become more profound and expressive. Imagine if the Grand Crus of Chablis were airlifted to Santa Barbara and that just begins to give glimpses of the dynamic nature of this wine.