Attending the Pick Up Party at Melville Winery

Usually I will take a Saturday or a Sunday to find an interesting dining destination. It could be breakfast, lunch or dinner. It may be as simple as a food truck or a restaurant on my special occasion list. Instead, we traveled to Santa Ynez Valley to visit Melville Winery. 

Santa Ynez Valley, image credit Suzanne Perkins

In addition to food, my wife and I enjoy wine. We are members of the Melville Winery wine club and attended their “pick up” party last Sunday. A “pick up” party is not a gathering for singles, but an event for wine club members to pick up their wines to take home. Melville hosts these events in the Winter, Spring and Fall.

We arrived before they opened and so we took a drive west on Hwy 246 to the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. Fortunately for us, the AVE tasting room was open. We joined a group of five that were already tasting their wines.

AVE Winery is an organization based in Redondo Beach that grew out of a lifelong passion for founder and CEO Bob Kugler. Grapes are purchased from other vineyards and processed using french oak barrels and french techniques. I particularly enjoyed the 2013 AVE Pinot Noir Clone 777 and their 2013 AVE Chardonnay.

Melville Winery in Lompoc

We made the trip back to Melville Winery and were surprised to see the number of cars already in their parking lot. Since we are wine club members, we were routed through the barrel room onto their back patio.

Glassware was set up for us

One of the wine stations available

Library Wine: Pouring the 2010 Sandy Pinot Noir

It was a gorgeous day in Lompoc. We enjoyed blue skies, puffy clouds and a temperature of about 70 degrees. Patio umbrellas were available to help shield the sun and they had tasting stations spread along the perimeter. Because we tried tasting wines in their proper order, we bounced between stations. People continued to enter the patio and it quickly got busy at each station.

Salmon Mousse with caramelized shallots on toasted crostini

Grilled peppers with sausage over creamy polenta

Melville Winery has an on-site kitchen where they prepare much of the food they serve. Hot hors d’oeuvres were made available to each person in attendance. I really enjoyed the salmon mousse topped with caramelized shallots on toasted crostini.  Another tasty dish was their grilled peppers with sausage over creamy polenta.

Pinot Noir is probably what Melville Winery is best known for. They have vineyards in the highly desired Santa Rita AVA. The combination of fog and cool winds, elevated calcium in the soil and moderate summer heat combine to form one of the world’s best areas for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and Melville has an amazing line-up to show for it.

I was still hungry after we picked up our wine and so we drove to a place that I found called El Rancho Marketplace in Solvang. Because I had a hankering for tri tip, I ordered the “Jordan” sandwich.

The Jordan tri tip sandwich on a onion cheese roll

The Jordan consists of Santa Maria tri tip, bacon, barbecue sauce, pepperoncinis, onions, chipotle mayo and cheddar cheese on a cheese onion roll. While I really enjoyed the tri tip, I think they could have made the taste of the meat stand out more by providing this on a french roll and eliminating the cheese. Still, it was a very good sandwich.

After arriving at home, we unpacked our Melville box and were delighted with what we received. The Sandy’s Pinot Noir will have to go into storage since this is a 2015 vintage.

My wife and I focus on our destination and don’t mind driving to experience something unique. Not only were the wines delightful, we enjoyed the conversation with the people at the winery.

Melville Winery, 5185 E Hwy 246, Lompoc, CA
http://melvillewinery.com/