ROCKS, STARS, AND A GLOBAL WINE PHENOM:
an interview with Philippe Melka Interview by Saralyn Mehta, Sommelier Photo courtesy of Melka Estates
When Philippe Melka left the University of Bordeaux with degrees in geology, agronomy, and enology, he embarked on a career that started at the top and has maintained that altitude for over 25 years. After working with the prestigious Château Haut-Brion in Bordeaux and Moueix’s Dominus Estate in Yountville, California, Philippe travelled and worked in Italy, France and Australia, before returning to California for good. At Melka Estates, Philippe collaborates with his wife and business partner, Cherie Melka, to produce some of the top-rated wines to come out of Napa Valley. Philippe is also an international wine consultant (named by Robert Parker as one of the top nine in the world) whose Atelier Melka oversees about 150 wines globally. Saralyn Mehta sat down with him to discuss the present-day realities—and future—of winemaking in Napa Valley.
environment at Dominus, which, even if it is in the U.S., has a lot of French flair and philosophy—so I was not totally out of my French culture. But more importantly, I quickly realized the potential of Napa Valley by studying the terroir of this vineyard. I spent about 2 years working for this company in the U.S., and then I worked for them in France. France was so traditional for a young guy like me that I thought California had much more sex appeal for my career than France. My wife wanted to live in France; I wanted to live in the U.S. That’s pretty much the only battle that I won over the years.
On Making Wine in Napa Valley…
PM My first vintage in Napa Valley was in 1991, and in 2001, I started to see the impact of weather in California: the heatwaves starting to be later and more frequent. We started to visually experience shrivelled grapes by then and started to think about how to manage our vineyards a little bit differently. In 2015, we started to experience drought and heat at the same time. And then, in 2017, fires started to really affect us. Until 2017, we had never really had any fire affecting the Napa Valley and the wine business overall. And in 2020, we made the decision not to make any Napa Valley wines. So we don’t have a lot of wine in the cellar right now!
Saralyn Mehta (SM) You have lived and worked all over the world. What made you want to put your roots down in Napa? Philippe Melka (PM) That is pretty easy to answer, actually. Just after my college years, I was approached by a French company, Moueix, who asked me to come to the U.S. and be an intern during the harvest at Dominus Estate. Right away, I fell in love with the place. I was lucky to be in a great 50 Order online: JonesWines.com/shop
SM I know that the fires of 2020 affected your winery. How has climate change affected growing and winemaking practices in California?
