Similar to the acclaimed 2016 growing season, Napa Valley’s 2019 vintage began with considerable rainfall and a mild, long summer, experiencing few weather extremes. From a winemaker’s perspective, this vintage promises to produce a beautifully structured wine.

In the Melanson Vineyard, we returned to the lower yields of pre-2018 vintages, probably (and ironically) made even less prodigious by the rains. Cooler temperatures meant the vines flowered much later than usual, and rain at the end of May likely disrupted fruit set. We saw this throughout the Napa Valley in hillside vineyards, which typically set later than those on the valley floor.

Despite the tiny amount of fruit we harvested, the 2019 Pulido~Walker Melanson Cabernet Sauvignon is every bit as good as any wine we’ve made from this site thus far. Nature was wildly generous in quality, if not quantity, on Pritchard Hill. This wine is very likely on par with the perfect-scoring 2018 and may prove to be our finest result from the Melanson Vineyard to date