Martellotto "Melodeon" Santa Barbara Chardonnay // Set of 4

Truly art in a bottle, Martellotto wines are exciting, bold, elegant and approachable, expertly crafted and carefully blended from personally sourced grapes from all across the central coast of California. Winemaker Greg Martellotto hand selects grapes grown in designated American Viticultural Areas (AVA) such as Happy Canyon AVA, Sta. Rita Hills AVA, Santa Ynez Valley AVA, and Santa Maria Valley AVA. An active member of the Santa Barbara Vintners Association, Martellotto Winery understands the importance of being a responsible winemaker in this ever growing wine region and institutes sustainable winemaking practices and processes whenever possible. Greg Martellotto’s passion is about selling you wines that are not mass-produced, but hand-crafted, each bottle at a time. One taste and you’ll be hooked.

The old world informs Greg's motivation to make wines that speak of a unique vineyard in California. Greg loves wines that have a vibrant acidity combined with bright fruit and that intangible, hard to pinpoint X factor. Mass produced wines that are squeaky clean and uniform are less interesting. Starting with healthful and sustainably farmed grapes, Greg combines creative fermentation techniques with an artistic blending prior to bottling to produce wines that are distinctive and delicious. Greg’s intention is to make remarkable wines of consequence, consistency, value, and varietal expression. Several of the wines are sourced from organic vineyards and produced with native yeast fermentations. Martellotto wines are allocated, bottle numbered, vineyard designate wines and a pleasure to share. We invite you to explore each of our wines and find the ones that "speak" to you:

The 2017 Martellotto "Melodeon" Chardonnay features notes of baked apples and pears in the nose that follow through on the palate. The wine suggests a liberal use of French oak and the 2017 is 40% new French oak with the balance in older barrels. The wine was bottled in August 2018 after 12 months in oak with limited sulfur additions. The wine was barrel fermented and has a lovely natural acidity and a light zip in the mouth from the sandy loam vineyard that was covered by the Pacific Ocean millennia ago. A broad mouthfeel and minerality combine with layers of vanilla, toasted hazelnuts, and nutmeg singing into the finish. Consider this with any food that is prepared with butter.

The fruit in this Martellotto Chardonnay is from the Sierra Madre Vineyard in the western part of Santa Maria Valley in Santa Barbara County. This is a very cool vineyard site that is windswept and many outstanding producers source from this vineyard.

“I lived in San Francisco between 2009-2014. During this time, I launched the new labels designed by John Langdon and came up with pet names for each of my wines. The fanciful name "Melodeon" has two meanings. Melodeon is the name given to the type of foot-pumped organs used in the 19th century. If you can imagine an old west saloon with gunslingers and whisky, there is likely melodeon organ music in the background. Later, the melodeon is referred to a more common accordion that is played while draped over the musician's thigh. You may not know in 1990 San Francisco declared the piano accordion the official instrument of the city. The first such instrument in American was (allegedly) produced there in 1908. As such, the music of the time, playing in the saloons of the Barbary Coast was referred to as "melodeon". The other tie in here, is that I dance tango. I've even performed in front of an audience. Tango music is famous for the unique sound of the bandoneon, also a type of accordion. I love the music, even if it can be depressing. There is something smooth, genuine, and lyrical about tango and melodeon music and I hope you'll find these characteristics in my black label Chardonnay too." - Greg Martellotto