Williams Selyem Heintz Vineyard Chardonnay 2020
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Wilfred
Wong -
Wine &
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Sitting high above the western edge of the Green Valley boundary, the Heintz Vineyard enjoys nice, warm days often above the fog line. As a consequence of its exposure, the wines tend to run the gamut of aromas, from tropical to melon to apple notes. The slow ripening process helps to preserve the acidity while developing great structure. Notes of soil-inflected powdery minerals are apparent on the finish, owing to the terrific Goldridge soils in which these vines are grown.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Williams Selyem Heintz Vineyard Chardonnay is an outstanding wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows up with aromas and flavors of fragrant, dried spices, lively apples, and a hint of oak. Try it with steamed Dungeness crab in a light cream sauce. (Tasted: January 24, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
The Heintz family has been farming their Occidental ranch since 1912, planting chardonnay vines in their Goldridge soils in 1980. Charles Heintz took over in 1984, and grew this fruit with the freshness of a wild spring meadow, harvesting the best aspects of an exceptional 2020 season (on the CalFire map for 2020, Occidental and the central far-coast of Sonoma are among the districts with the greatest distance from any of the fires that year). Think Queen Anne’s lace, earthy carrot top, golden apple and goldenrod. Beautiful now, this will continue to reveal its complexity over the next several years.
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James
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Robert
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Williams Selyem Winery began as a simple dream of two friends, Ed Selyem and Burt Williams, who pursued weekend winemaking as a hobby in 1979 in a garage in Forestville, California, and made their first commercial vintage in 1981. In less than two decades, Burt and Ed created a cult-status winery of international acclaim. Together they set a new standard for Pinot Noir winemaking in the United States, aligning Sonoma County's Russian River Valley in the firmament of the best winegrowing regions of the world. Today John and Kathe Dyson, who purchased the winery from Burt and Ed in 1998, carry on the passion for Pinot Noir winemaking without compromise. As for the wines... they just keep getting better and better.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.