Williams Selyem Calegari Vineyard Pinot Noir 2013
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Wine Enthusiast
Woody, herbal and resplendent in forest-floor pine and sandalwood, this is a complex, earthy and medium-bodied wine. It's low in oak, and revelatory in cool-climate seductions of pomegranate, cranberry and rhubarb compote. The finish is all black tea, with still-developing tannin structure and power.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
The differences among the many Williams Selyem Pinots are at times tiny and, at others, fairly acute, and, while this wine is in step with its Russian River mates, it lacks the finesse of the best. It is both solid and stiff with a turn of tartness to its ample, cherry-like fruit and it finds an extra bit of firmness and finishing grip at this point that makes a few years of holding the preferred course.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As for the 2013 Pinot Noir Calegari Vineyard, this is a deeply hued, dark ruby/purple Pinot Noir. It shows wonderfully sweet raspberry and cherry fruit, some attractive minerality, medium to full body, and outstanding purity and depth. It is another impressive effort from Williams Selyem to drink over the next decade.
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Wine & Spirits
For a number of years Calegari was the base of Williams Selyem’s Eastside Road Neighbors bottling; they began making a single-vineyard Calegari in 2011. This is all baby fat right now, its sweet, youthful blackberry richness held against an oak-driven aroma of wood smoke. With air, the wine’s zesty acidity takes the lead, giving the fruit a generous yet mouthwatering persistence. It’s a compelling Russian River pinot noir that needs a few more years in bottle to fully meld.
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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.
While the Russian River Valley is a large appellation with multiple climate zones and soil types, it is best known for cool-climate varieties, with Pinot Noir as the most celebrated. The grapes benefit from a reliable late afternoon flow of Pacific Ocean fog through the Petaluma Gap and along the Russian River Valley that ensures slow and steady ripening and the preservation of grape acidity. Today many of California’s most highly regarded Pinot Noir vineyards are in the Russian River Valley, along with its sub-appellation, Green Valley.
Historically Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs had bright red fruit and delicate earthy, mineral notes. But changes in viticultural and winemaking practices have led to stylistic changes in some of the region’s wines. Adjustments to canopy management, among other techniques, have resulted in riper fruit and bolder wines as well. These show flavors of black cherry, blackberry, cola, spice and darker, loamy earth tones, accenting traditional Pinot Noir notes of strawberry, raspberry and light cherry.