Williams Selyem Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir 2016
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Jeb Dunnuck
From the estate vineyard, the 2016 Pinot Noir Williams Selyem Estate Vineyard reveals a moderately translucent ruby/plum color as well as exotic notes of Bing cherries, wild strawberries, spring flowers, rose petals, and candied citrus. Medium-bodied, ethereal, and elegant on the palate, it has a light yet precise texture, beautifully integrated acidity, and a great finish. I love it, and it's pure class. Drink it anytime over the coming 10-15 years or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From heritage clones, the pale to medium ruby-purple colored 2016 Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard is lusciously scented of boysenberry and blueberry jam, rose petal, garrigue, perfumed earth and orange peel with notes of prosciutto and salted licorice. Light to medium-bodied, it offers great intensity of perfumed fruits, softly framed by finely grained tannins and juicy freshness, finishing long and energetic with oodles of floral perfume. This is so pretty it’s intoxicating! 674 cases produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
Smoky, toasty oak plays a stellar background role to this wine's succulence of black cherry, raspberry and blood orange. Acid-driven on the palate, it presents plenty of secondary characteristics that lean into savory tones of black tea and cardamom.
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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.