Williams Selyem Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2017
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine has a fresh, bubbly personality that’s complemented by complex, earthy undertones of rose and forest floor. The tannins offer grip to the palate, adding texture and weight within a framework of balanced acidity.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: I will be the first one to admit that I have been seduced by Sonoma Coast Pinot Noirs. I enjoy that the wines crunch on the palate while delivering some of the grape variety's best fruit attributes. TASTING NOTES: This wine is bright and alive. Its aromas and flavors of tart berries resonate with tremendous clarity. Pair it with fennel and black pepper-rubbed leg of lamb, and a side of puree garlic. (Tasted: January 28, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The appellation 2017 Pinot Noir Sonoma County sports a medium ruby color as well as classic sweet red fruits, flowers, incense, and dried forest floor. Readers looking for a beautiful introduction into this estate can't go wrong with this and it’s medium-bodied, has a light, ethereal texture, integrated acidity and tannins, and a beautiful finish. It's classic, old-school, and damn good.
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Wine & Spirits
Jeff Mangahas blended this wine from three coastal sites—Terra de Promissio in the Petaluma Gap, Coastlands in Occidental and Williams Selyem’s Drake Estate in Guerneville. It’s spicy, bright and pretty, an open and welcoming wine right down to the fine sweetness of its tannins. The flavors of salted plum and shiso leaf suggest serving this with pan-seared duck marinated in mirin and soy, or broiled unagi over rice.
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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.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.