Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2016
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Winemaker Notes
There is always a fineness to Westside Road Neighbors, and the 2016 does not disappoint! The nose starts out with red cherry, wild berries, and plum, and brightens up with notes of juniper berry, citrus, and redwood shavings. A brooding element lurks in the background and evokes thoughts of Asian spices. With time in the glass, the wine opens up with aromas of flowers and lavender. The wine is very focused in the mouth, and has a very protracted mouthfeel. Flavors of raspberry, cherry, and cranberry, with a smoked meat finish are interwoven in the palate architecture. The full-bodied tannins are reminiscent of Oolong tea. Polished and balanced, the wine’s texture is superb and highlights the best of what Pinot Noir can be.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Perennially delicious, this is a thick, structured wine with underlying elegance and finesse. A baked cherry flavor is enveloped in sweet spice, cola and lavender, uplifted by lively acidity. It is a crowd-pleasing wine that offers plenty of complexity.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir Westside Road Neighbors is pale to medium ruby-purple in color with a nose of crushed black cherries, pomegranate and mulberries with touches of spice box, menthol and forest floor plus a waft of potpourri. Medium-bodied, it fills the palate with black and red berries and earthy layers, framed with ripe, grainy tannins and nicely balanced freshness, finishing long and perfumed. 1,183 cases produced.
Rating: 93+ -
Wine & Spirits
Williams Selyem’s blend from a lineup of coveted sites, this wine includes grapes from Allen, Bacigalupi, Bucher, Flax, Rochioli Riverblock and the Williams Selyem Estate. It’s tightly built, almost constricted in its youth, with clean, vibrant fruit that keeps giving the longer it opens in the glass. There’s a spicy edge to the tannins, like gingerroot or sarsaparilla, and a tumble of herbs, earth and stems that adds to the sense of freshness. This should reward patient cellaring.
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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.