Winemaker Notes
This crowd-pleaser is the product of hand-selected vineyards on the eastern bank of the Russian River. On the nose, a gamut of black fruits and plum mix with aromas of cedar shavings and dried herbs, while notes of elderberry and elderflower add additional intrigue. All sorts of berry flavors excite the palate and are lifted with citrus and impressions of black tea. The tannins are voluminous, refined and finish with a gravelly texture.
Professional Ratings
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Williams Selyem Eastside Road Neighbors shows how a winemaker's synergy with the vineyard can become a miracle of alchemy. TASTING NOTES: This wine is multi-dimensional and greater than the sum of its parts. Its expansive aromas and flavors of savory spices, sandalwood, oak, earth, and berries stay long an lovingly on the palate. Pair it with Peking duck and enjoy. (Tasted: July 30, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
-
Wine Spectator
This is loaded with lusciously spiced and broad-textured flavors of cherry, plum tart and dried fig that resonate with lithe minerality. Complex, featuring an elegant finish that is rich and filled with light chocolate mousse overtones. Drink now through 2026.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Eastside Road Neighbors has a pale to medium ruby-purple color and is youthfully shy, slowly offering scents of raspberry preserves, red and black cherries and touches of cured meats, peppercorn, autumn leaves, dried rose petal and potpourri. It's light to medium-bodied, rounded and silky with slowly evolving earth and spice layers, a sturdy frame of grainy tannins and great freshness, finishing long with baking spice touches. This is very youthfully coiled, and my score may look conservative a year from now. 1,289 cases produced.
-
Connoisseurs' Guide
Fairly forthright on the nose yet showing a good deal of range and richness to its aromas of ripe cherries, creamy oak and sweet, slightly loamy soils, this neatly balanced Pinot, while not an especially big wine, is a decidedly complete one of polish, quiet reserve and marked persistence. It does not demand age but will clearly improve and gain further refinement with time, and, given the choice, we would opt for a few years of age with full faith that it will be drinking wonderfully for many more after that.
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.