Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Williams Selyem estate vineyard is planted to 20 different clones/selections. The 2016 Chardonnay Estate Vineyard opens with green apple, poached pear, gunflint and crushed almond with cheese rind, baker's yeast and white stone fruits at the core. It's light to medium-bodied, bright and lively in the mouth with a mineral streak, finishing long and fresh. 421 cases produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a new wine from the producer's Westside Road property. Soft and approachable, it has crisp, steely acidity that carries flavors of wet stone and lemon peel. It takes on a broader sense of lushness as it opens on the midpalate, presenting bold flavors of peach and apricot.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.