Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Soft and alluring, this wine opens in bursts of rose petal and black tea, with plenty of baking spices accenting its core of cherry, blueberry and rhubarb. As the wine mellows on the finish, it show a velvety texture of round, supple tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Pinot Noir Foss Vineyard delivers delicious Black Forest cake and red and black currant aromas with touches of lavender, dusty soil and dried herbs plus a waft of fungi. Medium-bodied, fresh and elegant in the mouth, it has a firm, fine-grained structure and long, fragrant finish. 720 cases produced.
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Wine & Spirits
This has the violet scent and lofty black-satin texture of classic Russian River Valley pinot noir. The warm black fruit adds to the wine’s generosity, while there’s enough bright, zesty freshness to give it shape and form. One of Williams Selyem’s Westside Road neighbors, Bill Foss, planted his vineyard in 2007 on clay-loam soils using mostly heritage clones of pinot noir (Pommard, Swan and Mt. Eden).
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.