Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
This, the first Williams Selyem offering from the Lewis MacGregor Vineyard, is an outstanding addition to the winery's lengthy list of single-site Pinots. While it exhibits the usual attention to careful structure and balance, it is as deep and explicitly fruity as any in its 2014 family and already teases with flashes of complexity to come. Its seamless transition from suppleness to finishing firmness is the mark of a Pinot destined to gain in beauty for years, and, even if a most tasty morsel at the moment, this one promises great things with age and comes with our strongest urgings for patience.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple colored, the 2014 Pinot Noir Lewis MacGregor Estate Vineyard is a little closed to begin, offering subtle tar and roses suggestions over notes of black cherries, mulberries, lavender and forest floor. The medium-bodied palate gives beautiful freshness, with a satiny texture and wonderful energy. Rating: 92(+) Points.
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.