Winemaker Notes
A gorgeous nose of red fruits and red rose jump from the glass. Orange peel adds a wonderful refreshing lift to the aromatics while a touch of star anise adds depth; the oak is beautifully integrated. Broad at the entry, the wine showcases red fruits and minerals. Texturally, the wine is like velvet and saturates the palate. The tannins are refined, and subtlety drive the palate along.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A perennial favorite, this wine brings together the grapes of many sites into one, delighting the senses in its inviting red-fruit flavors, hint of allspice and undeniably velvety texture. Complex, seductive and lengthy, it is a simply beautiful wine that remains on the mind long after it’s gone.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Westside Road Neighbors has a pale ruby-purple color and takes its time to open to gentle scents of rhubarb, raspberries, licorice, dried flowers, exotic spices and an earthy undercurrent. Medium-bodied, the palate offers delectable, sweet and juicy red berry fruit with a grainy frame and long finish layered with classic Pinot Noir bitterness. What a beauty!
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: I was taken by this wine. Slow at first, the 2018 William Selyem Pinot Noir grew slowly and assuredly with just a little bit of time. TASTING NOTES: This wine is at once explosive and gentle. Its lovely focused aromas of red and black fruits intertwine nicely on the palate. Enjoy it with a garlic and rosemary accented, roasted lamb shank. (Tasted: March 3, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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.