Williams Selyem Winery began as a simple dream of two friends, Ed Selyem and Burt Williams, who started weekend winemaking as a hobby in 1979 in a garage in Forestville, California. It took less than two decades from their first commercial vintage in 1981 for Burt and Ed to create a cult-status winery of international acclaim. Together, they set a new standard for Pinot Noir winemaking in the United States, raising Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley to among the best wine growing regions in the world.
They just wanted to make good Pinot Noir they could drink at home. They never set out to make a splash or become rich. Burt admits, “I had no big plan. I wanted to buy grapes and turn them into good wine. We weren’t trying to conquer the world or make millions of dollars. We were trying to make the best wine we could and enjoy it ourselves. If enough was left over, we could sell it. We never imagined that we would become a cult winery capable of selling everything we made.” Burt practiced a low-tech, natural and intuitive style of winemaking, working with the finicky, thin-skinned red grape from Burgundy that had scant history in the Golden State.
They were bonded in 1981, the first vintage was from 1981 under the label of Hacienda del Rio {see tasting notes attached},a reference to Burt`s home on the Russian River, with Burt designing the label. The first commercial release was in 1983. In 1984, the label, which Burt also designed, was changed to Wiliams Selyem. Known for designating vineyards to capture the essence of the locale, their first Pinot Noir vineyard designate was Rochioli released in 1985.
It was the partner’s limited capital that led to their good fortune. Burt and Ed were forced to perform all the work in the winery themselves. As it turned out, and North American winemakers eventually came to realise this, Pinot Noir was the one grape that demanded careful handling, constant attention and benefited the most from a hands-on approach. As Burt has noted, “We employed old, traditional methods of winemaking, which turned out to be the best ways. We kept it basic and simple: no pumps, no filtering and did nothing that we didn’t have to.”
Although delicious upon release, the wines would age better than many California Pinot Noirs of the time. People were want to say, “These wines are so good when young, they can’t possibly age.” Their age ability was in part due to their moderate alcohols and well-honed acidity, as well as their impeccable balance. Balance was important to Williams as he has explained, “Wine needs to be transparent and to be transparent, it must be balanced. Over ripe, over blown wines do not reflect the site.”
Their winery was sold in 1998 to the current owners. The last vintage Burt finished under the name of Williams Selyem was 1997. He released 2 vintages {2008-9} under the label of Morning Dew Ranch, his vineyard in Anderson Valley which he later sold.
Cheers,
Blake
1983_TastingNotes_HDR.pdf (529 KB)
s90.pdf (988 KB)