A toast to Burt Willaims: 86` Sonoma County Pinot

TRIBUTE TO BURT WILLIAMS

The best way I know how to pay tribute to Burt is to open up one of his wines and toast to him so that’s what we did last night.

I chose the oldest WS wine I have in my cellar which comes from their 4th vintage release. It’s the 1986 Sonoma County which was one of their “entry level” wines. Burt would blend in fruit from various vineyards, some of which would eventually be designated. In this case, the 86` has a lot of Summa with some Rochioli East Block and Allen. Not too bad for a basic WS Pinot.

I had some trepidation about how viable this wine would be having just bought it and 2 others a few months ago in auction. The fill was mid neck and that was a good sign as Burt always filled every bottle to the cork. I stood the bottle up about 4 hours ahead. Fearing decanting might lead to a quick lifespan, I used a Durand, pulled the cork and discovered the cork was perfectly in tact and there was no taint. See photo.

Once poured into a fine Sophienwald Pinot Noir/ Burgundy stem, I noticed the light color was a faded red with a bit of browning. The nose was interesting and strongly supportive of we’ve got a good bottle here. The wine kept changing over an hour from one stage to another, all phases being good and this is for a 33 year old new world Pinot. That in itself is a tribute to the man. My notes:

1986 WILLIAMS SELYEM SONOMA COUNTY PINOT NOIR- 12.5% abc; the aromas had very distinct burnt dried red cherry/ berry with a bit of toast and spice; the taste included more of the same and at mid palate, a mild amount of sweetness was noticeable; after 10 minutes in the glass, the burnt fruit notes dissipated into the background and now more spice laden dried red cherry is up front and its evolved from being good to really good; it had a medium body at best and surprisingly, there was a sustained finish for a few seconds that completed the deal; when we got near the bottom of the bottle, a significant amount of sediment was noticeable.

Thank you Burt for another stellar experience. We send you deep heartfelt love and all the best on your new journey.
Cheers,
Blake
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lovely Blake and again RIP to Burt and commiserations to the loss of you’re friend.

I opened a bottle of this in 2014 with great results and was surprised by the performance given the lowly designation in their portfolio (i had no idea of the vineyard composition). The bottle had perfect provenance being bought directly from the Williams Selyem library.

I suspect Chicago in January is not in your books, but i added a third Burt appreciation dinner if you have any interest in joining!

Clayton, it’s so neat that you and others are doing offline events to celebrate Burt with his wines. Please post notes of it here.

I m going to wear my Williams Selyem Olivet Lane Pinot to the gym all week… if I can find it!

Great idea Mel… My shirt disintegrated from wear and tear, but I do have the original WS cap which I’ll pull out and wear.

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Love the tributes and sharing all the notes of Burt’s wines. I can’t wait to open the ‘94 Hirsch in less than a week. Appreciate the insight on how to prepare for opening one of these aged gems Blake. Thank you so much!

This is an awesome thread. Plan to join the tribute this week! Better question for discussion. …

If Burt could produce these wines, with converted dairy equipment, using an old barn " the bat cave" , why cannot modern wineries in the RRR do the same? Or are there some who still do? It would be nice to see magnificent 12.5% pinots with a gentle kiss of oak come out of these hills again. Just wondering what the techniques used enabled WS to make essentially a village wine that could age 30 years. When these come up for auction, they are a silly good buy.

Burt and Ed weren’t the only people who started with used dairy tanks. I know Au Bon Climat did the same thing. They still have equipment they bought used.

A big thing now is modern versions of old fashioned basket presses. You see them all
over.

The hard part about making 12,5 Pinot would be getting grapes ripe at low sugars. Lots of people add Jesus units to Zinfandel but this might not work on Pinot

Thanks for sharing, Blake. A beautiful tribute indeed . .

Dennis, I do know that Jim Clendenen of ABC/ Clendenen Family Vineyards/ Ici la Bas is one whose Pinots tend to come in around 12.5% by design. Of course, Jim`s sources are mostly local and not Sonoma County although he does make an occasional Pinot from nearby Anderson Valley.

Hi Larry, thanks and all the best of the holiday season to you and yours. Let’s toast to not having to pay tribute to some of our dear friends for a while. Chris, Seth, Archie and Burt are enough for now.

I saw an article about tribute bands the other day and it made me think of this thread.
But most winemakers have their own ideas so there are no tribute wineries. For one thing, the originals can just keep planting more vines.

There are lots of spinoffs from WS, including :
Brogan…Burt s daughter
Woodenhead…Nick was Burt’s cellarmaster
Wesmar…Ed s daughter and hubby

I have to say that Williams Selyem has tried to maintain the course as much as possible.

Two unrelated wineries that try to keep the alcohols and acids in a more traditional balance are Calera and Au Bon Climat.

Although post humously, I’d add Seven Lions, Burt`s son Fred. Those wines are still really good and Burt credited Fred with having an incredible skill in locating ideal vineyard sites for planting great Pinot Noir.

I still have my Seven Lions hat. Fred’s boss was a piece of work. I wonder what happened to her.
The Barlow center, where now resides Kosta Browne, was originally an apple juice processing plant owned by her father.

Thx for the responses. I will have to sample some of the branch wineries off of the Burt tree. With European Pinot prices scheduled to go up to even more painful levels of cost, having alternative wines to try would be interesting. Many of the newer and more famous RRR wineries seem to have higher alcohol, more fruity driven profiles than I am happy with. Good cocktail wines but I doubt the aging potential.,.I would love to be proven wrong. Calera certainly is low alcohol, but they have never impressed me. Rhys is still the best contender to match the flavor profile I have craved (and neither of those wineries are close to RRR.

One high alcohol wine that has survived the longevity issue is the Whitcraft wines during Chriss tenure up to 08. I have many bottles and most are in the 15.5% range. Had an 02` recently and it was very good without heat and heaviness.

Hi son, Drake, has assumed a totally different profile and is making some really good wines purposely with low alcohol and avoiding overripe fruit which his father preferred. BTW, Chris and Drake were mentored by Burt.

Resurrecting this thread because I drank a 1986 Williams-Selyem Sonoma County Pinot Noir yesterday. The wine was similar in appearance to Blake’s, if anything a touch more saturated in hue, though hard to be sure from photos. The extremely complex nose showed a strong Summa presence, which makes sense given Blake’s observation about the blend: small red berries, coniferous forest floor, cinnamon and other spices. On the palate, beautifully balanced, with melting tannins and superb sapid nuance as well as plenty of fruit. Just a fabulous bottle that was very much at home next to a 1993 Charmes-Chambertin from Armand Rousseau.

Fabulous William. I`m salivating with your notes and the memory of the bottle I had. This post just cinched one of my brings to the SF Bay Burt Williams honoring event later this month. I’m so happy you had the experience as Jimmy Hendrix sang, “Are you experienced?” Yes, I am.

I was lucky enough to share that bottle with William and it was indeed fabulous.

Love it. Great to know you were in on that Steve.