Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019 - 47

Top 100 Wineries

JEFF
MANGAHAS

Williams Selyem
CALIFORNIA | SONOMA COUNTY
Classic California pinot noir, from Russian River
richness to more delicate far-coast elegance.

FOUNDED :

1981

OWNER/
VITICULTURIST:

John Dyson
WINEMAKER:

Jeff Mangahas
ACRES OWNED:

160 (98 planted)
CASES PRODUCED:

24,000
ESTATE GROWN:

50%

"I'M THANKFUL THAT I still get to taste with Burt Williams,"
says Jeff Mangahas, speaking of the founding winemaker at
Williams Selyem. "He liked oak; the wines were rich. You
taste the wines 20 years later and they're brilliant." Williams got his start making zinfandel in 1979 with his friend
Ed Selyem. The two turned their tinkering into a business in
1981, creating the Williams Selyem label in 1984 and becoming early explorers of pinot noir from western Sonoma.
After they turned over a thriving business to John and Kathe
Dyson in 1998, Burt Williams purchased a 40-acre ranch in
Philo, where he planted 13 acres of pinot noir. The hillside
planting, at an elevation of 600 feet, faces north and northeast, a cool exposition for grapes further cooled by proximity
to the coast. Mangahas, who now makes the wine at Williams
Selyem, used those grapes to produce one of the most delicately beautiful pinot noirs of the 2016 vintage. As it turns
out, 2016 will be the last Morning Dew Ranch Pinot Noir
from Williams Selyem, since Williams sold the property later
that year. Yet, as just one of 42 wines Mangahas makes each
vintage, the loss of the vineyard is most notable as a marker
in the history of Williams Selyem, the latest since Mangahas
came on board in 2011. A molecular biologist and medicalresearch scientist, Mangahas headed to UC Davis hoping to
understand what makes wine taste the way it does. Coastal
pinot noir soon attracted him, which eventually led him
down the path established by Burt Williams. While the wine-

making here is consistent across the board to emphasize
site differences, it is also artisanal, the grapes trod by
foot, the juice moved without pumps, the wine bottled
without filtration. It's always fascinating to taste through
the new vintage and explore how so many pinot noirs can
taste not only different, but also delicious. -J.G.
2016 Anderson Valley Burt Williams Morning Dew Ranch
Pinot Noir ($85, 95 points) Mangahas worked closely with
Williams to cherry-pick the blocks he wanted for this wine; in
2016, he harvested parcels of clones 115 and 777, plus two
parcels based on selections from Domaine de la RomanéeConti and Rochioli, and also a Swiss Wadenswil clone 23.
"They are as black as night," Mangahas says of the gangly,
late-ripening Wadenswil clusters, "with thick skins and high
acid." Those varied fruits layer into a fragrant, elegant pinot
noir with scents of cherry blossoms, its darker tones of spring
mushrooms, moss and conifer forests washing over the tart
red-berry flavors.
2016 Russian River Valley Eastside Road Neighbors
Pinot Noir ($59, 94 points) Jeff Mangahas blends this from a
range of vineyards. It defines plump Russian River Valley pinot
noir in its fresh black-cherry sweetness, dark plum savor and
supple richness. That texture drives the pleasure in the wine,
integrating flecks of light with darker riches into a silken feel.
2016 Yorkville Highlands Weir Vineyard Pinot Noir ($62,
94 points) The Williams Selyem team farms 6.5 acres at Bill
and Suki Weir's vineyard in the Yorkville Highlands. The vineyard dates to 1991, and includes plant material sourced from
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti as well as Wadenswil 2A. The
2016 is muscular at first, compressed into layers of dark, precise tannic detail, the flavor hinting at the skins of black cherries and the juice of small, red forest berries. The flavors are
dynamic, spreading to include herbal notes of raspberry leaf
and tobacco, always coming back to that earthy, compellingly
drinkable fruit.
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