Williams Selyem Flax Vineyard Pinot Noir 2003
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Looking more like a Syrah than Pinot Noir, the 2003 Flax Vineyard boasts a gorgeous bouquet of black raspberries, blackberries, and sweet cassis. Rich and full-bodied on the palate, with high extract, tangy acidity, firm tannin, and an inky style, it requires 1-2 years of bottle age, and should keep for a decade. Rating: 91+
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a big, full-bodied wine, huge in fruit, yet it has the silky elegance that Pinot needs. It’s bone dry, with adequate acidity and a young, unresolved mouthfeel. There’s a tremendous core of baked cherry pie fruit, drizzled with cinnamon and vanilla. Cellar this puppy for a couple years, or decant for up to 24 hours now.
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Williams Selyem Winery began as a simple dream of two friends, Ed Selyem and Burt Williams, who pursued weekend winemaking as a hobby in 1979 in a garage in Forestville, California, and made their first commercial vintage in 1981. In less than two decades, Burt and Ed created a cult-status winery of international acclaim. Together they set a new standard for Pinot Noir winemaking in the United States, aligning Sonoma County's Russian River Valley in the firmament of the best winegrowing regions of the world. Today John and Kathe Dyson, who purchased the winery from Burt and Ed in 1998, carry on the passion for Pinot Noir winemaking without compromise. As for the wines... they just keep getting better and better.
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.