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Open By appointment
Appt required? Yes
Last barlinwine.com visit: 2010
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Tasting:
The garage winemaking business certainly seems to have turned a pretty profit.
Back in the early 1980s, Burt Williams and Ed Selyem began making wine out of their garage. 30 years later, Williams Selyem stands as one of the premier producers of Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay in Sonoma County. It's been a dozen years since Burt and Ed have been involved with Williams Selyem (the business was sold to the Dyson family in 1998), but the winery retains their names, allocation list business model (they were one of the first to distribute their wines this way), and their stable of excellent grapes and well-produced wines.
Williams Selyem is an allocation list-only winery. What does this mean? It's like a wine club, but with restrictions. WS produces around 14,000 cases per year, and they sell 95% of it to their allocation list of 10,000 fortunate souls. There's a list just to get on their list. Some might call it exclusive; others (my wife) might call it snooty. Either way, they make some damn fine wine.
So why build a multi-million dollar tasting room
if you have a waiting list of people just to get on the list that gives you the privilege of buying their wine? I'm not sure and unfortunately didn't ask the question. Regardless, as a list member we had the opportunity to tour and taste at their new facility. Opened in July 2010, after three years of construction, the facility is set back off of Westside Road. The sleek, modern, barrel-like design screams opulence, wine, and "come in and taste from me". So we did.
Our tasting at Williams Selyem consisted of their 2008 Chenin Blanc, something they just started producing as a lighter complement to their buttery chardonnays. We followed that with a taste of 1995 Allen Vineyard Pinot Noir, which was outstanding. The single vineyard Pinots always stand out at WS, and the age on this served notice that a solid 5-7 years of bottle aging on single vineyards is in order. Following the Allen, we had a taste of the 2007 Westside Road Neighbors, a blend of grapes from some of the premier vineyards at Williams Selyem. We closed with a taste of the 2008 Russian Rivver Valley Block 10, a coarse (but tasty) contrast to the prior Pinots.
While we enjoyed our final glass, our hostess took us on a quick tour of the facility. The new WS building will be used for barreling and bottling, while all crushing and fermentation will continue at their original facility just north on Westside Road. We were able to see the barrels housing gallons of delicious wine, the blending tanks, and the bottling line in our brief behind-the-scenes tour. We closed out with an invitation to stroll the grounds and take pictures as we wished.
Overall, it's a bit harder to rate tasting at Williams Selyem. The facility is beautiful and massive, but our tasting was private, and I felt like we were sneaking into a billionaire's home while he was away on vacation. The chance to try the 1995 Allen Vineyard Pinot was definitely worth the trip, as was the opportunity to check out the new facility. There are rumors that they may open the tasting room up to non-list members, but until that happens, it's a large, pricey facility that will largely sit mostly empty of life, waiting for a list member in the area to happen by.
The garage winemaking business certainly seems to have turned a pretty profit.
Back in the early 1980s, Burt Williams and Ed Selyem began making wine out of their garage. 30 years later, Williams Selyem stands as one of the premier producers of Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay in Sonoma County. It's been a dozen years since Burt and Ed have been involved with Williams Selyem (the business was sold to the Dyson family in 1998), but the winery retains their names, allocation list business model (they were one of the first to distribute their wines this way), and their stable of excellent grapes and well-produced wines.
Williams Selyem is an allocation list-only winery. What does this mean? It's like a wine club, but with restrictions. WS produces around 14,000 cases per year, and they sell 95% of it to their allocation list of 10,000 fortunate souls. There's a list just to get on their list. Some might call it exclusive; others (my wife) might call it snooty. Either way, they make some damn fine wine.
So why build a multi-million dollar tasting room
if you have a waiting list of people just to get on the list that gives you the privilege of buying their wine? I'm not sure and unfortunately didn't ask the question. Regardless, as a list member we had the opportunity to tour and taste at their new facility. Opened in July 2010, after three years of construction, the facility is set back off of Westside Road. The sleek, modern, barrel-like design screams opulence, wine, and "come in and taste from me". So we did.Our tasting at Williams Selyem consisted of their 2008 Chenin Blanc, something they just started producing as a lighter complement to their buttery chardonnays. We followed that with a taste of 1995 Allen Vineyard Pinot Noir, which was outstanding. The single vineyard Pinots always stand out at WS, and the age on this served notice that a solid 5-7 years of bottle aging on single vineyards is in order. Following the Allen, we had a taste of the 2007 Westside Road Neighbors, a blend of grapes from some of the premier vineyards at Williams Selyem. We closed with a taste of the 2008 Russian Rivver Valley Block 10, a coarse (but tasty) contrast to the prior Pinots.
While we enjoyed our final glass, our hostess took us on a quick tour of the facility. The new WS building will be used for barreling and bottling, while all crushing and fermentation will continue at their original facility just north on Westside Road. We were able to see the barrels housing gallons of delicious wine, the blending tanks, and the bottling line in our brief behind-the-scenes tour. We closed out with an invitation to stroll the grounds and take pictures as we wished.Overall, it's a bit harder to rate tasting at Williams Selyem. The facility is beautiful and massive, but our tasting was private, and I felt like we were sneaking into a billionaire's home while he was away on vacation. The chance to try the 1995 Allen Vineyard Pinot was definitely worth the trip, as was the opportunity to check out the new facility. There are rumors that they may open the tasting room up to non-list members, but until that happens, it's a large, pricey facility that will largely sit mostly empty of life, waiting for a list member in the area to happen by.
Recommended wine: If you can get your hands on them, the single vineyard Pinot Noirs from Williams Selyem are all outstanding.
Click for more pictures!
Ratings (out of 5):
 WINE | 4.50 |  TASTING ROOM | 5.00 |
 ATMOSPHERE | 4.50 |  VALUE | 3.75 |
 OVERALL | 4.44 | ||
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