WesMar (4.38)




Open Contact for information

Appt required? Yes. There really isn't a traditional tasting room here!

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2014

Directions:


View Sonoma in a larger map or Get Directions

Tasting:
Early in 2010, Williams Selyem received a rare honor: a 100-point score for their 2007 Litton Springs Pinot Noir. While the winery typically doesn't flaunt their traditionally high scores, 100 is a special honor, and they sent the article out to their allocation members in a rare moment of braggadocio. So if this review is for WesMar, why am I writing about Williams Selyem? Because that article is how I first came to learn about WesMar Winery.

WesMar was started in 2000 by Kirk Hubbard and Denise Selyem (daughter of the eponymous Ed Selyem of Williams Selyem). In the aforementioned article, I couldn't help but notice that out of the top 15 Pinot Noirs, almost every spot not held by Williams Selyem was held by a WesMar wine, and all were rated between 92 and 95 points. I looked up the WesMar website, and inquired about ordering wine (you can't order from the site, only from a printable order form that they email to you). I decided I'd do what I never do: order a case based purely on ratings. Unless the article was written by a devious Ed Selyem and he and his daughter were playing me for one big rube, I figured there was a decent chance the wine would be pretty good. One high rating can be an aberration, but 6 wines in the mid-90s usually means the winery is onto something.

My gamble paid off. WesMar Pinot Noirs are classic in the Sonoma style -- light-bodied and fruit-forward -- but there's an extra layer of structure to these wines that make them better than much of what they compete against. Couple that with a reasonable price-to-quality ratio (almost all are under $40), and I was a fan. So when my wife and I were planning a trip to the area, I exchanged emails with Kirk to find out if they ever did any kind of tasting, or if they even had a facility that could host such a thing. He said they could accommodate us, warned they might put us to work while we were there since our visit could fall right in the middle of crush, and we set a date.

WesMar has a wine production facility in a warehouse complex along Gravenstein Highway in Sonoma. We found the address, located the building by number (and with a little help from a few well-placed crates outside), and walked in.

Although this wasn't a fancy tasting room, they still had the omnipresent winery dog, this time a friendly but skittish great dane mix that they had recently rescued named Zoey. Denise greeted us just after Zoey and we followed her past the forklift to the back of the warehouse, where an upright shell of a wine barrel holding 3 bottles waited. Denise had opened their 3 best, single vineyard Pinot Noirs for us to sample. As we started on our first taste, we struck up an easy conversation with our hostess, learning about how the winery started, the challenges of being a small producer, and sharing information about our lives. There was an easy familiarity to the whole thing -- this was a woman who was genuinely interested in us, was passionate about her craft, and was happy to have found people who appreciated it.

We tried the Balletto Vineyard Pinot Noir, the Oehlman Vineyard Pinot Noir, and the Hellenthal Vineyard Pinot Noir. All were excellent, but our personal favorite was the Oehlman (interestingly, the lowest rated of the 3 by the Wine Enthusiast article -- more reason why I rarely rely on ratings). We said farewell, promised to send the pictures I took of Zoey once we got back, and left happy. As I said to Steph on the way out, "Isn't that the type of place you'd like to give your money to?", and she wholeheartedly agreed.

We had a great tasting experience at WesMar, and I would readily recommend their wine to anyone. Since there really isn't a tasting room, visiting the production facility is less about tasting than it is about meeting the people behind the wine. Try the wine, and if you like it, see if they're around for a quick chat and a taste. You won't be disappointed.

Recommended wine: I really appreciate all of the single vineyard Pinot Noirs. The Oehlman is my personal favorite (and Denise's, for what it's worth!)


Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
4.50
TASTING ROOM
3.00

ATMOSPHERE
5.00
VALUE
5.00

OVERALL
4.38

No comments:

Post a Comment