An Unintended Cohort
Growers, Protégés, and Fellow Pinotphiles
Williams Selyem never set out to define a movement, but our influence is widely felt. Many respected American winemakers have passed through our cellar to learn our distinctive, sometimes unorthodox methods, and that mentoring continues each harvest.
I would put Burt Williams in the top three folks who have shaped my thinking concerning wine.
His vineyard work was underappreciated. He set the stage for workers and growers to work together. He showed the value of specific sites. He picked up American Pinot Noir by the bootstraps and raised it up.
Williams Selyem’s Summa and Rochioli Pinot Noir, those wines stood up. They were a personal inspiration for me.
The Williams Selyem partnership model inspired me when we started Brewer-Clifton with $12,000. We followed the model in every detail.
The 1991 Williams Selyem Allen Vineyard Pinot Noir was a badass wine. It blew my head off and was a life-altering experience. I wanted to make wine that good.
Burt was my mentor and showed me the way for California Pinot Noir before California knew what Pinot Noir could do or knew what was possible.
Growers
Neighbors,
Colleagues,
and Friends
From the beginning, old-school Sonoma growers took Burt and Ed under their wings, sharing fruit, advice, and a handshake level of trust. In turn, Williams Selyem helped put names like Rochioli, Allen, Hirsch, and Saitone into the vocabulary of collectors, proving just how much character those sites could carry into the glass. That grower-first ethos continues today. Jeff Mangahas spends much of his time out in the field, and counts many of these farmers among his closest friends.
Meet the Growers and Farmers
Allen Vineyard
Russian River Valley
Bacigalupi Vineyard
Russian River Valley
Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard
Napa Valley
Belloni Vineyard
Russian River Valley
Bucher Vineyard
Russian River Valley
Calegari Vineyard
Russian River Valley
List Members
Our Extended Family
Whether you joined last month or in 1987, you’re part of a community that believes that old-world winemaking techniques, heritage vines, and small family farms are worth protecting. Many List members have stayed with us for decades, even passing allocations on to their children, and most can recite vineyard names and vintages as though they were sports teams. So, thank you: Your curiosity and loyalty keep us honest in the cellar and committed in the vineyard.
We thought we would start just a little home wine production one day in the kitchen at Williams’ house over a glass of wine.
Mentorship
Sharing
Winemaking
Wisdom
Each harvest, Williams Selyem opens its cellar to a small number of aspiring winemakers for something closer to a master class than an internship. Working alongside Jeff Mangahas, they learn the hands-on methods that have defined this winery since the beginning: foot-treading, whole-cluster fermentations, and an obsessive attention to what each vineyard needs. Alumni include Ross Cobb of Cobb Wines and Anthony Filberti of Anthill Farms, among other respected names who have carried those lessons into celebrated cellars of their own.
It might not be too much to say that Williams Selyem is the mothership to the new guerrilla winemakers who practice the same kind of winemaking pioneered by Burt and Ed.