Burt Williams began Williams Selyem winery in a garage in Forestville in 1981 and followed that legacy with growing grapes at Mountain Dew Ranch Vineyard in the Anderson Valley.
After selling Williams Selyem to John and Kathe Dyson in 1998, Burt purchased the 40-acre ranch in Anderson Valley, just north of Philo, and immediately planted 13 acres of Pinot Noir. It was, in many ways, the same instinct that started everything: find the right ground, do the work, see what the site can carry.
Morning Dew sits on a relatively high-elevation, southeast-facing hillside in the cool northern end of the Anderson Valley. The clonal selections are a careful mix — Pommard, Dijon 115 and 777, a Rochioli Vineyard Pinot Noir selection, and an old DRC suitcase clone. The fruit shows aromas of cherry and wild berries, with full lush tannins and the vibrant acidity that defines Pinot Noir from this cooler end of the valley.
Williams Selyem’s first single-vineyard Pinot Noir from Morning Dew Ranch was 2010. Burt sold the vineyard in 2016, which marked our final vintage from this site. For those harvests, Morning Dew offered something no other vineyard in the portfolio could: fruit grown by the man who built Williams Selyem, on ground he chose himself.
