Good friends from Laguna Beach, Steve and Jill Edwards, came to spend a few days with us this weekend. We were hoping to share our first harvest with them, but Mother Nature is taking her sweet time ripening our grapes to perfection. What we did get to share was a private tasting at one of our favorite wineries, Williams Selyem.
We'd first tasted their beautiful wine in October 2002 at the historic Heritage House on the Mendocino Coast, where we stayed after a motorcycle ride through Sonoma County, when the thought of growing grapes wasn't even a twinkle in our eyes. Williams Selyem, which Clay had heard of but never tried, was on the 137-year-old resort's very deep wine list. We decided upon their famous Rochioli Riverblock Vineyard Pinot Noir, a single-vineyard designate that helped to establish the Russian River Valley as a significant winegrowing region. Of course, we were hooked at first sip.
Now, many years later, we are fortunate to be members of the WS List. They can now accommodate their members with private tastings and tours in their beautiful new facilities, so we invited Steve and Jill to join us. Our host, Greg, offered us a number of selections for us to choose from, even offering some bottles that were not normally included in the tasting program. That was followed by a tour of the buildings and grounds, including a stop in the impressive barrel room.
Of course, we could not leave without bringing along some of our favorite selections, including their 2011 Vista Verde Vineyard Pinot Noir and the some of the last few bottles of 2006 Rochioli Riverblock Vineyard Pinot Noir.
We opened a bottle of the Rochioli with a beautiful roasted-chicken-with-clementines recipe from the popular cookbook, Jerusalem: A Cookbook
Thanks so much to Williams Selyem and their excellent staff for helping to make our friends’ visit to Sonoma County a weekend to remember.
