1990 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Allen Vineyard
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Tasting notes
(13.2% alcohol; 50% new oak beginning with this vintage; 3.54 pH): Palish red-amber; more lucid than the '89. Less floral and high-pitched than the '89 version, but still showing some remaining red fruits on the nose, along with hints of underbrush and loam. Then fresher and more precise on the palate than the '89, with rose petal, spice and saline mineral flavors dominating. This sappy, acid-driven wine finishes with ripe tannins, little in the way of greenness and excellent savory length.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 1990 Pinot Noir-Allen Vineyard displays a huge, black-cherry, spicy oak, floral-scented nose, rich, medium-bodied flavors that exhibit more structure and tannin than the Olivet cuvee, and a luscious finish. This winery receives considerable praise (justifiably so) for their stylish, immensely flavorful and complex Cotes de Beaune-styled Pinot Noirs. They are obviously aware of how fragile Pinot Noir is because Williams-Selyem is one of only a handful of American wineries to capture the elusive Pinot Noir perfume without stripping the wine with multiple manipulations and clarifications.
About the producer
Williams Selyem is an iconic Russian River Valley winery best known for its Pinot Noir. Producing restrained yet classically Californian expressions of the heartbreak grape (as well as a host of other wines), the property has gone from pioneer to one of the region’s standard-bearers.