Grand Yorkville Highlands Pinot Noir - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Wine of the Week

Grand Yorkville Highlands Pinot Noir

by Joshua Greene • April 6, 2020

Williams Selyem’s winery in Healdsburg.

There isn’t a lot of pinot noir in the hills south of the Anderson Valley. And pinot wasn’t the most likely variety for Bill and Suki Weir to plant when they bought a parcel of rocky grazing land there, near the headwaters of the Navarro River, in 1987. A lawyer by trade, Bill studied viticulture, then, after a trip to Burgundy, he sourced plant material from Mount Eden, which traces its cuttings back to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti; he used it, along with the Wädenswil clone, to plant his first 7.5 acres, in 1992. By 1998, he had convinced Burt Williams to buy some of his fruit and Williams Selyem has been making Weir Vineyard Pinot Noir ever since. It is among the most distinctive and, often, the most beautiful of Williams Selyem’s range. This 2017 has the grandeur of an American grand cru: It speaks of mountain forests and coastal desert cold. There’s brightness to its scent of roses, and sumptuous richness to its texture, knitting the wine’s dark fruit and energy together in a flavor that lasts for minutes.

96

Williams Selyem 2017 Yorkville Highlands Weir Vineyard Pinot Noir

$65

Where To Buy

Every week, our editors highlight a wine that intrigued them in our blind panel tastings, expanding on their tasting note in this space. These are entirely editorial choices; there are no paid placements. Subscribers can also access the original tasting note by searching here.

Joshua Greene

Joshua Greene is the editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits magazine.

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TAGS Anderson Valley Pinot Noir

David Paradela
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David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

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After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.