2011 Allen Vineyard Pinot Noir
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Tasting notes
(14.1% alcohol; this is the first vintage that was required to state "Sonoma County" on the label--in addition to "Russian River Valley"): Aromas of fruit cocktail, spicy oak, coffee and peppery stems. Concentrated, sappy wine in a cooler style, with slightly medicinal flavors of cherry, cola and gravelly minerals. Not especially fleshy or pliant but savory and youthful, conveying some sexy non-fruit elements. This will never be voluminous but has the intensity and sappiness to evolve slowly. From a year with a poor flowering and a later harvest during the second week of September.
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Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Dried cherries, crushed flowers, pipe tobacco and earthiness all lift from the glass in the 2011 Pinot Noir Allen Vineyard. This is another forward, soft wine that promises to drink well early. I would not tempt fate by waiting too long here.
Bright ruby. Black raspberry, cherry-cola and fresh flowers on the highly perfumed nose. Fleshy, nicely concentrated red fruit preserve flavors are braced by gentle acidity and complicated by a candied floral quality. Becomes weightier in the glass while maintaining its vibrancy, finishing sweet and long, with persistent florality. Very sexy already but this pinot is balanced to reward at least mid-term aging.
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.