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WINEMAKING Technical Review New facility improves workflow at Williams Selyem Winery By Jim Gordon The new Williams Selyem Winery building uses architecture to achieve winemaking goals such as creating Pinot Noir without pumping. year. The 33,000-square-foot structure, half a mile down Westside Road from its leased crushing and fermenting location, now houses all barrel fermenting, aging, bottling and administrative functions in addition to welcoming wine club members for tastings, tours and special events. W The new home was a long time coming for the 30-year-old Pinot Noir specialist founded by Burt Williams and Ed Selyem (pronounced cell-yem) in a two-car garage, and owned since 1998 by John and Kathe Dyson. The winery occupies the same property where about half of Williams Selyem's 64 acres of estate vines grow. Grape processing, fermenting, pressing of red wines and processing of grapes for white wines will continue at the old winemaking location on the Allen 40 Wines & Vines JUne 2011 illiams Selyem Winery in the Russian River Valley of California completed construction for a spectac- ular new winemaking and hospitality facility late last Highlights • One Russian River Pinot Noir specialist near Healdsburg, Calif., has opened a new, environmentally sensitive winery. • For the first time in 30 years, the winery's barrel cellars, bottling, administrative and hospitality functions are in one place. • The article describes the new winery construction—including equipment and supplies used—and the improved production flow. change the well-established protocols for producing unfiltered, unfined, unpumped Pinot Noir and small quantities of Char- donnay and Zinfandel, rather it adds much more space to improve the work- flow and up-to-the minute technology to baby the wine even more. In terms of architecture, the new winery has a tall, two-story front section made of structural steel, wood framing and glass, decorated with salvaged and re- milled old-growth redwood from the old Almaden winery in Cienega Valley, Calif. Visitors enter here and walk into the open, high-ceilinged reception area with tasting bar. Administrative and marketing employees look down into the reception area from their mezzanine-level offices. Ranch, where one of the many Williams Selyem vineyard-designated Pinots grows. For director of winemaking Bob Cabral, the new facility does not so much Important for wine club The facility's importance for entertaining wine list members is clear, especially since Williams Selyem is one of the rare wineries of its size (15,500 cases annually) that sells 95% of its wines direct to consumers. A Home of Their Own