Founded in 1979 by amateur winemakers Burt Williams and Ed Selyem in Forestville, Williams Selyem became the most coveted Pinot Noir mailing list by the mid-1990s. Sold to John Dyson in 1998, it moved to a Westside Road estate in 2010. Jeff Mangahas has led the cellar since 2011.
Williams Selyem began as a hobby in 1979 when two friends, Burt Williams (a typesetter at the San Francisco Newspaper Agency) and Ed Selyem (a clerk at a Forestville liquor store), made their first commercial Pinot Noir in a small garage in Forestville. Operating under the name Hacienda del Rio (later changed to Williams Selyem in 1984), they sourced from the best vineyards in the Russian River — Rochioli, Allen, Olivet Lane, Hirsch — and made wine in tiny lots with whole-cluster fermentation, native yeasts, no fining or filtration. The wines won critical acclaim, and the mailing list became famously hard to crack; by the early 1990s Williams Selyem had a multi-year waiting list and was widely regarded as the benchmark for American Pinot Noir.
Russian River Valley Pinot Noir — The flagship appellation blend and the ideal introduction to the house style.
Allen Vineyard Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley — First released in 1988; silky and red-fruited, one of the longest-standing bottlings.
Rochioli Riverblock Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley — Darker and brooding, from the legendary vineyard whose 1985 bottling made the winery famous.
Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir — A prized blend of top Russian River sites along Westside Road.
Russian River Valley Zinfandel — An old-vine, single-vineyard Zin nodding to Burt Williams's early garage experiments.
In 1998 Burt and Ed sold the winery to New York investor John Dyson, owner of Millbrook Vineyards and the Williams Selyem Vineyard property they had been seeking to buy. Dyson built a new estate winery and visitor center on Westside Road that opened in 2010 — a striking modern facility tucked into a vineyard slope across the road from Rochioli. Bob Cabral served as winemaker from 1998 to 2011 before passing the role to Jeff Mangahas, a Cornell-trained microbiologist who had been Cabral's associate. The portfolio still focuses on single-vineyard Pinot Noir from a roster of grower partnerships across Russian River, Sonoma Coast, and Anderson Valley, along with Zinfandel and Chardonnay. Visits are by appointment for allocation list members and a small number of public seatings.
Jeff Mangahas came to wine from science. Raised in Washington State, he earned a degree in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Washington and worked as a biomedical research scientist in Seattle and at Princeton before a growing fascination with wine led him to a master's in enology at UC Davis. He began his winemaking career as assistant winemaker under Dan Goldfield at Dutton-Goldfield, then became winemaker at Hartford Family Winery in 2006. He joined the cult Russian River Valley producer Williams Selyem in 2011, working alongside Bob Cabral, and took over as winemaker in 2014. He now leads winemaking and viticulture across the winery's estate and grower-sourced vineyards, continuing the small-lot, terroir-driven Pinot Noir and Chardonnay tradition that founders Burt Williams and Ed Selyem began.
When founders Burt Williams and Ed Selyem decided to sell their cult Pinot label in 1998, they hand-picked John and Kathe Dyson — longtime customers already devoted to the wines — as their successors. Kathe’s first sip of Williams Selyem, at a Highlands Inn tasting, had made her an instant convert. John, a pioneering viticulturist whose Smart-Dyson trellis system is used worldwide, has guided the winery for more than 25 years — “I have never worked so hard to change nothing in my life,” he once said. The Dysons retain a stake and leadership even after Burgundy’s Faiveley family acquired a majority in 2024.
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Russian River Valley Pinot Noir — The flagship appellation blend and the ideal introduction to the house style.
Allen Vineyard Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley — First released in 1988; silky and red-fruited, one of the longest-standing bottlings.
Rochioli Riverblock Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley — Darker and brooding, from the legendary vineyard whose 1985 bottling made the winery famous.
Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir — A prized blend of top Russian River sites along Westside Road.
Russian River Valley Zinfandel — An old-vine, single-vineyard Zin nodding to Burt Williams's early garage experiments.
Williams Selyem began as a hobby in 1979 when two friends, Burt Williams (a typesetter at the San Francisco Newspaper Agency) and Ed Selyem (a clerk at a Forestville liquor store), made their first commercial Pinot Noir in a small garage in Forestville. Operating under the name Hacienda del Rio (later changed to Williams Selyem in 1984), they sourced from the best vineyards in the Russian River — Rochioli, Allen, Olivet Lane, Hirsch — and made wine in tiny lots with whole-cluster fermentation, native yeasts, no fining or filtration. The wines won critical acclaim, and the mailing list became famously hard to crack; by the early 1990s Williams Selyem had a multi-year waiting list and was widely regarded as the benchmark for American Pinot Noir.
In 1998 Burt and Ed sold the winery to New York investor John Dyson, owner of Millbrook Vineyards and the Williams Selyem Vineyard property they had been seeking to buy. Dyson built a new estate winery and visitor center on Westside Road that opened in 2010 — a striking modern facility tucked into a vineyard slope across the road from Rochioli. Bob Cabral served as winemaker from 1998 to 2011 before passing the role to Jeff Mangahas, a Cornell-trained microbiologist who had been Cabral's associate. The portfolio still focuses on single-vineyard Pinot Noir from a roster of grower partnerships across Russian River, Sonoma Coast, and Anderson Valley, along with Zinfandel and Chardonnay. Visits are by appointment for allocation list members and a small number of public seatings.
Jeff Mangahas came to wine from science. Raised in Washington State, he earned a degree in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Washington and worked as a biomedical research scientist in Seattle and at Princeton before a growing fascination with wine led him to a master's in enology at UC Davis. He began his winemaking career as assistant winemaker under Dan Goldfield at Dutton-Goldfield, then became winemaker at Hartford Family Winery in 2006. He joined the cult Russian River Valley producer Williams Selyem in 2011, working alongside Bob Cabral, and took over as winemaker in 2014. He now leads winemaking and viticulture across the winery's estate and grower-sourced vineyards, continuing the small-lot, terroir-driven Pinot Noir and Chardonnay tradition that founders Burt Williams and Ed Selyem began.
When founders Burt Williams and Ed Selyem decided to sell their cult Pinot label in 1998, they hand-picked John and Kathe Dyson — longtime customers already devoted to the wines — as their successors. Kathe’s first sip of Williams Selyem, at a Highlands Inn tasting, had made her an instant convert. John, a pioneering viticulturist whose Smart-Dyson trellis system is used worldwide, has guided the winery for more than 25 years — “I have never worked so hard to change nothing in my life,” he once said. The Dysons retain a stake and leadership even after Burgundy’s Faiveley family acquired a majority in 2024.
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