Jeff Mangahas, Williams Selyem
Jeff Mangahas, Williams Selyem VP of Winemaking, is back on California Wine Country with Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell. The last time he was on the show was this episode in November 22, 2024. Dr. Damien Wilson is staying with us to, from the previous segment. He is the head of the Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute.
The first wine tasted is a 2024 Williams Selyem Chardonnay that says “Estate” on the label. Jeff explains that it comes from one of the four estate properties they own. This is the Drake Estate. They own the land and manage the farming. Then, they make the wine and label it as coming from that place. Dan considers it a fine-tuning exercise. They can do anything they want to without any other influences.
Eleven Vintages
Jeff Mangahas has been at Williams Selyem since 2016 so this is his eleventh vintage there. They harvested their last grapes today, September 18th. The founders of Williams Selyem winery set down a tradition that Jeff feels strongly about continuing.
Dan tells the story of how Burt Williams ran the presses for the San Francisco Chronicle by day and ran winery in his spare time. He and Ed Selyem started the project with a sense of style of Russian River Valley wines, before most other wineries were there.
The next tasting is the Louis MacGregor Estate Pinot Noir. It is outside Windsor on East Side Road. It gets the Russian River Valley coastal fog that slows down the ripening process and preserves the acidity. Dan says it has a more earthy and powerful character since it has more herbal notes and a little more power and richness. It is quite young, and Jeff says they need seven to ten years. Jeff explains that their wines are made for that kind of aging.
This wine is delicious right now, at two years. But Dan has wines like this that are 40 years old and still coming on.
After eleven years Jeff still feels that he is under the influence of Burt Williams who was a genius. You have to be very gentle with Pinot Noir, timing has to be perfect and it has to be handled with care. His approach was simple and he feels that he is continuing that style. He even practices ancient techniques of foot treading. Dan notes that Williams Selyem wines never suffer from tannins because of their gentle methods. They use stainless steel repurposed dairy tanks, which are wider and have open tops. “The philosophy was correct from the beginning,” says Jeff.
Jeff makes 25 different Pinot Noirs. Some are blends, but 19 are single site origins. It is a study in soils and in terroir. All of the gentle house methods were used on them, so the differences are due to the vineyards and the soil and terroir of the place.