Jeff Mangahas, Director of Winemaking, Williams Selyem

California Wine Country

Jeff Mangahas

Jeff Mangahas, winemaker, actually VP Director of Winemaking at Williams Selyem, joins Steve Jaxon in the studio for California Wine Country. Dan Berger is away today. His last time on this show was this episode of October 6, 2021.

Williams Selyem is one of the most illustrious wineries in Sonoma County. This year will be their 44th vintage, specializing in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The partners, Burt Williams and Ed Selyem started the winery in a garage in the town of Fulton.*

They made a Pinot Noir in 1985 from grapes grown on the Rocchioli vineyard, and that won awards and recognition. It also started to put Russian River Valley on the map for Pinot Noir. They still source from Rocchioli, but they make 25 different Pinot Noirs, all different.

Joe Castro is also in the studio, staying over from the previous segment, where he brought some victuals from his restaurant, The Bird.

They taste the 2022 Heintz Vineyard Chardonnay. The vineyard is located at the top of the hill, above the town of Occidental, in western Sonoma County. It is a young wine and is pretty good now, but will do very well with 5 to 7 years of aging.

Jeff started his professional career as a scientist with a degree in Molecular Biology, then worked in medical research. Wine started as a hobby and became a second career. He got a Master’s degree at UC Davis then got some jobs with some great producers in Sonoma County including Dan Goldberg, from 2001 to 2005. In 2006 he became the winemaker at Hartford family winery and that led to the next step at Williams Selyem in 2011. He started working there with Bob Cabral, and he later took the reins himself. This year will be his 24th vintage in the Russian River Valley.

“I live a dream… making these historic wines from this historic brand. (…) It’s an honor to make these wines.”

* Fulton, the gateway to Windsor.