RESERVE WINES
Williamson Reserve Collection
Old World discipline. California character.
Bordeaux gave us the principles. Our Napa and Sonoma vineyards gave us the wine.
Bordeaux: The Beginning of the Idea
Bordeaux has spent more than two thousand years learning what happens when grape variety, soil, climate and human judgment are brought together in the same bottle.
The region is divided by the Gironde estuary and the Garonne and Dordogne rivers into two distinct traditions. On the Left Bank, Cabernet Sauvignon generally provides the structure and backbone. On the Right Bank, Merlot more often takes the lead, bringing generosity, texture and earlier approachability.
The grapes may be familiar. What matters is how they are assembled.
The 1855 Classification
For the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, Emperor Napoleon III asked Bordeaux’s wine trade to identify its most prestigious estates.
The wines were ranked in five levels, known as Growths, or Crus. At the summit stood the Premier Crus—the First Growths.
In 1973, Château Mouton Rothschild was elevated from Second Growth to First Growth, joining the original four.
The Five First Growths
- Château Lafite Rothschild
- Château Latour
- Château Margaux
- Château Haut-Brion
- Château Mouton Rothschild
The classification matters because these estates did more than acquire famous names and handsome buildings. Over generations, they refined the art of blending—deciding which grape should lead, which should support and how the finished wine should develop at the table and in the cellar.
That was the part that interested us.
The Grand Experiment
During our visits to France, conversations with friends in the wine trade gave us an opportunity to study the blending philosophies behind the First Growth estates across many vintages.
We were not interested in copying Bordeaux. California is not France, and good wine should never pretend to come from somewhere else.
Instead, we wanted to understand the thinking: how Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec could be balanced to create structure, texture, complexity and length.
We then brought those lessons home and applied them to more than forty years of experience with exceptional fruit from our Napa and Sonoma vineyards.
The Old World supplied the discipline.
Northern California supplied the wine.
Six Reserve Wines
The exceptional 2014 vintage gave us the fruit—and the confidence—to begin.
From our finest barrels, we created six Reserve wines: four inspired by the Cabernet-led tradition of Bordeaux’s Left Bank and two by the Merlot-led wines of the Right Bank.
These were never intended to be California copies of French originals. Bordeaux provided the framework, but the vineyards determined the result.
Riper fruit, generous texture and the natural concentration of Northern California sit alongside the structure, balance and quiet opulence associated with properly aged Bordeaux.
Each wine has its own composition and personality, but all share the same purpose: to bring serious wine to the table without making the occasion feel like serious work.
Worthy of the Vineyard
Our philosophy is straightforward.
Begin with remarkable vineyards. Farm them carefully. Harvest by hand. Select without compromise. Allow the wine the time it needs, and interfere as little as possible.
We make every vintage to be worthy of the Northern California land that produced it—structured enough for the cellar, generous enough for dinner and always unmistakably Williamson.
Experience the Reserve Wines
Discover the blending traditions of Bordeaux expressed through exceptional vineyards in Napa and Sonoma.