Okay, so maybe the wine wasn't worth that much, but the new cellaring and admin facility for the wonderful Williams Selyem winery is. And being treated to a barrel tasting of their pinot noir, I felt a little like a millionaire myself. The assistant wine maker, Phil McGahan, is an Australian hailing from a small town in my own state of Queensland. He gained a degree in wine making in Australia and earned his spurs in the Hunter Valley outside Sydney before coming to Sonoma to join Williams Selyem. He works with wine maker Bob Cabral who has shot to prominence for his fabulous reds. Phil is both your typically laconic Aussie bloke with an added frisson of relentless energy and I wanted to capture this dichotomy, relying on a little shutter drag while he was pouring some pinot from the barrels in the new WS facility. It was a privileged peek behind the scenes at a label that has produced wines for White House dinners in addition to its own select wine club members.
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