Vines at Villa Sorriso, the Pontet-Canet owner's new estate in Mount Veeder AVA, Napa Valley.
Vines at Villa Sorriso, the newly acquired Pontet-Canet owner's new estate in Mount Veeder AVA, Napa Valley.
(Image credit: Joyce Rey (estate agent))

The Tesseron family will honour the wine legacy of late Robin Williams after buying his former wine estate in Napa Valley - by keeping the vineyard name created by the actor nearly three decades ago. And it also wants to go biodynamic in California...

The Mount Veeder estate bought by the Tesseron family of Château Pontet-Canet in Bordeaux is to bottle its Napa wine under the name Pym-Rae.

This is the name given to the vineyard part of the Tesseron’s Villa Sorriso property by the previous owner, the late actor Robin Williams.

Williams planted the vineyard on the estate over 26 years ago, and chose the name by combining both middle names of his first two children.

The Tesserons revealed the name in a Christmas card sent out from Bordeaux, and noted that, ‘in keeping with the tradition of not changing the original name (of our estates), we are pleased to announce that our wine will therefore be called Pym-Rae’.

Justine Tesseron told Decanter.com this week that the family was ‘concentrating on getting to know the terroir’.

She added, ‘We hope to be certified in biodynamic in three years, and have already begun the process.’

The family is one of the main proponents of biodynamics in Bordeaux.

Villa Sorriso is located on the west side of the Napa Valley, in the Mayacamas mountains, with a total surface of 259 hectares and 7.3 hectares of vines planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

Alfred and Melanie Tesseron, along with their technical director Jean-Michel Comme, are currently introducing biodynamic farming to the vineyard, following their long-term adaption of this approach in Bordeaux.

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Jane Anson
Jane Anson

Jane Anson was Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent until 2021 and has lived in the region since 2003. She writes a monthly wine column for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, and is the author of Bordeaux Legends: The 1855 First Growth Wines (also published in French as Elixirs). In addition, she has contributed to the Michelin guide to the Wine Regions of France and was the Bordeaux and Southwest France author of The Wine Opus and 1000 Great Wines That Won’t Cost a Fortune. An accredited wine teacher at the Bordeaux École du Vin, Anson holds a masters in publishing from University College London, and a tasting diploma from the Bordeaux faculty of oenology.

Roederer awards 2016: International Feature Writer of the Year