Winemaker Notes
A brilliant ruby in the glass, the 2022 Pinot Noir ‘Mother Rock’ displays elegant and lifted aromas of wild alpine strawberry, red raspberry, pomegranate, dried herbes de Provence and baked river stone. A mouthwatering backbone of acidity buttresses a core of pure red fruit, complimented by silky, refined tannins and elevated by a streak of savory minerality that persists through a lengthy, vibrant finish. Harvested from two micro-parcels planted on Wayfarer's shallowest soils over sandstone bedrock at the top of their ridgeline, Mother Rock expresses purity of fruit and superb intensity of flavor while maintaining nerve and precision.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Pinot Noir Mother Rock is the only wine the estate co-ferments with the Mt. Eden and Dijon 777 clones. For this vintage, they aged the wine in puncheon barrels, which is the first year they experimented with this format. In the glass, the wine pours a ripe red/ruby color and delivers notes of bright red cherries, cranberry, violets, and a light minty lift with hints of sage and anise. Medium-bodied, it has a highly refined, chalky texture, fine, supple tannins, and a clean, mineral-noted finish. Drink it over the next 15 years.
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Decanter
A blend of Mt Eden and Dijon 777 clones, two blocks are co-fermented, and this section of the vineyard also has the shallowest soils. The vines have gotten into the bedrock in this section of the vineyard, communicating that in this wine's ample minerality. Rich berries and singed violets mark the aromatics with a hint of gravelly mineral lift. The palate has a feral character; sauvage elements of earth and forest are intertwined with dark berries and wild spearmint. The finish is marked by umami notes, and smoky sea salt minerality gleans throughout.
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Mother Rock is a dark, beguiling wine. Black cherry, incense, spice, licorice, mocha, new leather and tobacco bring out the darker side of West Sonoma Coast Pinot. Mother Rock is blend of 777 and Mt. Eden Clone. There's gorgeous breadth and textural volume here. Bright mineral accents appear later to round out the close.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Mother Rock has layered aromas of orange peel, wild berry fruit, shiitake, Angostura bitters and forest floor, continually unfurling as it spends time in the glass. The medium-bodied palate features concentrated, complex flavors, velvety tannins, seamless freshness and a long, spicy finish.
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Wine Spectator
This delivers some showy mulberry, boysenberry and raspberry fruit flavors that are fresh and racy, with sleek anise, hibiscus and red tea threads filling in on the finish. Drink now through 2034.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
On the far western edge of the larger Sonoma Coast appellation, the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA hugs right up against the Pacific coast. Vineyards, planted at rugged elevations between 920 to 1,800 feet, occupy only two percent of the total land in the AVA. Fort Ross-Seaview growers believe that the region boasts an ideal mix of sunshine, cool air and beneficial stress for producing high quality Chardonnay and Pinot noir.