Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Structured, with years to go to take on added complexity and personality, this wine is also a study in immediate gratification, as it's presently so juicy and easy to enjoy. It comes from an east-facing block, planted to a suitcase clone. Exotic, rich red and black berry and cinnamon form an alliance of balance and mouthwatering seduction. The oak and tannin are fully in sync, while a salty, meaty finish provides additional decadence. Editors’ Choice
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Pinot Noir The Traveler offers more spice, as well as notes of red and black currants, strawberries, toasted spices and forest floor. It's a classic, sweetly fruited 2014 that has a rounded, opulent profile, loads of character, moderate acidity and a great finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep ruby-purple colored, the 2014 Pinot Noir The Traveler (made from the “suitcase clone”) opens with mulberries, red currants and cracked pepper on the nose with hints of garrigue, damp soil, truffles and rhubarb. The medium to full-bodied palate is very finely constructed, with pixelated tannins and great freshness supporting the delicate red fruit and earthy flavors, finishing with great persistence and elegance.
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.