Winemaker Notes
Pomegranate, raspberry, orange blossom, potpourri, forest floor, anise and hints of bergamot gradually release from the wine. The aromas and flavors become beautifully integrated and showy with time in the glass. The 2019 Traveler is remarkable for its complex expression of mineral chalkiness, great acidity, detailed structure and length that will last far beyond the last drop in the bottle.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2019 Pinot Noir The Traveler, from a suitcase clone selection in the vineyard, is more in the style of the Paige's Ridge and Golden Mean with its more linear, focused, incredibly pure personality. Bright wild strawberries, framboise, candied orange, spring flowers, and exotic spice notes all emerge from the glass, and it’s incredible on the palate, with a medium to full-bodied, flawlessly balanced, multi-dimensional mouthfeel that keeps you coming back to the glass. This is pure gold and one of the top 2-3 wines in the vintage. It will benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age (it's far from unapproachable today) and knock your socks off over the following decade.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is focused and fresh despite its inherent weight and intensity. Complementing the savory edges of forest floor and tea are juicy layers of black cherry, strawberry and raspberry. The substantial tannin and oak will benefit from aging. Enjoy best 2029–2034.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby, the 2019 Pinot Noir The Traveler offers explosive amaro-like scents with blackberries, iron, iodine and classy new oak spices. The palate is dynamic with intense, broody, pure fruits packed into a lithe, smooth frame. It finishes with bursts of freshness and sparks of crushed stone and flowers.
Rating: 95+ -
Wine Spectator
Fruit-driven from the get-go, with very enticing raspberry and blackberry coulis notes that ripple with energy all the way through, picking up light mineral, savory and singed wood spice hints along the way. Mouthwatering finish. Drink now
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.