Winemaker Notes
Over ten vintages, The Traveler has shown it is a wine with extraordinary personality. A chameleon in the glass, Wayfarer does their best to taste wines blind, but its ability to transform gives it away. From roses to pomegranate, white truffles to dry flowers, blood orange to fresh herbs, this wine is constantly revealing itself, and it will age beautifully in your cellar for at least a decade.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from one east-facing and one west-facing block of deeper soils and made from suitcase clones, the 2021 Pinot Noir The Traveler is a little more wound up initially in terms of its aromatics, with red berries, dusty earth, and blood orange. The most lifted and driving of the wines from Wayfarer, it has a fresh spine of acidity, beautiful pure fruit of grenadine, notes of toasted spice, and a super-long finish. This is mouthwatering with saline and freshness that will be outstanding over the next 15 or more years. My favorite of the Wayfarer reds, it’s a brilliant wine.
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James Suckling
Aromas of hibiscus and other flowers with some rose petal and al dente strawberry. Orange peel. Like going into a flower shop. Medium body with superb focus and pinpointed fruit and acidity. So flavorful at the end. Goes on for minutes. Exciting.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Mother Rock is complex and expressive. It comes from east-facing Mt. Eden and 777 selection vines and was vinified using 15% whole clusters. Proprietor Cleo Pahlmeyer and winemaker Todd Kohn note that most of the wines in the Wayfarer portfolio are based on destemmed fruit, "but in this vintage, a touch more worked here." It takes some coaxing to release its aromas of strawberry and raspberry jam, shiitake, forest floor and wafts of cocoa. The palate is supple and mouthwatering with generous berry and spice layers, and the flavorful, juicy finish drives you to take another taste.
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Wine Spectator
This has very enticing plum, boysenberry and mulberry fruit flavors, laced with finely beaded acidity and backed by violet, hibiscus and red tea. The finish has latent length and is carried effortlessly by the acidity. If you're a fan of the fruit-driven style, you'll love this.
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.