Winemaker Notes
#63 James Suckling Top 100 Wines of the World 2025
A shimmering ruby in the glass, the 2023 Pinot Noir ‘The Traveler’ expresses perfumed aromas of wild alpine strawberry, pomegranate and cranberry, accompanied by rose petal, blood orange peel, anise and crushed stone. There is a nimbleness on the palate that contrasts with deep concentration of flavor, creating an ethereal quality that persists through a long and complex finish. Continually evolving in the glass, a signature of The Traveler, the wine shifts from bright fruit character to savory minerality and back. The longest-lived of the Wayfarer bottlings, the 2023 Traveler will reward patience in the cellar.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very distinctive, with black cherries, dark strawberries, red roses and touches of black pepper and other spices on the nose. Medium-bodied with creamy tannins and texture and a long finish. It’s very structured, but the tannins are resolved. The acid drives the wine, giving a unique drinking experience. Give this some time.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Pinot Noir The Traveler has a bright ruby red hue and leads with focused, lifted aromas of dusty, rocky earth, grenadine, bright red berries, fresh flowers, cranberries, bright spice, and orange peel. It’s focused and compact on the palate, with fantastic linear drive and electricity, and it has a long feel, a stony texture, and a more angular and age-worthy, noble structure. Stash this away for a few years and drink 2026-2046.
Rating: 98+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From grapes harvested on October 3 and 6, the 2023 Pinot Noir The Traveler blossoms slowly in the glass, releasing scents of wild blackberry, pomegranate, resinous herbs, botanicals and spice. The medium-bodied palate is especially elegant. Its concentrated, nuanced, perfumed flavors are structured by lacy, astringent tannins, reminiscent of the texture of perfectly brewed tea. Vibrant acidity lends it a shimmery feel, and it continues to evolve dramatically as it airs in the glass. It will be long lived in the cellar.
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Wine Spectator
A pure, piercing style, with damson plum, bitter cherry and hibiscus notes that streak through in tight formation, laced with potpourri, wet clay and rose water details that extend the finish lengthily. The refined structure is nonetheless serious, so a little patience is needed in the cellar. Best from 2027 through 2038.
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.