Region: Fort Ross-Seaview, Sonoma Coast, California

Varietal: 100% Pinot Noir

Tasting notes: Launched in 2021, Wayfarer WF2 wines are 100% estate, limited production, high quality wines made with the same attention to detail given to Wayfarer’s flagship bottlings. The 2020 vintage opens with aromas of vibrant dark fruit, blueberry and blackberry compote, subtle forest floor and savory earth. Delicious pomegranate enters the palate, at once refreshing, dense and powerful. Rich notes of dark chocolate round out the finish. Enjoy as the wine continues to open in the glass.

Producer: Wayfarer was founded as a secluded farmstead more than 40 years ago, before its locale was defined as the now coveted Fort Ross Seaview AVA. In 1989, Jayson Pahlmeyer's winemaker, Helen Turley, discovered the site for sale down the road from her Marcassin vineyard. She introduced Pahlmeyer, declaring it destined to become "the La Tache of California.” Wayfarer vineyard was planted by David Abreu in 2002, and in 2005, Jayson started blending Wayfarer Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with fruit from Russian River vineyards and bottling it under the Pahlmeyer moniker. By 2012, the vineyard’s exceptional fruit presented an irrefutable case for a namesake label. With Jayson’s daughter, Cleo Pahlmeyer, at the helm, Wayfarer is an endeavor of true passion – an experiment that pushes the exactitude of winegrowing and winemaking to the farthest limits.

Vineyard and Winemaking: Wayfarer vineyard is extraordinary and unforgiving – 30 undulating acres hidden beyond rising fog and redwoods on a remote reach of the Sonoma Coast. This distant landscape is the provenance of wildly beautiful wines born of risk, rigor and mastery; small-lot Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Pacific's most dramatic appellation.  The Pinot Noir, is allowed four to five days of pre-fermentation cold maceration in small open-top fermenters before bringing the fruit to a temperature that initiates 100% native yeast fermentation. After two to three weeks, the Pinot Noir is then gently pressed and moved to barrel where it completes both primary and secondary (malolactic) fermentations.