Wayfarer Pinot Noir The Estate Fort Ross-Seaview 2023

Wine Spectator’s #8 Wine of 2025! Add 2+ btls to your cart for a limited time only, extra 10% savings!

Perched high above the Pacific on the remote and rugged Sonoma Coast, Wayfarer Vineyard began its story long before its wines bore the estate’s name – originally an organic farm and even home to a small school until visionary Napa vintner Jayson Pahlmeyer purchased the property in 1998. Inspired by winemaker Helen Turley’s conviction that the site could be the “La Tâche of California,” Jayson planted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on the property’s dramatic Goldridge-soiled ridges with the helping hand of famed viticulturist David Abreu in 2002.

After years of selling grapes and blending fruit into Pahlmeyer wines, Jayson’s daughter, Cleo Pahlmeyer, finally launched the first estate-grown Wayfarer wines in 2012, turning it into a strikingly expressive and impressive small-lot Pinot Noir and Chardonnay producer that’s quickly become one of California’s most revered. The 2023 “The Estate” Pinot Noir is the winery’s flagship that blends all 11 clones from the main blocks of the estate, showcasing the full complexity of its clonal diversity and dramatic Fort Ross-Seasview terroir.

The wine displays a vibrant ruby color with layered, balanced aromatics of alpine strawberry, black raspberry, crushed rose petal, pomegranate, and fresh sage. The palate brings in pure fruit balanced with tension and depth, showing notes of wild cherry, cypress, clove, and dried flowers, complemented by finely textured tannins and bright acidity that provide energy and structure alike. The ideal growing conditions of the 2023 vintage, paired with the exceptional terroir and winemaking at Wayfarer, have created something really special here. I could happily have a glass of this every day and still find new nuances and layers unfolding like the prettiest holiday gift. Treat yourself and bring home a few of these to experience their beauty for yourself.

PAIRING IDEAS: I’m in an experimental popcorn phase, and a recent creation of truffle popcorn with smoked paprika would be unreal with this subtly earthy and spiced coastal Pinot.