Sonoma Coast’s New Style of High-Acid Chardonnays
Sonoma Coast producers are embracing a new style of Chardonnay driven by complexity and acidity.
USA, Sonoma: Wayfarer
"This is unquestionably a winery to start following."
– Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate
Wayfarer Vineyard: Winery of the Year | 2015
Winery of the Year 2015, Doug Wilder, pdwr
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Reviews
Wine
2017 Pinot Noir Paige's Ridge
2016 Pinot Noir Paige's Ridge
2014 Pinot Noir Paige's Ridge
2013 Pinot Noir Paige's Ridge
2012 Pinot Noir Paige's Ridge
97 points
2017 PR
Antonio Galloni, Vinous, April 2020
The 2017 Pinot Noir Paige's Ridge is a two-barrel lot and also the smallest-production wine in the range. Fermenting in oak yields a Pinot built on texture and explosive richness. This is a pretty extroverted style for the Sonoma Coast, but it works beautifully. A rush of red cherry jam, chocolate, spice and new leather builds into the potent, layered finish. Racy, opulent and hedonistically seductive, the Paige's Ridge is a rock-star. I absolutely loved it.
98 points
Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com, August 2019
“From a single block and single clone (clone 667), the 2016 Pinot Noir Paige’s Ridge is the tiniest production cuvée with only 40 cases made. Completely de-stemmed and brought up in just 50% new French oak, it offers more richness and flesh, with lots of cassis, toasted spice, black raspberries, and candied flowers. Deep, full-bodied, incredibly textured and perfectly balanced, it’s another extraordinary Pinot Noir from this great site and great winemaker.”
96 points
Virginie Boone, Wine Enthusiast, September 2016
Floral in aromas and yet darkly savory in cherry and clove, this full-bodied wine holds layered acidity and balanced oak at its core. It hails from one block of the vineyard and spent time in entirely new French oak. Baked raspberry tart finds a happy companion in the richness of maple and velvety tannin. Drink now through 2024.
95 points
Doug Wilder, Purely Domestic Wine Report, March 2015
The nose is gorgeously deep and complex showing licorice, blackberry, cherry, mint, red apple and rhubarb. The palate entry shows polished flavors of apple, cherry and spice with plenty of vitality and structure. Fall 2015 release. Drink 2017 – 2024.
93 points
Virginie Boone, Wine Enthusiast, February 2015
From one block of the estate vineyard planted exclusively to Dijon clone 667, Paige’s is deep and dark in color, intense in oak and earthiness, almost a quarter of it undergoing whole cluster fermentation. As intense on the palate as it is darkly hued, it offers brambly blackberry and dark cherry around a core of wild Tahitian vanilla and cinnamon-cardamom spice.
