2014 Wayfarer Pinot Noir
Mother Rock

Tasting Notes

This cuvée of Pinot Noir clones 37 and Dijon 777 is named for the sandstone substrate that runs under our Wayfarer Vineyard, urging our vines to burrow deeply into the distinctive terrain below. This wine reveals deep ruby and garnet tones in the glass. On the nose, hints of freshly cut flowers mingle with bright notes of strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry and boysenberry. A flinty minerality underlays these complex aromas and leads into a long, juicy palate, where balanced acidity and a fine tannin structure supports the ripe fruit flavors. This is a well-structured, thorough wine, with hints of cocoa and chocolate covered berries on the finish. Ready to enjoy upon shipment, it will age beautifully for another 5–10 years.

Winemaking Notes

In the pre-dawn hours, the fruit was hand-picked and hand-sorted with 13% reserved for whole-cluster fermentation. We de-stemmed and hand-sorted again, before transferring the berries to tank where five to seven days of cold maceration preceded more than two weeks of 100% native yeast fermentation. The fruit was then gently pressed, its free-run juice was transferred to 50% new French oak barrels for 15 months of aging.

Vintage Notes

The 2014 season started as one of the earliest on record, well before the threats of late winter frosts had passed. Fortunately, the tender buds and shoots escaped without damage and we relaxed into an exceptionally nice spring and cool summer. The gentle pace of the growing season gave us time for meticulous canopy management; we farm each of our 30 blocks individually to tailor the shoot positioning and leafing vine by vine, and clone by clone. Such fine-tuned farming is critical to success on the extreme Sonoma Coast, particularly for our vineyard with its great diversity of clones planted at varying elevations and exposures – east facing, west facing, north side, and south side. By the end of the growing season we have typically visited each vine a dozen times.

Our 2014 wines exhibit a pronounced minerality, due in part to our Goldridge soil and sandstone mother rock, as well as cold spells throughout the year. These wines are very open and generous right out of the bottle, with soft tannins, great acidity, and a slightly higher pH than previous vintages.

Blocks Map

3, 11

Clones

37, Dijon 777

Critics

96 Points

Virginie Boone, Wine Enthusiast, September 2016

Youthfully flippant, this block of the Wayfarer Vineyard is sitting largely in sandstone, where the grapes pull remarkably revealing minerality from the soil. Racy and flinty, this medium-bodied, structured and flirty wine dances in a generosity of rich red fruit, raspberry mostly, seasoned in clove and cardamom that’s fresh and incredibly seductive. Still, it’ll age; drink now through 2024.

94 Points

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate, October 31, 2017

Deep ruby-purple, the 2014 Pinot Noir Mother Rock (made from Mt. Eden and 777 clones) has a cherry cola and chocolate box-laced nose with suggestions of black raspberries, dried Provence herbs and menthol. The medium to fullbodied palate is packed with lively black cherry and spicy flavors, supported by grippy tannins and just enough acid to lift the fruit through the long finish.

94 Points

Doug Wilder, Purely Domestic Wine Report, May, 2016

The nose shows more savory inclination, spice, polished cherry, graphite and plum. The palate offers fresh cherry and black fruit on entry with solid structure, well-balanced finishing with textured licorice, tea and brown spice. Drink 2016 - 2024.

Wine Data

Winemaker:
Bibiana González Rave
Origin:
Wayfarer Vineyard, Fort Ross-Seaview, Sonoma Coast
Pruning:
Double Guyot
Vine Yield:
Less than 3lbs per vine
Harvested:
September 4, 2014
Bottled:
December 17, 2015
Release:
August 2017
Composition:
100% Pinot Noir
Alcohol:
14.3%
pH:
3.66
Cases Produced:
300

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