2014 Pinot Noir Paige's Ridge

From the first vintage, in 2012, it was evident that the Pahlmeyer family's Wayfarer property on the Sonoma Coast was a special place capable of producing truly world-class wines. My most recent tasting of Wayfarer was fascinating, as I had a chance to taste every wine made off the property back to 2012 with Cleo Pahlmeyer and winemaker Bibiana González Rave. The 2014 have fleshed out quite a bit over the last few months. I can't say that is a huge surprise given how tightly wound they were earlier in the year. What did surprise me was how slowly both the 2012s and 2013s are maturing. The Wayfarer wines are not suited for immediate gratification, so readers should plan on cellaring all of these wines for at least a few years upon release.

Cleo Pahlmeyer has made a number of important decisions in the last few years as she guides her family's business into its second generation. One of the recent changes has been focusing the Pahlmeyer brand exclusively on Napa Valley wines and eliminating the overlap that previously existed between the Pahlmeyer Sonoma wines and Wayfarer. The Pahlmeyers own one of the finest estates on the Sonoma Coast, so that move makes a lot of sense. The 2014s at Wayfarer are less brilliant than the 2012s and 2013s, which suggests the vintage was not without its challenges. At times, the Wayfarer wines feel too safe, almost too engineered. That was probably exactly what was needed to get Wayfarer off the ground, but it may be time for a little more intuition and less technique. There is something quintessentially wild about the Sonoma Coast that can't really be fully tamed.