Fall 2024 Release Letter
FALL RELEASE
2022 Wayfarer Pinot Noir 'Mother Rock'
2022 Wayfarer Pinot Noir 'Golden Mean'
2022 Wayfarer Pinot Noir 'Paige's Ridge'
2022 Wayfarer Pinot Noir 'The Traveler'
2022 Wayfarer Pinot Noir '10th Anniversary'
2022 Wayfarer Chardonnay 'Cuvée Cleo'
Dear Friend,
There are few things we consume in our lives that we learn about in letters. A letter is personal as it tells a story; it contains emotion. I think that is why we in the wine world still write letters.
There has been much written this year – if you pay close attention to wine media – about the downfall of wine in our country. There are many forces at play making it a challenging landscape for wineries, especially small, family-owned producers. “Why wine?” critics ask. Essentially, why should people choose wine over other options? For me, the answer is the magic of wine. My father, Jayson Pahlmeyer, has always talked about wine as a “magical elixir”. Even after all these years seeing it up close, it is still awe-inspiring to me how grapes from a specific time and a particular place become aromas, flavors and textures, resulting in unadulterated pleasure. Put simply, wine brings joy.
At Wayfarer, we have so much to be joyful about right now. We are about to complete construction of our new winery and tasting room in Healdsburg. For the first time in my family’s many decades in the wine business, we will operate our own winery that is completely under our control. We will crush the 2024 vintage there, and we hope to welcome you for a tasting in the beautiful space we have created in the heart of our winery. Additionally, we are farming Wayfarer Vineyard 100% organically. I am very proud of our sustainability efforts, as I believe they are vital to our vision to be among the greatest wines in the world. It is imperative that we are good stewards of our singular plot of land and the vines that bear our fruit, and I believe this goes hand in hand with producing wines of the highest quality. This month also marks Wayfarer’s 10th anniversary release – 2014 was the first time I put pen to paper to tell the story of our wines and introduce them to the world.
I started Wayfarer in 2012, ten years after my father completed planting the vineyard. I remember driving out to Wayfarer with him as a child - my brother and I called it “way far” because it is two-and-a-half hours from Napa where I grew up. It was a time to connect as father and daughter, and Wayfarer remains a strong connection between us now. I learned from him that the combination of luminosity, cool air and well-draining soil holds the makings of an exceptional site for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The mélange of ocean air, warm soil and lush forest at Wayfarer has always been my favorite smell. I also learned that to do something great, you must flirt with “excess” (as my dad says). At Wayfarer, we are constantly evaluating and refining our practices and techniques year after year, and I hope you have experienced this evolution in our wines over the last ten years.
Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. I am grateful for your support, and I hope you see our vision, feel our story, but most of all, experience joy in our 2022 Block Selection Wines.
Best Regards,
Cleo Pahlmeyer
