Tasting Notes
Over ten vintages, The Traveler has shown it is a wine with extraordinary personality. A chameleon in the glass, we do our best to taste wines blind, but its ability to transform gives it away. From roses to pomegranate, white truffles to dry flowers, blood orange to fresh herbs, this wine is constantly revealing itself, and it will age beautifully in your cellar for at least a decade.
Winemaking Notes
Each block was picked by hand at night, and firm, cool clusters were delivered to the winery before sunrise. We hand-sorted and destemmed the fruit before transferring it into stainless steel tanks for five to ten days of cold maceration. Fermentation was guided by native yeast, and hand punch downs were tailored to how each tank tasted each day. The free run wine aged in French oak barrels, 67% new, for 15 months.
Vintage Notes
2021 was a dry, warm, even vintage, giving us wines with great intensity and harmony. Though we experienced record-low rainfall of 20 inches, a long way from our 65-inch average, it was plenty to fill our pond and irrigate our vines throughout the season. Budbreak occurred on the early side due to an unusually dry, warm winter, and this early trend continued throughout the season. Spring and summer remained dry and warm, though temperatures never spiked. This consistency, along with bountiful sunlight, allowed for even ripening across the vineyard. It was a smooth growing season and an ideal harvest, with all fruit picked at just the right moment and coming into the winery in a steady stream. The wines are remarkably dense and complex, with lots of structure, energy and delicate aromatics.
Blocks
9, 18Clones
Wayfarer
Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent, July 2023
The 2021 Pinot Noir The Traveler comes from a suitcase clone. Medium ruby-purple in color, it is a little closed to begin, soon unfurling to offer notes of raspberry leaves, lavender, tilled soil, and black truffles, leading to a core of redcurrant jelly and black raspberries plus a waft of fallen leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate is graceful and super-intense, chock full of floral and mineral nuances supported by silken tannins, and finishing very long with a firework display of savory and earth accents.
