Wayfarer Estates Wine Tasting
Tuesday, October 14, 2025 from 6-8PM
PRIVATE Event
Invitation Only ~ Limited to 20 Guests in the Wine Cellar
Present your receipt of $1 payment for entrance

8 Wines
White and Red Tastings

Hors d'oeuvres
Chef's Perfectly Paired Selections

Join Advanced Sommelier Clément Cariot on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 at 6pm in the Wine Cellar, as he explores the 2023 vintage of Wayfarer Estates.

Wayfarer Estates Chardonnay WF2 Fort Ross-Seaview
Wayfarer Estates Chardonnay
Wayfarer Estates Chardonnay Ways of the Wayfarer Waters Ranch Vineyard Atlas Peak
Wayfarer Estates Pinot Noir WF2 Fort Ross-Seaview 
Wayfarer Estates Pinot Noir
Wayfarer Estates Fort Ross-Seaview Pinot Noir Golden Mean Vineyard
Wayfarer Estates Fort Ross-Seaview Pinot Noir Mother Rock
Wayfarer Estates Fort Ross-Seaview Pinot The Traveler

 
WAYFARER ESTATES

Entranced by the wines of Burgundy

Wayfarer is the manifestation of a remarkable place and the drive to go to extremes to create something truly exceptional.

After nearly 30 years as an acclaimed Napa Valley vintner Jayson Pahlmeyer became increasingly entranced by the wines of Burgundy. “Every oenophile eventually gravitates to the wines of Burgundy,” he says. In the early 1990s, Jayson began seeking out the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vineyards in the world.

A close friend, legendary French wine importer Martine Saunier, had located two parcels for sale in Burgundy – Clos de la Roche, a Grand Cru Pinot Noir vineyard in Côte de Nuits Grand Cru, and Corton Vergennes, a Grand Cru Chardonnay vineyard in Corton. His winemaker, Helen Turley, was to make the wine with the hands-on assistance of the renowned Michel Niellon at his Chassagne-Montrachet winery. However, just after the papers were signed, the deal was nullified by an obscure Burgundian real estate clause that permitted last-minute alternative offers.

Though these iconic vineyards faded from his dreams, Jayson knew that, eventually, the perfect site would present itself. He just didn’t realize it would be six years later in the remote hills of the Sonoma Coast at a small farm called Wayfarer.

Wayfarer, an off-the-grid organic farm

Tucked away in remote ridges on the Sonoma Coast, Wayfarer was originally a farm named for the dream of its owners, Dave and Dorothy Davis, to travel the world. The Davises made the farm their home in the 1970s: living off the grid, growing organic produce for Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant and others, raising livestock and spinning wool. The couple also founded the Wayfarer School there, a boarding school for teens with troubled pasts. Wayfarer Farm had become a place to learn the land and heal the spirit.

Helen Turley’s vineyard down the road

When the Davises listed their farm for sale in 1998, winemaker Helen Turley quickly took notice. Her own vineyard, Marcassin, was just down the road and Helen understood well the extraordinary character of fruit this land could yield. Helen also knew that it was her good friend and fellow vintner Jayson Pahlmeyer who possessed the vision and tenacity needed to transform the rugged landscape into a world-class vineyard.

Destined to be “the La Tache of California”

Helen and her husband, viticulturalist John Wetlaufer, brought Jayson to the farm to survey the site and, for Jayson, it was an epiphany: the cool sea air tempering the brilliant sun, the Goldridge soil casting a dusty glow on the dirt road and the weathered bones of wooden fences marking off the undulating fields – a thick forest of redwoods to the east and fog-blanketed bluffs to the west. Jayson instantly sensed that this secluded place held all the essential elements to produce exceptional Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Helen declared the vineyard would be “the La Tache of California."

Wayfarer Vineyard was planted by renowned developer David Abreu in 2002, and in 2005, Jayson started blending Wayfarer Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with fruit from Russian River vineyards and bottling it under the Pahlmeyer label.

The journey begins

Cleo Pahlmeyer began working alongside her father in 2008, and in 2012 started what would become her continuation of the Pahlmeyer family's legacy in wine. 

Growing up in wine, Cleo knew that the great wines of the world come from singular, specific places, and that this is especially true for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  By 2012, with ten years of vine age, it was undeniable that Wayfarer Vineyard could produce exceptional fruit.  With this conviction and Cleo's drive to carve her own path, she started Wayfarer – wines that can only be from one place in the world.

www.wayfarervineyard.com/story