Showing items 1
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Failla 2008 Estate Chardonnay (Sonoma Coast)
- Editors' Choice
- $42
From the wildest, most remote and exotic stretch of the Sonoma Coast: you can taste the salt of the sea in this wine, as you can in a Manzanilla Sherry. It gives a tang to the lemondrop, pear and honeysuckle flavors, with their lick of cold granite. So pure and vibrant, so savory, so compelling. Grows more fascinating with every minute in the glass.
— S.H.
(6/1/2010)
Failla 2006 Vivien Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast)
- Cellar Selection
- $70
This small- production wine showcases the wild, feral and lonely personality of this winery’s extreme coastal mountain location, offering the most exotic flavors that are hard to describe. Asian pears, pomegranates, Dr. Pepper cola, red currants, licorice, bacon and rare berries like mulberries and loganberries come to mind. It’s softly delicious and drinkable now…
— S.H.
(12/31/2009)
Failla 2007 Estate Vineyard Syrah (Sonoma Coast)
- $56
This tremendous Syrah is one for the cellar. It’s explosive in flavor, offering a mouthblast of peppery blackberries, roasted meat, red licorice, pomegranates and smoky cedar. There are even suggestions of dark chocolate, cassis and minerals as well as sweetness, although it’s absolutely dry. It has the most beautiful tannin-acid balance that launches it into…
— S.H.
(12/31/2009)
Failla 2006 Phoenix Ranch Syrah (Napa Valley)
- Editors' Choice
- $42
An awesome Syrah that proves that, while size isn’t everything, it does matter. A major league wine, brilliantly packed with currant, black cherry, licorice and pepper flavors whose power is hard to exaggerate. For all that, the wine never loses its balance and sense of proportion. So good now, you won’t be able to keep your hands off it, but it should hold for six…
— S.H.
(12/1/2008)
Failla 2009 Keefer Ranch Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley)
- $45
Failla has been working with the fruit from this coveted vineyard for a long time, and has figured it out better than anyone. How they take basic Russian River Valley cherry, raspberry and cola flavors and uplift the wine into the extraordinarily exotic is inexplicable. But they do. An amazingly complex, compelling young Pinot Noir. Drink now–2019, at least.
— S.H.
(6/1/2011)
Failla 2008 Pearlessence Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast)
- Editors' Choice
- Online Exclusive
- $40
A terrific Pinot Noir that’s so delicious, you can’t stop drinking it, and also shows a wonderful, classic coastal complexity. With tangy acidity and ultrarefined tannins, it gives the essence of wild raspberries and cherries. There’s a feral quality to the fruit; you can detect notes of mountain eucalyptus, fennel and lavender. Oak adds the perfect touch of smoke…
— S.H.
(6/1/2010)
Failla 2007 Occidental Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast)
- Cellar Selection
- $60
Acidic and tight now, a young wine that’s clearly not ready for current drinking. It needs time to knit together and mellow. But such is the balance of all the parts that it should easily negotiate through at least 2015, when the cherries, berries, cola, bacon, earth, exotic spices and sweet oak should meld. An exciting, promising Pinot Noir.
— S.H.
(12/31/2009)
Failla 2007 Chardonnay (Sonoma Coast)
- $42
A spectacular Chardonnay grown in Failla’s estate vineyard, high in the mountains above the Sonoma Coast, and open to the Pacific’s cool winds. The pineapple custard, tangerine, lemon tart and mineral flavors are compellingly delicious, while crisp coastal acidity adds a refreshingly clean tang. This is a grand cru wine.
— S.H.
(8/1/2009)
Showing items 1
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42
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2009 Chronicle Cerise Vineyard
One sip is all it takes to know this is a terrific Pinot Noir. It’s dry…
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