Napa and Sonoma Wine Tasting: Failla (3.94)

http://www.faillawines.com/

Open By Appointment

Appt required? Yes

Directions

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Tasting:

Your best chance of finding Failla is with a decent GPS or with a post-op Lasik patient with 20-10 vision that can spot their white-stenciled red mailbox along the Silverado Trail. We had both with us and still managed to overshoot the entrance, but I've never had a problem putting it in reverse on a winding highway road (especially with an amazing vehicle like the Kia Soul), so it wasn't long before we were crawling up the driveway to Failla. Nestled in the woods east of the road, the Failla tasting room and office is run out of a small home on the hillside. Tastings are conducted in a cute family room around a coffee table as guests lounge on couches and plush chairs. From an appearances standpoint this was a great start to our tasting.

Failla has a Napa tasting room but sources all of their fruit from some of the most renowned vineyards in Sonoma: Peay, Occidental, and Hirsch, among others. Our host Josh talked through some of the history of the property and the winery as we tasted our way through a Chardonnay (the '09 Keefer Ranch) and a number of single vineyard Pinot Noirs. The Chardonnay was quite good, but also a bit pricey at $42. Unfortunately, the tasting took a turn for the worst for me with the first Pinot. The '09 Sonoma Stage Pinot Noir has a bright berry nose, a good initial burst of fruit on the palate, but a bizarre ashy finish that wouldn’t go away. I thought at first maybe it was something I had eaten prior to the tasting (even though I had “reset my palate” with Diet Coke!), but both Meredith and Stephanie also got this. I had trouble getting a solid impression of the next several wines as the ash aftertaste continued to linger, and it was bad enough for me to double-check the vintage and make sure this wasn't a casualty of the fires of 2008.

By the end of the tasting, the Sonoma Stage aftertaste was finally starting to fade a bit, enough that I could appreciate the potential of the ’08 Occidental Pinot Noir. I originally thought I’d pass on wine, but Josh mentioned that the $10 tasting fee was waived with purchase. When I changed my mind and bought not one bottle but two (an ’08 Occidental and an ’07 Occidental), Josh did in fact waive the tasting fee…for two of the three of us. Apparently one fee is waived with each bottle purchased. Come on, really? You’re going to nickel and dime me for an extra $10 when I just dropped $120 on wine? It just made me consider more closely what we had: Sonoma fruit being sold at Napa prices. Overall, the ashy Pinot and the extra charge left me with both a figurative and literal bad taste in my mouth. It didn’t help that our next stop would be Bremer, where tastings are always complimentary and while pricey, the wines are incredible. The intimate setting at Failla was really nice, but I think we would have enjoyed it more if we didn't have other people join the tasting (there were four first-time visitors to Napa that also tasted at our appointment) and obviously if the ashy Sonoma Stage didn't screw things up. I'd be willing to try Failla again sometime in a few years when I'm out in wine country during a quiet time of year. I think less people and no Sonoma Stage would make this a much better tasting.

Recommended wine:Of the Pinots, the Occidental was my favorite, but probably a bit overpriced at $65/bottle.

Ratings (out of 5):