Winemaker Notes
This is the second vintage in which 20% of Failla's young-vine Chardonnay blend was fermented and aged in concrete egg vessels. The remainder fermented and aged for 10 months in French oak, only 15% new and barely perceptible in the finished wine's flinty nose balanced with citrusy scents of grapefruit and lime filled out with a hint of jasmine and oyster-shell. The textural contributions of the concrete-fermented lots nicely balance the wine's vibrant mouth-watering acidity.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
This is firm in acidity, bracing in minerals and bone dry. That makes it sound austere, but you’ll find delicious apricot, lime and citron flavors, enhanced by sweet oak.
-
Wine Spectator
Pure, clean scents of ripe apple, melon, pear and subtle citrus form the core of this bright, elegant, delicate version. Subtle oak comes through on the finish.
-
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
A top effort, the zesty 2011 Failla Sonoma Coast Chardonnay shows up as a true example of what this highly-touted AVA can produce. This wine offers tart apple and bracing minerality on the palate. The wine's crisp and lively finish pairs it well with simply adorned shellfish. (Tasted: August 1, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.