Winemaker Notes
A benchmark wine of vintage, variety, and place. Bright red fruit, floral splashes, juicy pomegranate, and wild herb express structure with finesse and elegance.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2019 Failla Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir dazzles with its fine and lovely persistence on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows up with fragrant aromas and flavors of wild strawberries and a hint of chalkiness. Served with grilled, mint-accented lamb chops. (Tasted: May 27, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The appellation 2019 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast is a great choice for readers looking to understand the more elegant, understated, yet balanced style of this estate. Revealing a ruby hue as well as attractive red and black fruits, salty minerality, and foresty, bouquet garni-like nuances, it's medium-bodied and has a round, supple texture as well as a great finish. As with all these 2019s from Failla, it has good underlying tannins yet a more rounded, soft, approachable style.
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Wine Spectator
Spicy dried raspberry and cherry flavors show hints of dried beef in this firm red, with hints of savoriness midpalate, followed by mushroom broth hints on the finish. Drink now through 2025.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.