2023 Pinot Noir Occidental Ridge Vineyard

Even after a career that spans many decades of successes, Ehren Jordan still has a sense of boyish enthusiasm matched by boundless energy that is more typical of someone half his age. One of Jordan’s many passions is collecting plant material from top estates in France. That includes Trousseau from Ganevat and Savagnin from Macle, among others, that inform these wines. His 2023s are exceptional across the board.

“It was a late harvest that reminded me of the old days, when people actually took vacations in August,” Jordan quipped as he described the 2023 growing season. “We started picking on September 15 in both California and Oregon, something that has never happened before. Now, after five full years of following biodynamic principles in the vineyard, we see we can achieve full phenolic ripeness at lower sugar levels than in the past,” he added.

In the cellar, Jordan opted to use a high percentage of stems in the Pinot Noirs, about 40% for the appellation wines and 75-80% for most of the vineyard-designates. Appellation wines, both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, are bottled with about 10 months in wood. Elevage for the vineyard-designates is determined on a case-by-case basis rather than through a standardized approach.

Failla remains somewhat under the radar relative to its peers at the very high end in Sonoma, perhaps because the focus is heavily skewed towards farming and making wine rather than marketing. But make no mistake about it, this is about as good as it gets for wines that speak to place, variety and vintage. A few 2023s are still in barrel or not yet released. We will add reviews as soon as I am able to taste the wines. In the meantime, I can’t recommend these wines highly enough.