TN: 2019 Failla Chardonnay Big Egg Olivet Ranch

  • 2019 Failla Chardonnay Big Egg Olivet Ranch - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (4/16/2021)
    This was one of those wines that when I first had it about 5 years ago, it renewed hope in Chardonnay for me. It was a spectacular wine. But as I recall it, it was a different vineyard than this one, so it’s obvious they’ve expanded the “big egg” concept to cover more than just one. Wine has a crisp, lemon peel nose and some tropical notes. On palate the same follows through, but the usual tinned pineapple is here put more to the back, as it mixes with a saline note and layers of subdued fruit in between. It’s a great wine, you can just tell this is a good producer. Winemaker Ehren Jordan rarely misses a trick. Only thing stopping it from getting an even higher score, is this slight confusion I sometimes get between oxidative notes and tannins (to me, they’re hard to separate in whites). It’s as if you’d mixed in 10% of Gravner’s Ribolla Gialla into a crisp white Chablis wine. Does that make sense? In any case, it’s not a fault, just something I’m kind of not in sync with at the moment. For everyone else without this hole in the palate it’s a great wine! (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Great note. I haven’t had that many, but I’m a fan of Failla’s chardonnay.

Had both the 2016 & 2017 Failla Sonoma Coast Chardonnay last week. Wonderful wines at excellent prices.

I’m all in on Failla since 1998 with chards, pinots, and syrahs. Sorry to see the “Alban” viognier go. Just had the 2012 “Savoy” pinot last night.

On the chards, I’ve had all of them but the “egg.” I He talks about all these techniques in his regular Sunday videos. Seems like they use a little bit of everything in the winemaking process. His newest project is a chenin blanc from Russian River fruit. I bought some but have yet to try it; will post a note when I do.