WTN: Failla revisited

A few months back I posted a note on a Failla 2013 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, which I'd had by the glass in Palo Alto and found remarkably restrained and complex compared to expectations. Figured it was worth trying a whole bottle, and picked one up to have around. Last night, as I got ready to cook some sockeye and probably the season's last favas and morels, we opened it. Totally different animal, at first: raspberry and a big whack of vanilla, despite (apparently) being raised in only 10% new wood. (My glass pour had been from a freshly opened bottle, too, so whatever accounts for the difference, it ain't that.) With a lot of air, things improved, and some of the mineral and earth complexity I remember from the glass pour came into the foreground, but this still wasn't what I'd been expecting, and it remained the sort of wine I couldn't really imagine drinking without relatively bold food. I made some adjustments to the recipe -- in particular, brushing the non-skin side of the salmon fillets with a mix of 1/3 balsamico condimento and 1/3 "B" maple syrup right before flipping them for their final couple of minutes in the pan, which gave the flesh a nice, slightly sweet (but not cloying) char that played better with the wine. (Come to think of it, maybe it was 10% new wood and 30% 2-3 year old maple syrup vats? No, no, it wasn't that bad.) Still, a good lesson in the tricks memory can play. This is very good for its style, but its style isn't mine.

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks for the details. I cannot recall the last time I had one of their wines.

Back in April, when I posted that other note, you said you'd never had a Failla, which would explain why you can't recall. But you also said you thought you ought to try one... so I figured I owed you the followup.

[David M. Bueker]

Indeed that would be why I cannot recall.