Failla Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

Ehren Jordan's biography reads like something out of a Ken Kersey novel. While a young adult studying art history and classic archeology at George Washington University, he took a part time job in a retail wine shop. The experience convinced him to flee to the West, eventually settling in Aspen, Colorado, where he skied, worked busing and waiting tables and eventually becoming a resident sommelier. Armed with the accumulated experience from his retail and restaurant exposure, he set his sites on the coastal region of California. Arriving in the Napa Valley, he applied for a job as a part time tour guide at Joseph Phelps where he met Bruce Neyers, the Vice President of Phelps. Jordan quickly advanced within the company, and became the head of regional and national marketing, eventually hired to do cellar work and winemaking. He then moved to Europe to work for Jon Luc Columbo in France's rhone Valley where he honed his Syrah-Grenache skills. After returning stateside, he renewed his association with Neyers, taking the winemaking job at Neyers in 1994 and then at Turley in 1996. He founded Failla with his wife in 1998. Ehren spent several years looking for unique, cool-climate Pinot Noir sources.