Failla Chardonnay 2018, Haynes Vineyard, Coombsville, Napa Valley, California

First planted in “1966 or 1967”, according to owner Pat Haynes, the site has been continually farmed since then on its original rootstock – making it one of Napa Valley’s oldest Chardonnay Vineyards to be farmed this way. Failla has been producing Chardonnay from this glorious site since 2011. The Chardonnay we source is Old Wente Clone on St. George rootstock, sitting on a bed of volcanic alluvial soils – or as longtime farmer Fernando Delgado calls it “lots of rocks!” Pat Haynes, the vineyard’s sole owner since it was planted, reminisces that it was essentially a piece of inherited land on which cattle used to graze. After years of grazing and the realization that the land could be put to more profitable use, Pat and her husband Duncan planted the first Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with the assistance of Louis Martini, Sr. Concrete Egg (20%); New French Oak (20%); Neutral French Oak (60%); Native fermentation and full malo-lactic fermentation. “These wines are brooding, intense, elegant and deeply textural. They are wines of meditation and grace and will provide years of growing, fascinating complexity.”