2017 Chehalem Mountain Vineyard Grüner Veltliner - Failla Wines Oregon

Crispy Asian pear, sunflower seeds, grapefruit peel. Fuji apple skin, struck match, bitter peach pit. Arugula and chopped chives, crushed flint and tilled soil. Lemon zest and almost-ripe cantaloupe are nobly out-dueled by leafy herbs, shaved ginger, and walnut shell, succumbing reluctantly to herbaceousness and natural spice despite beautiful purity of fruit. Baby's-breath and wild daisies provide dainty floral overtones that lift charming and complex yet soft aromatics. An air of reduction courses throughout the multi-dimensional and heavily nuanced attack appearing pleasantly as spent shell casing and gunsmoke. Gravely minerality, bitter phenolics, and a pinch of salinity appear on the finish of this unique and well executed specimen. Light in body with acidity that is pronounced but not quite high. This 2017 Chehalem Mountain Vineyard Grüner Veltliner by Failla Wines Oregon is a brilliant take on an uncommon grape in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Failla Wines founder Ehren Jordan is a self proclaimed wine nerd who founded his own label specifically to make the style of wine that he loves to drink. This bottling, crafted by Failla Wines Oregon using Grüner Veltliner sourced from the Chehalem Mountain Vineyard, is exactly the kind of deliciously cerebral creation that makes wine nerds swoon. Although Grüner is quite rare in Oregon its incredible potential is thrillingly featured here, as this wine possesses tart, lively, complex fruit and a cornucopia of wonderful herbal and earthy notes that cohesively wax and wane with each passing moment. It is lean, green, and completely captivating, with vivacious energy and drive suggesting its still not drinking at its peak. This is a resounding statement about the Willamette Valley's almost entirely untapped potential for growing world-class grapes besides just Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.