Feira specializes in grapes grown in the cool climate vineyards of coastal Sonoma County, producing firm, stylish wines.
Owner Ehren Jordan worked as a winemaker for Joseph Phelps in Napa before studying winemaking under Northern Rhone winemaking consultant Jean-Luc Colombo for two years.
After returning to California in 1994, he was hired as winemaker at Turley Cellars and became known as a revolutionary in Zinfandel and Syrah in California.
In 1998, he founded his own brand, Feyra Jordan, and three years later changed the winery's name to its current name, Feyra Wines.
In 2008, he was named Winemaker of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle.
When the winery was first established, Ehren spent a year seriously studying the climate, characteristics, and soil of the Sonoma Coast.
As a result, they purchased their own vineyard in the Cazadero district, which is now part of the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA and has cool, steep, rocky slopes.
In 2011, they purchased Olivette Ranch, located in the Russian River Valley AVA.
In 2013, he decided to leave Turley Cellars, where he had worked as winemaker for 18 years, to focus on running Feira Wines.
Ehren is one of the most notable wine makers in California today, where a trend toward elegance is spreading.
Ehren is a former member and one of the judges of In Pursuit of Balance (IPOB), a once-popular organization in California that explores well-balanced Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and is known for producing elegant, vibrant wines reminiscent of Europe.
In 2016, they launched a new Zinfandel project called "Day," named after their daughter, and have continued to evolve while returning to their roots.
"Day" is a new brand that does not use the big style of Zinfandel that was all the rage during the Tully era, but instead uses old vines from the cool Sonoma County, aiming for a style that has a high level of transparency in the terroir and makes the most of the grapes' natural characteristics.
Recently, the company has also been focusing on brewing orange wine using Georgian qvevri grapes, and on producing sparkling wine under the Feira brand under the advice of Michael Crews of Ultramarine, who is renowned as one of California's next generation of top sparkling winemakers.
Starting with the 2016 vintage, they have actually begun making wine from grapes in Oregon, and are also eyeing the potential of Willamette Valley, a renowned Pinot Noir producing region.
Feira uses a balance of grapes sourced from some of the North Coast's top growers and grown in its own vineyards to produce elegant Pinot Noir, Syrah and Chardonnay.
Ehren's talent is recognized by these top wine growers, and they often make ``reverse requests'' to Ehren to make wine using the grapes they have carefully cultivated.
The wine style is "as natural as possible", with the utmost emphasis on the individuality of the vineyard and vintage.
The grapes are harvested early and the wine is matured using phenolic aging. New barrels for fermentation and aging are kept to a minimum and are only used to add aroma and flavor to the wine. In addition, egg-shaped concrete tanks and stainless steel tanks are used, a technique that gives the wine complexity.
Ehren believes it is more important to ship complete, wholesome wines than simply labelling them as natural.
Therefore, at Feira, we add a very small amount of sulfite to the wine for the first time just before bottling, which stabilizes the quality and ensures that the wine is in a condition that can withstand the long aging that it would normally be able to undergo.