Another Winery Is Sued By Its Bank

First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co. asked the Napa County (Calif.) Superior Court for permission to foreclose Ehren Jordan Wine Cellars, and its award-winning Failla Wines unit.

First Citizens claims the winery owed $17,535,567 in unpaid principal and interest as of Nov. 3. Interest is accruing at $2564 a day.

Ehren Jordan himself, the founder and winemaker for Failla, the winery's Oregon operation, and Jordan's Day Zinfandel are also named.

The proximate cause is, of course, falling wine sales. The complaint states Ehren Jordan amended its loan agreement with the original lender, Silicon Valley Bank, five times, the last being in April 2022.

Jordan defaulted on the loan less than two years later, which began a “repetitive cycle in which Borrower again and again defaulted under the Loan Agreement and sought Bank to waive Borrower’s defaults and amend the Loan Agreement,” according to the complaint. “In all, Bank entered into ten amendments and accompanying default waivers of the Loan Agreement.”

Eventually, the bank had enough. It gave Jordan until the end of April 2026 to pay back at least $8 million of its debet through a land sale and to create a plan to reduce the company's line of credit. These deadlines were missed, and the winery made payments of about $324,000 between July and October, about 2% of the amount owed.