Jordan Wine Country Table - Vol. 19, 2024 - 13

WINE
EGG ENCOUNTERS
I first encountered these ovoid vessels in my early days at Jordan,
when I belonged to a technical group for Sonoma County
winemakers. During one of these meetings, we tasted the same
wine aged in new French oak, new American oak, stainless steel,
and concrete vessels. When I first tasted the wine from concrete
I was immediately struck by the similarities to some of the great
Burgundies that inspire Jordan's winemaking style.
When it came time to create the Jordan Chardonnay super
blend, memories of this fateful tasting came flooding back. In
2021, John approved the purchase of a single 476-gallon concrete
egg fermenter from local purveyor Sonoma Cast Stone, and
we used it that year to make our first chardonnay super blend.
The combination of cooler-climate fruit and the new concrete egg
vessels resulted in vibrant acidity and incredible fruit purity in the
wine, and the best balance we'd seen to date in our chardonnay.
We all loved the wine so much that Jordan purchased seven
more eggs to pursue the super blend style for the 2022 vintage.
This will be our third year working with concrete egg vessels
" Just as I'd anticipated
when we embarked on
this journey, the concrete
eggs help contribute
beautiful minerality and
wet stone character to the
chardonnay-essential to
the Jordan style-without
imparting oak aromas
and flavors. "
MAGGIE KRUSE
Winemaker
for both fermentation and aging. Depending on the vintage and
yield, we typically devote 3-5% of our chardonnay to the eggs,
with the remainder going into
French oak barrels.
Just as I'd anticipated
when we embarked on this
journey, the concrete eggs help
contribute beautiful minerality
and wet stone character to the
chardonnay-essential to the
Jordan style-without imparting
oak aromas and flavors. We do
not have limestone in our soils
here as they do in Burgundy,
yet the concrete brings similar
attributes to our wine by
enhancing the chardonnay's
mineral notes and helping the
wine maintain an incredible
freshness as it ages.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
Winemaker Maggie Kruse examines the first vintage of Jordan
Chardonnay fermented in concrete; the row of egg fermenters
at Jordan; guests enjoy Jordan Chardonnay's newest vintage
with the first course during alfresco dinners and lunches; formal
dinners in the dining room often features multiple vintages
of Jordan Chardonnay.
Because the shape of the egg encourages continual mixing
within the vessel throughout fermentation, the chardonnay
is always in contact with the lees. Texturally, that translates
to a wonderful weight and rich mouthfeel in the wine, but
without fatness or flabbiness. Another plus is that the concrete
character integrates into the wine beautifully, and very quickly
compared to a new French oak barrel. The texture is there early
on-usually within a month or two-which surprised me when
I first began using the concrete eggs.
When we conduct in-house tastings with our team to compare
Jordan's chardonnay base wines made in both concrete and stainless
steel, the difference is remarkable. When the grapes are fermented
in the concrete egg, the vessel adds dimension, brightness, freshness
and texture-exactly what we want in our chardonnay.
We couldn't be more excited about the new direction Jordan
Chardonnay has taken, inspired by the super blend concept,
and we plan to continue using concrete eggs to ferment and age
a portion of our chardonnay for the foreseeable future. With
benefits like these, it's pretty much a no-brainer.
While the winery does not plan to extend the concrete
program to our cabernet sauvignon at this point, I'm not quite
ready to rule it out. One of our growers, Justin Miller at Garden
Creek Vineyards in Alexander Valley, just purchased a squareshaped
NuBarrel concrete tank from Sonoma Cast Stone for his
reds, and he loves it. Somehow, the experimental winemaker
in me would just love to get one and try it out. P
WINECOUNTRYTABLE.COM 13
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Jordan Wine Country Table - Vol. 19, 2024

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