Jordan Wine Country Table - Vol. 17, 2022 - 11

NEWS
To create the first Jordan Chardonnay Super Blend,
we kept every chardonnay block separate in different tanks
to assess their sensory characteristics independently.
This is the first time that Jordan Chardonnay blocks have
been separated by both vineyard and clone.
oldest winemakers in California from the 1920s until the
1970s, when California winemakers began to popularize
the use of stainless steel tanks for fermentation. It wasn't
until around 2001 that the concrete egg was reborn.
The famous winemaker from France's Rhone Valley,
Michel Chapoutier, commissioned a French manufacturer
to make an egg-shaped fermenter for him-and the trend
has spread around the world. While stainless steel tanks
are easy to sanitize and are good for fermentation, they
don't allow a wine to breathe and mature. Concrete, like
oak, is a porous material, so the wine can receive small
doses of oxygen to evolve and age. During fermentation,
the round egg shape allows for continual mixing
(due to the release of carbon dioxide and heat during
fermentation), letting the lees or yeast solids to stay in
solution and naturally increase the wine's richness and
roundness. Concrete will also bring out the minerality
and enhance the freshness and wet stone characteristics.
While we love oak as a tool, it can be overpowering
to some of these more subtle and beautiful new blocks
of fruit we are sourcing from. Concrete, on the other
hand, will help this delicate wine by elevating the fruit,
enhancing its natural aromas, and allowing for gradual
oxygenation and aging.
Last summer, John approved the purchase of one
476-gallon concrete egg fermenter made by a local
purveyor, Sonoma Cast Stone, who made its first concrete
egg for a winemaker friend 15 years ago-and now egg
fermenters account for 40 percent of a business that
started out making concrete countertops and sinks.
If John loves the 2021 Jordan Chardonnay Super Blend
as much as he loved the 2005 Jordan Cabernet Super
Blend, my plan will be to purchase seven more concrete
eggs in 2022 so that our entire production can be partially
fermented in these amazing vessels.
MAKING SUPER BLEND 2.0
To create the first Jordan Chardonnay Super Blend,
we kept every chardonnay block separate in different
tanks to assess their sensory characteristics independently.
This is the first time that Jordan Chardonnay blocks have
been separated by both vineyard and clone. We will select
the absolute best blocks of chardonnay and favorite clones
for aging in a combination of concrete egg, French oak
and stainless steel. The exact percentages are yet to be
determined; we just have to wait and see how the wine
evolves and let our palates lead us to the perfect blend.
As with the first Jordan Super Blend, we will evaluate
the experiment in the summer of 2022 to decide if the
wine is everything we dreamed it would be-and how
to transition our entire production to this nuanced, even
more Burgundian version of Jordan Chardonnay. I assure
you that this wine will retain Jordan's hallmark style; it will
simply be an even more vibrant rendition of its former self.
Unlike Operation Super Blend 1.0, we will bottle this
wine in 750mL, not magnums. (We love how Jordan
Cabernet Sauvignon evolves in large format, so we wanted
to see how the first super blend will taste 20 or 30 years
from now.) These experimental bottlings are reserved
for special events, such as our 50th
anniversary in 2022.
Operation Super Blend 2.0 is only in its first year,
and I look forward to our fans trying the 2021 vintage. P
Jordan Winery's first
476-gallon concrete egg
purchased in 2021 and
made by local purveyor,
Sonoma Cast Stone.
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Jordan Wine Country Table - Vol. 17, 2022

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