Jordan Wine Country Table - Vol. 17, 2022 - 9

NEWS
H
ow to best our best vintage.
That sounded like an exhilarating
challenge to me. Even though
the 2019 Jordan Chardonnay
was named one of the year's best in both
Wine & Spirits and Wine Enthusiast, we were
already putting a plan in motion to try to raise
the quality of our singular white wine even
higher, starting with the 2021 vintage.
We call this winemaking experiment,
Operation Super Blend. For a winery that
only makes two wines, the opportunity to craft
a super blend wine is not only rare but very
exciting. Many of my peers ask how I keep
boredom at bay, making just two wines with
already established winemaking styles. I love
to explain that while we only make a Russian
River Valley Chardonnay and Alexander
Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, we are constantly
tweaking and elevating to fine tune our wine
programs. Over the last 15 years of working
at Jordan, I have had a front-row seat to the
many changes we have made to improve our
cabernet. And the time had arrived to truly
focus on the chardonnay program; this project
was a welcomed opportunity to change. We've
made just one super blend before-a cabernetdominant
wine from the 2005 vintage. In 2021,
we set out to produce our first super blend
of chardonnay.
I wish I could take credit for this idea, but
I can't. It was John Jordan's, our winery owner.
During the 2020 vintage, I started to slowly
play around with sourcing fruit from cooler
areas of Russian River Valley. As I started to
taste the different fruit and acidity that came
from these grapes, I knew I needed more.
I tasked Dana Grande, our grower relations
manager, with finding more cooler-climate
chardonnay. John could see I was absolutely
giddy about this new fruit. A few months before
the 2021 harvest, John buzzed into my office
as he often does and said, " I have an idea
to run by you. " That's when he pitched me
on Operation Super Blend 2.0.
The best way to describe a Jordan Super
Blend is to explain how our first super blend
came to be.
When John took over the winery in 2005,
he asked Rob Davis, my mentor, if anything
could be done to raise the quality of Jordan
wines even higher-all while staying true
to his parents' original vision and our elegant
style of winemaking. That year, Rob made our
dream cabernet sauvignon for John-a blend
of our favorite grower and estate vineyard
blocks, aged in our favorite French oak barrel.
The wine was comprised of 79% cabernet,
14% merlot and 7% petit verdot. This wine
was made in a Saint-Julien style similar to
the wines of Ducru Beaucaillou. We called
it the " Super Blend " because it was the best
blend we could produce from that vintage.
One year later, the 2005 Jordan Cabernet
Super Blend excited us all so much that
John gave winemaking the greenlight to shift
Jordan's entire production to this more fruitconcentrated,
even silkier rendition of the
classic Jordan house style.
By 2015, Jordan's winemaking team had
reached our goal of elevating the entire Jordan
Cabernet Sauvignon production over to super
blend status-and that's why 2015 is the first
vintage in Jordan history aged entirely
in French oak.
Five years later, we were ready for our
next winemaking challenge. Enter Operation
Super Blend 2.0.
WINECOUNTRYTABLE.COM 9
https://www.winecountrytable.com/
Jordan Wine Country Table - Vol. 17, 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Jordan Wine Country Table - Vol. 17, 2022
