Jordan winemaking has spanned more than 40 years, and for every one of those vintages, decisions have been made to constantly improve the quality of our wines. Since our initial vintages of 1976 Cabernet Sauvignon and 1979 Chardonnay, we continue to fine-tune vineyard selection, harvesting methods, separation of lots to optimize fruit aroma and flavor, fermentation methods, oak selection and even improvements in machinery technology. The last decade of Jordan Chardonnay, however, has been its most exciting.
LEARNING FROM THE PAST
When I joined Jordan as a harvest intern in 1976, I was fortunate to work with the best wine mentor in the world: André Tchelistcheff, regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern American winemaking. The Jordans’ decision to hire André to consult with us was pivotal to achieving their dream of making wines of elegance and refinement, more akin to France than to California.
Born in czarist Russia and educated in France, André understood both the Old World traditions of Europe and the potential of the New World. André’s experience in both French and California winemaking provided an incredible foundation to a winemaker, like myself, who was so young and unfamiliar with the many choices one has to make in fashioning a wine from the vineyard to the table.
André always talked about how Europeans had
hands-on winemaking experience that stretched back for centuries and how they didn’t use the scientific winemaking methods I was taught in college. A true luxury for me was to travel with André to chateaux and domaines in the different regions of France—as we did beginning in the 1970s—exploring, in particular, the importance of soil and climate and how they related to expressions in the wine. The four cardinal rules of successful winemaking were amplified with every trip we took together: matching the correct cultivar (grape variety) with the climate and soil, which were followed by the successful husbandry (care and management) of farming the vineyard. The very best wines we tasted were ideal examples of the implementation of these four tenets. In my earliest years as winemaker, I began to focus more on the vineyard site, on trusting my palate and less on academic formulae.
“I began to focus
more on the vineyard site, on trusting my palate and less on academic formulae.”
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