result of the trees reaching maturity. Maybe it’s the drought. Or it’s simply the unpredictability of how trees react to Mother Nature. The one constant is that the quality of the olives these trees are producing has never been better.


Twenty-one years have passed since Tom Jordan planted Tuscan variety olive trees—Frantoio, Leccino and Pendolino—on the hills surrounding Jordan Lake, and those trees are finally near full maturity and reaching optimal production. It will be another 10-plus years


before the squatty Arbequinas


enter their peak, and we’re already thrilled with the round, buttery mid- palate the Spanish olive has brought to our blend. In the last three years, we’ve noticed that all four varieties of olives are riper and more flavorful than previous years and are flourishing through myriad weather conditions.


Moderate to cool weather prevailed


throughout the 2016 growing season for olives, setting the stage for an average- sized harvest following the bumper 2015. After a much-needed, rainy winter, spring days were cool and sunny during flowering of the trees, which affected pollination, leading to less fruit formation. Apart from two weeks of cool, rainy weather in May, summer days were warm and moderate until an unseasonably cool August, which had no real effect on the smaller crop. After a


warm September with a few heat spikes, the olives began changing color in October and were ready to be harvested by the end of the month when the first fall rains arrived. Our biggest challenge of 2016 was the rain just before harvest; it was the fifth wettest October in California since 1895.


The main threat to olive quality is frost and heavy rain during harvest, and we haven’t experienced


below-freezing


temperatures during November since 2010, allowing us to let each variety of olive ripen to its peak maturity in 2016. (The official Olive Maturity Index used by farmers ranks fruit ripeness from zero to seven.) We prefer to pick Arbequinas first at a lower ripeness of 1, which preserves the grassy and buttery flavors, as well as the polyphenols—one of the many health-protective


antioxidants


found in extra virgin olive oil. This year, we harvested Arbequinas at the optimal 1, followed immediately by Pendolino at maturity 7, where skin color is purple or black with all the flesh purple to the pit. Because Pendolino is a pollinator planted every few rows to pollinate the Frantoio and Leccino trees, only about two acres of Pendolino trees are planted. But those trees produced just more than 4 tons of olives in 2016 compared to Arbequina’s 3.6 tons, and the 2016 Pendolino oil fresh from the press tasted ripe and round with a delicious brown-butter note. Leccino olives were


harvested next also at a maturity of 7, followed by the later ripening Frantoio at maturity index 5-6 (skin color all purple or black with half the flesh turning purple). The ripest olives yield the most oil, so our move toward a rounder style of extra virgin olive oil has also given our chef a few more bottles to use in the kitchen—and a few more cases for guest services staff to offer for purchase.


This year, we harvested and milled each olive variety separately for the first time, rather than combining the Tuscan varieties before pressing. This allowed Executive Chef Todd Knoll, the winemaking team and myself to analyze each Tuscan variety’s flavors before creating the master blend in December. Initial tastings of each fresh- pressed extra virgin olive oil revealed the round, buttery palate we desire, but with less fresh-cut grass and peppery notes. During the master blending session, we discovered that using more Pendolino and less Leccino (compared to 2015) allowed us to create a 2016 Jordan Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil with more depth of aroma and flavor than the 2015—a vintage which had no Pendolino oil in the blend. (Find our complete tasting notes on page 26.)


As spring arrives, these capricious trees are sprouting new leaves for a new vintage, and we’re ready for the next swing.


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