As part of our 40th anniversary celebration in 2012, we are creating special storytelling videos with the Jordans and our winemaker, Rob Davis, who has made every vintage of Jordan since the inaugural 1976. Our hope is that these videos will transport you to historical moments in our history with fascinating–and sometimes funny–stories that many fans of Jordan wines have never heard before.
Our first story comes from Sally Jordan, CEO John Jordan’s mother, who shares with us the story behind the aha moment she and Tom Jordan had over a bottle of Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignon back in the fall of 1971, which changed their lives forever.
Make sure to visit our From the Heart section of this blog for more Jordan 40 storytelling videos throughout the year.
How you wrap a Valentine’s Day gift can be just as thoughtful as the gift itself–or even more so with a little creativity. In this video, I’ll show you inventive ways to use scarves for gift wrapping presents, whether giving your loved one chocolates or even a bottle of wine. A scarf wrap looks more elegant than paper and is less wasteful than wrapping with paper–and you get bonus points for giving two gifts in one. And these ideas are relevant year-around. Using scarves to wrap two bottles of wine also makes for a fun way to transport wines to restaurants or house parties.
The silk scarf used to wrap the square box of chocolates is available for $38 from Nordstrom.com; it’s a 44-inch square, which works really well for various square chocolate gift boxes. Coach.com has a new collection of silk scarves priced from $58. For chocolates gift boxes, we recommend San Francisco-based Recchiuti or Richart of Paris, both of which have some lovely options in the $40 range. Ferrero Rocher Hazelnut chocolates, available at Amazon.com for $16, are also an affordable luxury.
When making a wine bottle wrap, Bordeaux-style bottles, like those used for Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon and other medium- to full-bodied red wines, are easiest to wrap because they have higher shoulders. It’s also important to use a fabric another than silk due to the weight of the bottles. A pashmina style, like the Jones pink or Collection XIIX paisley from Macys.com, will work beautifully for under $40. Next time you’re out shopping for wrapping paper, just pick up a few scarves instead and keep them stored at home until it’s time to wrap that next wine bottle or gift box.
On behalf of everyone at Jordan, we hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day.
When winter officially arrived on December 22, the winery was already closed for the holidays. We’re now back to work–plowing through hundreds of emails, pruning the vineyards, tasting young wines in barrel.
To welcome the new year (and a few more months of winter), we thought it would be fun to share a time-lapse video of the Jordan winery chateau, as it undergoes its seasonal transformation from summer to fall to winter. We captured the footage with a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera and a Canon TC-80N3 timer. Still photos were taken once a day at first, then once every hour as the leaves began to rapidly change color. The camera movement is because we mounted the tripod fluid head to a wood platform on one of our sycamore trees, and the head moved slightly when we attached and removed the camera every morning and night. We couldn’t risk leaving our Canon outside overnight to brave the elements.
And here’s what the chateau looks like today. The chateau’s Boston ivy will awaken from its sleep in March. Happy New Year!
John Jordan added a festive twist to our annual Toys for Tots donations drive this year by transforming a retired grape gondola into a Christmas sleigh.
Director of Operations Tim Spence has kept a few old gondolas in a shed for many years; these five-ton trailers were used to transport grapes from our vineyards to the winery in the 1980s. Tim’s staff painted and decorated the gondola, then a challenge was issued to all employees to help fill the sleigh with toys by the morning of December 12. John kicked things off by filling one end of the sleigh with toys worth $3,000.
Vineyard Manager Dana Grande created a friendly competition between departments for who could collect the most toys, and employees flocked to the sleigh with bikes, balls, board games and puzzles. The over-flowing gondola sleigh rolled into downtown Healdsburg just before noon on Monday, stopping at the Healdsburg Fire Department to meet with Toys for Tots officials and transfer all donations to the organization.
Nearly 1,000 pounds of toys were collected by Jordan employees and Jordan Estate Rewards members.
“It’s incumbent upon local businesses to take up the challenge of improving our community and improving the lives of our more vulnerable fellow citizens,” John said. ”Now we have a goal we can strive to exceed. And we have a few more old gondolas ready to start a second career as Santa’s sleighs next year.”
It brings a whole new meaning to the term, “late harvest,” and we couldn’t be more proud.
Clyde (left) and Barney were inseparable during their lives at Jordan.
Today, we had to say goodbye to another beloved pygmy goat, Barney–the other half of our dynamic landscaping duo, Barney and Clyde. His death comes almost one year to the day that we laid to rest Clyde, who passed away October 29, 2010. Director of Operations Tim Spence, who buried Barney next to Clyde on the Jordan Estate this afternoon, almost brought a tear to my eye when he said, “You know, whether they’re animals or people, it’s is amazing how when one half of an elderly couple dies, the other half often can’t live on alone.”
Barney made it 368 days without his best friend.
Barney with Jordan Sous Chef Manuel Reyes.
After Clyde’s death, Barney was moved to a small farmhouse near the entrance of the winery to live with three other pygmy goats, but he was honestly never the same without Clyde by his side. Barney died of old age but also of a broken heart, for sure.
The shy and skittish counterbalance to friendly and constantly curious Clyde, Barney made just three brief appearances in our tribute video to Clyde, released November 2, 2010. We wanted to reshare this photo-video montage with all of you to celebrate the lives of these wonderful creatures.
As part of our first Viewers Choice Video Contest, Sue from New Jersey requested a video about how we make Jordan Winery videos, from selecting locations and topics to advice on lighting and editing. In these two videos, Laura Petersen and I reflect on how much we’ve learned about video production over the past 18 months–and the mistakes that have helped us grow. Though the final videos are fairly short, we did record an extensive interview about the importance of audio and other tips. So, if you’d like us to post the extended version of these videos, please let us know.
Thanks again to Sue for the suggested video topic.
As part of our Viewers Choice Video Contest, Greg from New York City (one of our friends on Snooth) requested a video about the people who work at Jordan Estate. This is our first video in the “People Behind Jordan Wines” series, where key members of the winemaking, viticulture, culinary teams talk about not only their jobs, but also tell stories about their childhoods, how they got into the business and what they like to do when they’re not at work. This collection of people profile videos will be published on our website over the next two months.
