by Patrick on April 15, 2011 in From the Cellar
Every winter, new French and American oak barrels are crafted and delivered to the winery for aging our youngest vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon. I always take the opportunity to visit Nadalié cooperage in Calistoga, one of our barrel makers, to monitor the making of our American oak barrels in action. (Nadalié also makes our French oak barrels in France.) We [...]
by Maggie on March 17, 2011 in From the Cellar
Every fall, we begin the meticulous process of selecting oak barrels for our youngest vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon. Unlike many wineries, we don’t follow a recipe for which types of barrels we purchase each year. Barrel selection decisions–from country of origin (French or American) and forest source, to cooperage, toast level and even age of [...]
by Ronald on April 15, 2010 in From the Cellar
Twice a year our winemaking team spends several weeks conducting a series of blind tastings to assess the merits of each cooperage from which we source barrels. Although we only work with the finest coopers, we still believe it’s important to test their performance every year to ensure the quality and consistency of the oak [...]
by Patrick on March 12, 2010 in From the Cellar
Our recent post about the new barrel inspection process discussed the pristine barrels French and American cooperages deliver to our cellar door every winter. But only one-third of our Cabernet Sauvignon is aged in new oak barrels each vintage, so used barrels play a critical role in our winemaking philosophy. Barrels raise our wine for three [...]
by Patrick on February 19, 2010 in From the Cellar
Every winter, new oak barrels from top cooperages in France and America arrive at the Jordan cellar. Approximately one-third of the barrels we use to age our wines each year are new, and we work with a variety of coopers, so inspecting these barrels to meet our standards is an intricate process. I inspect every [...]
by Rob on January 11, 2010 in From the Cellar
In this blog and on our YouTube channel, we’ll be posting videos each year where I discuss the latest releases of our Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Russian River Valley Chardonnay. Our 2006 Cabernet and 2008 Chardonnay will release in April 2010, so please check back for our video release tasting notes. Until then, we’ve [...]
by Patrick on January 10, 2010 in From the Cellar
Each December before barrel aging begins, we create the barrel blend for our latest vintage of Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. We only blend two Bordeaux varieties with our Cabernet Sauvignon—Merlot and Petit Verdot—the latter of which has been increasing its presence in our final blend, thanks to its amazing blueberry fruit, vibrant color, and soft, [...]
