Posts Tagged ‘cabernet’

Photo shoot for “Decanting Sonoma County” + other food photography, video

by Laura on June 4, 2010

Because food is an essential part of the Jordan experience (both at the winery and hopefully in your home), Executive Chef Todd Knoll seasonally creates new recipes that pair nicely with balanced, elegant Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons, like those made at Jordan. These recipes are showcased at our estate events, during meals for Jordan Estate Rewards members, on our website for home cooks and also in cookbooks.

Last week, we had the opportunity to create some recipes and style them in three separate food photography shoots. All three shoots are captured in this behind-the-scenes video.

With inspiration from a new Vollrath fryer, Chef Knoll, who grew up in Hawaii and loves flavors from Asian and the Pacific, developed a Fava Leaf Tempura recipe, which will be featured on the Jordan website later this summer. For the home chef, Chef Knoll recommends the Cayenne Countertop Fryer—it conveniently uses a standard electrical outlet—and he recommends rice oil for frying.

Another new Chef Knoll creation is a Hoisin Duck Breast with White and Green Asparagus, which was conceptualized for the first addition of Decanting Sonoma: The Cookbook, which is expected to debut in 2011. Local photographer Robert Holmes was asked to capture the beauty of the plated duck with a bottle of Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon, as the cookbook will include wine pairings with each recipe. The photo selected by Decanting Sonoma’s author will be exclusive to her book, but here’s one of the shots we took with our Canon 5D during the shoot.

Hoisin Duck with White and Green Asparagus, originally uploaded by blog.jordanwinery.com.

A selection of the photographs we took (while professional photographer Robert Holmes was clicking away nearby) can be found on Flickr. If you’re interested in trying the Hoisin Duck recipe, a copy is posted on our Facebook page notes tab.

Posted in: From the Kitchen

Tags: "Decanting Sonoma County", asparagus, bottle, bread, cabernet, chardonnay, cheese, chef, chicken, cookbook, cork, duck, fava leaves, food photography, fromage, frying, glass, herbs, how to make tempura, photography, recipes, rice oil, style, styling, stylist, tempura

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A week of rain: good news for Sonoma County vines, fish and residents

by Dana on January 21, 2010

Blue Heron at Jordan Estate’s lower lake

Over the last six days, our region has been blanketed with rain. Because the grapevines are currently dormant — and Sonoma County has experienced drought for four consecutive years — we welcome this heavy winter rainfall. While we’re pleased by these last series of storms, we continue respecting and responding to the need for water conservation throughout our community (meticulously monitoring vine growth during the growing season, using supplemental irrigation ONLY when necessary and recycling water for agricultural use).

A few statistics released today:

- Lake Mendocino (really important water releases for fall Russian River chinook salmon runs) is at 69% capacity as of 1/21/2010. It was previously around 38% in late 2009.

- Lake Sonoma (really important water releases for Dry Creek Steelhead and salmon run to the fish hatchery at Warm Springs Dam) is at 90% capacity as of 1/21/2010. In late 2009, capacity was around 74%. (Lake Sonoma is also the primary source of domestic water for the 600,000 customers from Windsor to San Rafael.)

These rainstorms have also refilled Jordan’s irrigation lake and continue to replenish our soils, which need ample water supply in early spring when the grapevines come to life. For the few vineyards that require supplemental irrigation, we can conserve water and irrigate later in the year, thanks to the winter rains.

Our last year of normal or above average rainfall was 2005-2006 (rain years are measured July 1-June 30), and we’re optimistic about the beginning of our 2009-2010 rainy season:
- 2006-2007 rain totals = 27.57”
- 2007-2008 rain total = 28.57”
- 2008-2009 rain total = 27.83”
- 7/1/2009 to 1/20/2010 = 19.46”

We’ve included two videos, which were recorded today at the Jordan Estate’s lower lake and upper lake. Unfortunately twitvid’s embed player no longer works with our blog, so only video links could be provided.

Posted in: From the Land

Tags: alexander valley, cabernet, dana grande, drought, el nino, grapes, lake mendocino, lake sonoma, rain, rainfall, salmon run, season, vines, vineyard, vineyards, viticulture, water supply, weather, winter

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Video: our 2005 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

by Rob on January 11, 2010

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 created a short video about our current vintage, the 2005 Jordan Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

Posted in: From the Cellar

Tags: 2005, barrels, blueberry, cabernet, cabernet sauvignon, casks, cassis, cellars, French oak, merlot, petit verdot, rob davis, tasting note, vines, vineyard, vineyards, viticulture, winter

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Tallowing the doors of our oak casks

by Patrick on January 10, 2010

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, round tannins.

Our cellar team still practices the old-world tradition of tallowing (though today we use wax) the doors of our oak casks to properly seal them. The 2009 Jordan Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon will reside for three months in our 6,000-gallon oak casks (originally constructed in 1976), before moving to French (two-thirds) and American (one-third) oak barrels for an additional 12 months of aging.

Posted in: From the Cellar

Tags: alexander valley, barrels, cabernet, casks, cellar, cellars, doors, merlot, oak, petit verdot, tallow, tallowing, vineyards, winemaking, winter

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2009 vintage: growing season + grape harvest

by Dana on January 3, 2010

Every growing season—and grape harvest—has its own distinct personality. Grapes can be precocious or take their own sweet time to mature. Harvests can range from hectic to calm and thrilling to frustrating. These grapes are our babies in many ways. It’s the birth of a new vintage we plan carefully and anticipate at the end of each summer, nurturing our vines throughout the growing season. Sonoma County is blessed with amazing weather—the long days of sunshine and the cool, foggy mornings and chilly nights grapevines love. Mother Nature rarely, however, lets a full year pass without reminding us who wears the pants in our relationship, from the risk of spring frost to the threat of rain at harvest. Because Jordan employs its vineyard crew full-time, we thoroughly prepare for—and quickly react to—any weather conditions so that pristine grapes are delivered to Rob Davis and the winemaking team back at the winery.

The 2009 harvest had its share of excitement, especially in October. In this video, I discuss the exceptional weather throughout the 2009 growing season and the thrilling end to a beautiful year in our Alexander Valley vineyards. Wine is a living, breathing gift from our vines, constantly evolving with time. I look forward to opening a bottle of our 2009 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (releasing in 2013) to see how it grows with time—and to be transported back to the memory of harvesting those grapes.

Posted in: From the Vineyards

Tags: cabernet, crush, grapes, harvest, harvesting, merlot, petit verdot, season, vines, vineyard, weather, winter

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Creating the Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon barrel blend

by Maggie on December 19, 2009

As the year winds down and the holidays approach, harvest still seems fresh in the minds of the production team. Crafting the final blend of Cabernet before it is transferred to barrels might seem like a pivotal step in the artistry of winemaking for the new vintage, but in fact, it is a quick tasting of myriad lots to confirm what we have been observing on the vines for months.

At the onset of harvest in September, Winemaker Rob Davis, Assistant Winemakers Ronald du Preez and myself work together tasting the highly diverse lots of grapes that are sampled daily before they are harvested. This grape review is the most critical to the quality assessments that make up the blend. After the grapes are delivered to our fermenters, each tank is tasted twice a day throughout the fermentation. Following the fermentation, each tank is pressed individually, sensory notes are assessed and then paired up with other lots that are similar in quality. After a 3- to 4-week malolactic fermentation, the wines again are re-tasted and assessed for matching with other tanks that are “blend worthy” for our vintage Cabernet.

At this point we take samples from each tank to a white room, lit only by dim red lights, and taste together, verbally comparing our sensory notes. Why the red light? Color more than any other component in red wine prejudices the palate when fruit aromas and flavors want to be prioritized. Cabernet rarely suffers from lack of color. So by reviewing the wines under red light, the variation of hues is mitigated, and we can focus more on the lovely notes of blackberry and cassis that are so important to the style of our wine.

Our final blend can be drawn from as many as 30 lots. The quality bar is set very high: the very best Cabernet in the world. Grand cru classé wines are exceptional for this reason: rigorous selection. Either the lot makes the cut or it is set aside for further consideration at another time. Normally this means that the lot will be sold to the bulk wine market at a considerably less profit. With the selection made, the next step is to blend the wines together in our upright, 6,000-gallon oak casks in preparation for going to barrel.

Posted in: From the Cellar

Tags: cabernet, casks, merlot, petit verdot, winemaking

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