by Ronald on April 15, 2010
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 meet our standards. Our Chardonnay cooperage tastings were just completed. We even had a special guest stop by from France.
by Patrick on March 12, 2010
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 years of their life cycle before being sold to other wineries. The annual transition each February and March of moving one third of our oak barrels to prepare them for sale—and to make room for new oak barrels—is profiled in this video.
by Ronald on January 13, 2010
One of the vital steps to crafting a great Chardonnay involves lees, residual yeast cells that remain in contact with the wine during fermentation and aging. The lees help give Chardonnay its round mouthfeel and mild tannins.
When fermentation and aging are complete, we rack our Chardonnay from the lees, leaving the yeast cells as a by-product. In keeping with our philosophy of reducing, reusing and recycling whenever possible, we give our lees to a distiller who specializes in extracting the alcohol left in lees for other commercial uses.
Racking typically takes place in our cellars mid-December through early January. Our 2009 Russian River Valley Chardonnay finished racking on January 6 and is now resting in French oak barrels in our cellars. The 2009 is a continuation of our progression toward less malolactic fermentation, which began with the 2007 vintage. Less malolactic gives our Chardonnay a vibrant, balanced structure highlighting the green apple and pear fruit characters. The 2009 Jordan Chardonnay will release in spring 2011.
Here’s a quick video of the Chardonnay being racked from the lees.
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.
