by Todd on May 20, 2011
The cool growing season in 2010 allowed us to produce what I believe is our best vintage of olive oil to date. In this 2010 Jordan Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil tasting note video, I discuss the weather, fruit ripening and making of our latest vintage, as well as the award-winning oil’s flavors, texture and myriad uses in the kitchen.
Released officially on May 1, Jordan Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil is available for purchase exclusively at Jordan for $29 per bottle.
by Lisa on January 13, 2011
Nearly 18 acres of olive trees are planted on the Jordan estate. All four varieties of olives (Frantoio, Leccino and Pendolino of Italian origin and the Spanish Arbequina) are blended to create our vintage-dated extra virgin olive oil, which is released each year at our Spring at Jordan event. Here are a few scenes from our 2010 olive harvest. Stay tuned for Chef Todd Knoll’s harvest report video.
by Lisa on May 24, 2010
Fromage de Meaux (left) and Queso de Tetilla (center), originally uploaded by blog.jordanwinery.com.
A well-regarded wine magazine is publishing a story about wine country cheesemakers and the wineries who partner with these local creameries to offer cheese and wine pairing tastings. Because Todd (our chef) and Nitsa (his wife and our hospitality director) put the same artistic passion into styling food as they do into making it, we often conduct our food photography shoots in-house rather than hiring a professional photographer.
Utilizing the Canon 5D Mark II that captures our video footage, we staged and photographed an artisanal cheese display, which included the local cheeses we serve daily in our seated tastings. We placed a table under the chateau’s covered alcove that opens to our terrace only on one side, so that we had natural but indirect light. I turned the aperture down on the camera to about 5.0, and manually focused on the handle of the knife. Then we let the afternoon sun shine a little on the left edge of the table. When the sun was too bright, we placed a white bounce card next to the cheeses on the lit side of the table (left) to help diffuse the sunlight.
The above image wasn’t selected by the magazine, but it was one of our favorites due to the natural light hitting the cheese on the left and the knife handle.
Some of the highlights from the photo shoot are viewable on our Flickr page. The last five close-up shots with the Jordan Cabernet bottle centered amongst the cheeses were shot with a Lensbaby. We also used a macro lens for the extreme close-ups of the quince, Jordan Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam shots.
by Todd on May 4, 2010
Our 2009 Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil released on Saturday, May 1, in conjunction with our Spring at Jordan event. This vintage has special significance to me because it shows our stylistic progression to a rounder mid-palate EVOO, thanks to the addition of more fruit from our young Arbequina trees. We also utilized an innovative mobile mill to cold press the fruit next to our olive groves within six hours of harvest even though 24 hours is the standard for extra virgin oils. (Previous vlog posts on the 2009 olive harvest, racking and blending can be found in our From the Land section.)
by Todd on April 21, 2010
Thanks to all who entered our first recipe contest, inspired by the May 1 release of our 2009 Jordan Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And the winning recipe our judges selected is …
Due to availability of seasonal lettuces, vegetables and seafood, we added (and substituted) a few ingredients in Chef Woody’s dish. I hope he doesn’t mind. The recipe was so inspiring to my inner ceviche lover that we added fresh octopus, which arrived the morning we prepared the dish. Avocados are now in season in California, and I couldn’t pass up including fava blossoms from our garden when I saw Chef Woody’s presentation. We also opted for the grilled preparation.
Chef Woody’s recipe will be featured at our Spring at Jordan event on May 1.
Southern Summer Pickled Shrimp
by Bill Woody
(Equally tasty Winter, Spring or Fall)
Ingredients:
2 lbs thawed cooked and peeled jumbo shrimp (31-40 count; sold frozen at grocery stores and warehouse clubs)
1 cup white wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 3.5-ounce jar non-pareil capers
1 large sweet onion (sliced thin)
2 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon fresh garlic (minced)
1 tablespoon sugar
Fresh cracked pepper and sea salt to taste
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a gallon-size zip lock bag (may want to double bag); mix thoroughly. Place bag in the refrigerator overnight to allow the shrimp to marinate. Entrée preparation displayed in photos.
Serves 6-8
Prep time: 15 minutes
Additional comments:
Shrimp may be served multiple ways. Great as an appetizer, stand-alone entrée, served over a bed of fresh romaine lettuce or try it over chilled pasta.
The dish will last at least one week; we love it because it can be made and served on the weekend with the leftovers enjoyed during the week for another dinner.
Made the mistake of buying raw shrimp once! No Problem!! Poured ingredients through a colander to remove the liquid and cooked them on the grill using a flat grill pan. Equally Fantastic!
- Chef Woody
by Dana on March 31, 2010
After the vineyard team finishes pruning grapevines each March, we move onto pruning 18 acres of olive trees planted on hillsides near Jordan’s two lakes. It takes just one minute to prune a grapevine, but an olive tree—due to its size and number of branches—requires 10 minutes of grooming to create proper shaping and light exposure, which ensures efficient picking at harvest and better fertility the following year. In this video, I discuss the olive tree pruning process at Jordan and how we reuse our wood cuttings.
by Lisa on March 5, 2010
To celebrate the release of our 2009 Jordan Extra Virgin Olive Oil, we’re pleased to announce our first online contest—a recipe challenge—conceived to inspire fellow epicures. If you have, or wish to create, an inventive recipe in which Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a key ingredient, we’d love to hear from you. Watch the video from Nitsa Knoll, Director of Hospitality & Special Events, to learn how your recipe, inspired by Jordan Extra Virgin Olive Oil, can be featured at our Spring at Jordan event on May 1, 2010. Deadline to submit a recipe has been extended to Friday, April 9. (Because our 2009 Jordan Extra Virgin Olive Oil was just blended and bottled, it isn’t available yet to purchase. If you watch this video, however, you’ll get an idea of its flavor profile.) Our favorites will be announced here on April 21, 2010. Contest details—including Chef Todd’s pound cake recipe for inspiration—are included below. Complete Official Rules are available here.
Click here to view Chef Todd’s Jordan Olive Oil and Chardonnay Pound Cake recipe.
CONTEST DETAILS:
Deadline: March 31, 2010
Submissions: Recipes must inventively use Extra Virgin Olive Oil and be appropriate for service at a reception-style event. Pictures of your dishes will assist us in evaluating these culinary creations. Entries must be emailed to blog@jordanwinery.com with the subject line: “Jordan Extra Virgin Olive Oil Recipe Contest” and must contain the recipe name, your name, your address, your e-mail address and your date of birth. Three winning entries will be posted on Jordan’s website and the top entry will be featured at the Spring at Jordan event, as well as profiled in the Jordan newsletter. See Official Rules for complete details.
Prize: Winning entries will be chosen by a panel of food and wine experts based on specified criteria. Three winning recipes will be selected on April 16, 2010. The best of the three will be featured at the Jordan Extra Virgin Olive Oil tasting station, or as a passed hors d’oeuvre, at the Spring at Jordan event, held at the winery May 1, 2010, and also profiled in Jordan’s annual newsletter, Estate Tales. See Official Rules for complete details.
CONTEST RESTRICTIONS:
Maximum of two recipes per household; must be 21 to enter. No purchase required. Alcohol beverage industry members not eligible. Void where prohibited. Sponsored by Jordan Winery, 1474 Alexander Valley Road, Healdsburg, CA 95448. See Official Rules for complete details.
by Todd on February 26, 2010
Like winemaking, a critical step in crafting extra virgin olive oil is creating the master blend. One week after our EVOO is racked (see recent blog post), we re-taste each barrel drum of Arbequina, Frantoio, Leccino and Pendolino oil in preparation for our annual blending trial exercise. Yesterday, our consultant Kevin Rogers and I tasted three potential blends of EVOO and selected our favorite. Watch the below video where we discuss olive oil making, the blending process and sensory analysis of EVOO. Our 2009 Jordan Extra Virgin Olive Oil will be bottled next week before every bottle is hand-labeled in anticipation of our official release on May 1, 2010, in conjunction with Spring at Jordan.
To view our January 8 vlog post with information about each olive variety and the 2009 growing season, click here.
