History
The Jordans bought their first 275 Alexander Valley acres in 1972, expanded to 1,300 in 1974, and replaced prune orchards with more than 200 acres of vines; the 58,000 square foot chateau was ready for the inaugural 1976 harvest. Winemaker Rob Davis made every vintage from that first year until his retirement after his 43rd season in 2019, when Maggie Kruse took over. John Jordan has run the estate since 2005 and owned it fully since 2007; hillside plantings replaced the valley floor from the late 1990s, the floor vineyard was sold in 2012, and a Red Blotch diagnosis in 2016 triggered a seven year, block-by-block replant led by ranch manager Brent Young.
The Site
The estate covers about 1,200 acres with three quarters kept as natural habitat and roughly 120 acres under vine in twenty hillside blocks, a patchwork of serpentine clays and varied drainage that the replant remapped with soil pits and GPS.
Vines and Blocks
Bordeaux varieties: about 88 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon with Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec in support. The Cabernet program also draws on some forty grower blocks across the valley's benchlands, and the Chardonnay comes from Russian River Valley sites.
The Wines
Jordan's Cabernet has held one food-first, age-worthy style for five decades, silky, cedar-edged and moderate in alcohol, with the replanted estate hillsides now at its core.