Winemaker Notes
With its bright acidity, crispness and vibrant fruit, the 2014 Jordan Chardonnay is a versatile wine for food pairing. It will shine when served with a variety of seafood dishes, salads, and pasta. The wine’s elegant balance, creamy mouthfeel, and subtle oak nuances also stands up to cream sauces and grilled meats.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Spicy nutmeg meets a reckoning of lemon zest and grapefruit pith in this light, bright, elegant white that's subtle in oak. Notions of just-ripe pear follow around a rounded, medium-bodied build, providing plenty of juiciness and structure.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2014 Jordan Chardonnay is showing excellent resilience since it first released several years ago. TASTING NOTES: This wine coming into its own and now exhibits a mix of lovely fruit and maturing from time in the cellar. Its aromas and flavors of savory spices, tart apples, and complex nuances would pair it beautifully with roast chicken over baby spinach and kale. (Tasted: April 12, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A standout region for its decidedly Californian take on Burgundian varieties, the Russian River Valley is named for the eponymous river that flows through it. While there are warm pockets of the AVA, it is mostly a cool-climate growing region thanks to breezes and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reign supreme in Russian River, with the best examples demonstrating a unique combination of richness and restraint. The cool weather makes Russian River an ideal AVA for sparkling wine production, utilizing the aforementioned varieties. Zinfandel also performs exceptionally well here. Within the Russian River Valley lie the smaller appellations of Chalk Hill and Green Valley. The former, farther from the ocean, is relatively warm, with a focus on red and white Bordeaux varieties. The latter is the coolest, foggiest parcel of the Russian River Valley and is responsible for outstanding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.