Wednesday 31st January

The name, ‘Iron Maiden’ doesn’t refer to Margaret Thatcher in her youth! When I walked into the cellar as the first chardonnay of the year arrived from the vineyard, and heard the group’s new album “Different World” playing over the presses, I realized that the maiden vintage of our newest chardonnay block was destined to be tank fermented!

One has to ‘think like a grape’ when making chardonnay. The chemistry of sauvignon blanc grapes is vastly different to that of chardonnay. With sauvignon, we reckon that 6 to occasionally 12 hrs skin contact are necessary for maximum extraction of flavour. In the case of chardonnay though, 5 months on the skins in the vineyard is long enough! At Jordan, our ideal analysis on tank-fermented chardonnay grapes is a sugar of between 22.5 and 23˚ brix, total acidity of 8 g/litre and a pH of 3.3 or less. It is the juice flavour complexity that determines whether it will be tank or barrel fermented.

As I walked down the rows sampling various vineyards, I realized that the harvesting pace would have to slow down for the rest of the week. There would only be enough work to keep the hand-harvesting team busy and there was no sense in just ‘bringing it all in’. Maximum flavour comes to those that wait, and judging the right moment to harvest provides as much stress for a winemaker as that experienced by a 747 pilot on take-off or landing!