handtomouth

One of a handful of wineries that sent out email diaries of the 2006 harvest was Jordan. An account by Gary Jordan, all the ups and downs and power load shedding was entertainingly detailed.

Then, soon after harvest, the Jordans invited some of us journalists to visit the farm and engage in some wine-related activity: this year we were all given representative bottles of the constituent parts of the flagship red blend and asked to blend our own 2005 version.

We ended up with six blends to taste and rank. All I can say is, after many years of tasting wine and writing about it, I am very glad that wine-makers take care of the blending. The six wines were all very different (especially the ringer that our table entered, consisting of little except merlot), and at least three could have been the next Jordan Cobbler’s Hill.

The back label bills this wine as “the ultimate expression of an outstanding wine from an exceptional vintage”, which sounds great and suggests that it’s not made in every vintage (can they all be exceptional?) – except it turns out that Cobbler’s Hill is in fact made every year.

So it’s better described as a single vineyard wine that reflects the vintage on the Jordan farm. We tasted a vertical from 2000 to the 2003, and one distinctly notices the vintage effect, notably the lack of weight on the 2002, a weaker vintage. Gary Jordan made the point that he is tired of people claiming that vintage variation is not important in our wines (because the Cape is always hot and sunny) and I totally agree.

We have poorer and greater vintages like anywhere else. We may not have the severe dips that European countries have (when rain may devastatingly dilute their crop) but some years are better than others. What we do also have is incredible variation in the growing conditions from one region to another, so it is perilous to generalise.

Cobbler’s Hill comes from grapes that grow on one hill on the farm, so this is a snapshot of the vintage, albeit a very carefully nurtured one. These grapes have been treated very specially, sorted for excellence and aged in selected oak. The wine tends to be marvellous in every vintage, in different ways.

But then again the Jordans are known for their meticulous control. When Kathy Jordan joked that we should ask for permission if we wanted to visit the loo, I may have quietly checked my capacity.