Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United
States in 1980 and discovered that the White House wine
cellar (for official events) was essentially a tribute to the fine
winemaking skills of French winemakers. He was familiar
with California wine, having served two terms as governor
of California. He instructed the biggest oenophile among
his ‘California mafia’ (as the group of advisors he brought
with him were affectionately known), Deputy Chief of Staff
Michael Deaver, to make it a cellar that treated American
wine as a first class citizen. Later, Deaver was interviewed by
‘Les Amis du Vin’ wine magazine and asked what his favor-
ite wine was. He announced that it was 1976 Jordan Caber-
net (he was even photographed with a bottle) and that set
off a frenzy among winelovers to taste this cult wine from
California.
Just about nobody had heard of Jordan before the
article, but just about everybody had heard about it after-
wards. The wine became embedded in the national oeno-
logical consciousness overnight. Even then its trademark
was a Cabernet Sauvignon with a silkiness to the tannins,
even when young, that went on to prove that it could age.
This broke with most California Cabernets being made at
the time, which needed time to soften and resolve. Later,
a Chardonnay from Russian River Valley fruit was added to
the portfolio. It had many of the qualities of a fine Côtes
d’Or burgundy.
The subsequent history of Jordan is widely docu-
mented, so rather than repeating it I thought it might be
useful to provide a snapshot of Jordan today as, on a visit
earlier this month, my lasting impression was that there
was a lot more than meets the eye.
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