Spring 2022 Wine-Share
Here comes the Spring 2022 wine-share!
For this release, we have included a group of wines that is suited to the warming weather, and that represents a variety of winemaking techniques, across three vintages.
We have the last of our 2020s, Chardonnay and the return of “Riesl-eng”, both fashioned in a light, ethereal style that was the most honest way to deal with our fruit from this challenging year. The wines of this vintage are for drinking early and often, with lower alcohols and soft acidities that make them ideal staples in your summer cooler.
We have a collaboration wine, the third version of a mixed fruit fermentation project we embarked on in 2019 with the DC wine shop, Domestique. It’s a dark and piquant rosé of Noiret and seedling crab apples, with a beautiful label courtesy of natural dyer and textile artist An-Phuong Ly.
And after patiently resting it for years on its lees, we have our first traditional method sparkling wine, a very pale, very dry sparkling rosé from the 2018 vintage.
Finally, we had hoped to use this letter to announce an exciting project that Tim and Ben are working on, but for now the best we can do is this tease, and the full story will have to wait a few more weeks. We can say that it’s going to be a good thing for Midland, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Thank you, as always, for your support,
The Jordan Family
NOTES2021 “Loss for Words” Rosé of Noiret cofermented with seedling apples
This is our third collaboration with the Domestique wine shop in Washington DC, and after two years of our customers asking to buy the wine, we realized we should make enough for the wine-share. While this is technically a rosé, it stands apart from the pink crowd with its darker color, full malo creaminess and apple skin texture. Made with a minimalist approach, this mixed fermentation “wine” brings unexpected flavor and texture to this class of beverage. Label by dye and textile artist An-Phuong Ly. Check out her work at anmadethis.com
What should I use this wine for? This will play its part whenever you need rosé, but it’s also the bottle to pull when you get one of those rare evenings to yourself, where you’re finally able to slow down, forget your phone, and spend a couple of hours in stillness and quiet. That’s when the subtle layers and quirky charm of this bottle emerge.
2020 Chardonnay & Riesl-eng (red label), Mount Airy Vyrd, Shenandoah Valley
As mentioned previously, 2020 was a wild year for pretty much everything, and that includes our grape growing. First came the frost, then came the rains, and by the time we picked fruit, there was very little of it. We put a red label on this Chardonnay and Riesling/Petit Manseng, poking fun at where 2020 took our vineyard finances … into the red. It is also to set apart the 2020 wines from what we normally bottle; as the red labels wines are light on their feet, charming and for immediate consumption.
What should I use these wines for? These are for when the mercury rises. Keep them on ice, pour small glasses (so they stay cold), and repeat, and you have two of the most refreshing bottles we have made. In the wine world, sometimes we take ourselves (and our wines) too seriously, but we’re not doing that here; these are for fun.
2018 Brut “Zero” Sparkling Rosé, Mount Airy Vineyard, Shenandoah Valley
You may have noticed how we like to ferment our Cabernet Franc and Blaufränkisch together. In 2018, we tried this with the base wine for our sparkling rosé, and we’re definitely doing it again! The wine is pale in color from long lees aging both in barrel (18 months) and in bottle (24 months), which matches the minerality and precision of this traditional method sparkling wine. And don’t worry that you only have one bottle in this share; we’re saving another one for the fall, because we couldn’t decide whether we wanted you to have it in Spring or for the holidays. This wine was bottled with zero dosage, aka no added sugar to temper acidity, so it is bone dry.
