The mustard tones of the Jordan Winery manor house echo the brushy yellow herb that peppers the vineyards of Sonoma County in the springtime. In her pursuit to evoke the chateaux of France that she loves, Sally Jordan chose the color as one of hundreds of design elements that come together to give guests the feeling of a grande maison in Provence, instead of an estate in northern California.
When he took ownership of the winery from Sally and his father, Tom, in 2007, John Jordan kept his motherās French aesthetic in place, because it had worked so well for the winery and the hospitality-focused company that encompasses it.
But Jordanās passion clearly lies beyond the wine business. It’s apparent from the moment you ask him what role aviationāand especially being a pilotāhas played in his life. That’s yellow too, Cub yellow.
A Pilot First
āIām not strictly a wine guyāI did not grow up doing wine at all,ā Jordan says. āI didnāt go to school for it.ā Instead, he holds an undergraduate degree in economics, a law degree, and an MBA. He joined the U.S. Navy as a non-flying naval officer, and then went to work as an attorney. āTo this day, I canāt claim to be an expert on wine or winemakingāIām fortunate to have wonderful people here who are. But flying, Iāve done since I was 17.ā
He soloed at 17 at the Santa Rosa Airport (KSTS) and then ābanged out all the ratings.ā He never wanted to pursue a career as a professional pilot, but he always enjoyed obtaining credentials. “Iām entrepreneurial and have many other interests.ā
To this end, heās notched his airline transport pilot certificate with a series of Gulfstream and Citation type ratingsāamong othersāplus an instructor certificate.
He caught the bug early, as a lad. āI built a lot of model airplanes when I was little, always liked them,āhe says. His favorites were World War II modelsāthe warbirds. But his own airplanes, he chose for their practicality. āI like airplanes that are very predictable. I use them as a means to an end too.”
Lift to Meet the Mission
Jordan chose his current duo of bizjets for their complementary capabilities, with the Cessna Citation M2 typically used for shorter missions: āMy mom lives in Santa Barbara⦠every month I go pick her up, and a couple of days later, take her home.ā The Gulfstream GIVSP meets his needs for long, overwater legs, such as to the Big Island of Hawaii, and carrying more passengers. However, sometimes heāll take the M2 to Florida, and sometimes he uses the GIV. āItās kinda fun to pedal across the country by yourself. I kinda like that,” he says. The M2 is the right price for shorter trips that he mostly flies alone.
āThe M2 is single pilot, so I fly that by myself. I mean, thatās like my car. I fly that once or twice a week. The GIV [I fly] less often, because that does a different mission.ā Operating costs (from Conklin & deDecker) make a difference: While the M2 runs roughly $1,723 per hour based on 600 hours per year, the GIVSP takes about $6,200 an hour. For the business, both mounts work similarly. āI go visit accounts, like restaurantsāthatās a way of thanking them for their business. [The jets give] me the ability to do something in a day, or in a 12-hour period that you couldnāt [otherwise]. Especially living here, where the airline service is intermit-tent. It would be impractical to do.
āI also fly customers here [to the winery] for a visit. We do a lot of that. Restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfasts, casinosāthereās a lot of that each year. Thereās also press, travel writers, wine writersāitās easier to get them to come here and write if they donāt have to suffer too much to do it.ā
Jordan Winery hosted several events in June to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, and the aircraft allowed Jordan to take a greater number of staff along. “Thatās staff intensive, so thatās a lot of people⦠alot of stuff that has to go,” he says. “[The aircraft] allow us to more effectively use staff time and reduce wear and tear on them.ā The winery has a corporate pilot employed to crew the Gulfstream with Jordan, as well as a maintenance technician, should anything breakdown and need repair.
Jordan had a Gulfstream GIII before the GIV, and he felt that was āthe worst type ratingā of all that heās completed. āAll of the redundancy of a modern jet, withall of the complexity, without the automation.ā
Cessna Citation M2
Base Price: | $4.7 million |
Powerplants: | Williams International FJ44-1AP-21 turbofans (2) |
Seats: | 5 + 1 |
Max Cruise Speed: | 404 ktas |
Range: | 1,300 nm/1,550 nm Gen2 |
Thatās changed with the newer models, including the Citations. ā[On the M2] I like the Garmin avionicsāI really appreciate what Garmin has done, especially as a single-pilot jet [flying] in the weather, and especially in complicated airspace like Southern California. If you really know it, itās fantastic. But itās like anything else in avionicsāif you donāt know it…ā
Jordan has owned a Piper Cub, which he has flown from the estateās private strip. He had the turf strip constructed on the property, and it measures 1,300 feet by 80 feet. āItās legit, but itās not on the sectional,ā because he wants to maintain its private, winery-only operations.
To make use of it now, heās switching gears. āIāve got a Maule on order, a tricycle gear one⦠[I] should get it this summer,” he says. “I went with the tricycle gearāI had a Cub for a while, and you know, a little crosswind on the pavement and that can go⦠and you canāt really take anybody anywhere. [The Maule] is an airplane that I can fly out of here, pick somebody up in Oakland or Sacramento. Itās an airplaneāitās not a toy that flies.ā He’s looking forward to taking delivery of it later this year.
Lifelong Learning
Jordan finds aviation engaging for the level of detail it offers. āIām interested in the math behind high-speed and high-altitude aerodynamics, how the center of lift shifts and how you can have Mach tuckāthatās obviously a big issue in jets, particularly in swept-wing ones,ā he says.
āAll of the discussions about icing, icing formationā[thereās] a lot of lore, a lot to be learned about all that, over the last five decades,ā such as the propensity of the tail to stall first when buildup occurs. āYou never know when these little tidbits of knowledge are going to [be important]. Iām a nerd, and I love the details behind all of that,ā he says.
Jordan also talks about how instrument flying has evolved during his time on the flight deck. āWe all grew up on NDBs and VORs and ILSs , and now there are LPVsāthatās a lot of fun, especially [using] the Garmin [suite]. In Santa Rosa, we have an RNAV approachāI donāt care for it because itās coming from the wrong way. Itās generally for [Runway] 14, but if youāre landing on 32, thereās the ILSāand Iām generally coming from the south and the east so I prefer that.
āLook how complex STARs and SIDs have become. If you look back at how they were when we [first started flying IFR], the crossing restrictions were differentāit was not nearly as tight, or as complex as it is now.ā
He doesnāt view flying as an escape. āI pay attention to what Iām doing when Iām flying⦠because I enjoy the technical aspects of flying. Planning [the flight], flying it, trying to get everything just perfect and optimizedāfor me thatās fun⦠People who think, āOh thatās your getaway time,ā as a flight instructor, I think maybe you need to rethink some things. In any airplane, you need to be paying attention to what youāre doing.”
A Lifestyle Change
Jordan took on the hospitality business as a way to change up his lifestyle after practicing as an attorney for many years. Now that the winery has turned 50āand Jordan along with itāhe sees the results. āI love hospitality,” he says. “No two days are the same. Thereās plenty to do⦠we make a cabernet and a chardonnay. We donāt have volumetric aspirations, but to continue to try to be the best in our lane is a challenge that has to be met every year.
āI like to say that at Jordan, we do three things: cabernet, chardonnay, and hospitality. You have to be on top of itāI have 100-some-odd people here. Everything from people who run the ranch side to hospitality, to the chefs, to social media, to accountants, to winemakersāwe have our own facilities department, so thereās so much that goes on here⦠youāre continually trying to get better at everything you do.ā
The winery has a different business model than other estates in Napa and Sonoma countiesāit doesn’t have a wine club. Instead, customers earn points based on the volume of wine they purchase over time. They can use those points to score benefits, such as an overnight stay in one of the estateās luxurious French-country-inflected suites.
Jordan keeps his hand in other enterprises as wellāheās a national security analyst for cable news on Fox and NewsMax. He speaks Russian and German fluently, and he uses his Navy experience to comment on current affairs from his TV studio at the estate. āThe TV portion is a major part of my day,ā Jordan says, ābecause I have to read and monitor [news] in those languages every day.ā
He adds, āInternational conflict in the 21st century is not binary, [as in] peace or kinetic conflict. Conflict exists in several domains, cyber, economic, information warfare, political warfare, espionage, as well as various grades of kinetic warfare. Sometimes you can be nominally at peaceāyouāre not exchanging bullets with a foreign power, but you are at war. You are engaged in conflict. So [I can understand] how these different domains of conflict interact⦠because of the different credentials I haveābusiness, economics. Also, [Iām] on the board of overseers at Stanfordās Hoover Institution for War, Revolution, and Peace.ā
That mental engagement takes us back to why Jordanās interest in aviation lives on after more than 30 years of being a pilot. āWhat I enjoy most about flying is the lifelong learning part of it.