Sustainable giants – How Bokisch and Fetzer Vineyards reap mutual benefits

Certified (LODI RULES) Sustainable as well as CCOF Organic sign at Bokisch Ranches' Terra Alta Vineyard in Lodi's Clements Hills AVA

While we naturally talk a lot about smaller production Lodi based wineries leading the way with wines focused more and more on sensory qualities unique to the growing region, the reality remains that the vast majority of Lodi grapes are grown for multi-million-case wineries that have originated outside the region. Companies such as E. & J. Gallo, Constellation Brands, Trinchero Family Estates, Treasury Wine Estates, The Wine Group, or Bronco Wine Company that churn out most of the value oriented brands (sold mostly as generalized "California" wines) found on America’s retail shelves.

For all of that, there are some Lodi growery/big winery relationships that seem to have gelled into a mutually beneficial business model personifying one of the ideals that has come to be identified with the Lodi Viticultural Area: namely, the pursuit of an accountable sustainability, entailing a balance of environmental, cultural or social, and economic goals, leading to consistent levels of quality and business success...

Aug 1, 2030 at 6:00 AM Permalink

Lodi Appellation Inclusion Collective aims to increase wine industry diversity with first enrichment program in June

Klinker Brick Winery head winemaker Joseph Smith, an Afro-Latin originally from Belize, and among a minority holding key positions in the Lodi wine industry

A group of Lodi vintners have come together to form an organization called the Lodi Appellation Inclusion Collective, or LAIC. LAIC's first activity is scheduled to take place by mid-June of 2021: a 3-and-a-half-day "enrichment" program, in which a projected half-dozen participants will be able to experience all facets of the Lodi wine industry, from vineyard and winery work to marketing and sales.

The express purpose of LAIC will be to increase racial and cultural diversity in the Lodi winegrowing region — and hopefully in the long run, enhance the American wine industry in general — by sponsoring activities that pro-actively stimulate interest in living and working in winegrowing regions like Lodi, particularly among the BIPOC (i.e., Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) communities...

Apr 9, 2030 at 10:00 AM Permalink

Is appreciation of wine becoming passé? Part 2, pain and controversy

Contrasting Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards: (Top) high cordon machine prune trellis on single wire in Jahant-Lodi AVA; (bottom) vertical shoot position trellising (usually cultivated by hand) in Rutherford-Napa Valley.

Continued from previous post: Is appreciation of wine becoming passé?

Pain and controversy wrought by push to go beyond varietal sameness

When many (if not most) Americans think of "California wine," they still think of Napa Valley, even though Napa Valley produces only 4% of California wines (re Capstone California). Non-Californians still have problems finding places like Lodi (which produces 20.5% of California wines), Lake County or Paso Robles on a map. For all they know, Santa Lucia Highlands is located north of the Bay and Anderson Valley is south of it...

Apr 17, 2024 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Is appreciation of wine as varietals becoming passé? Part 1, history, terroir, rebellion

Harney Lane Vineyards Zinfandel sources (from top): Home Ranch, Scottsdale Vineyard and Lizzy James Vineyard.

First, let's taste three different Lodi Zinfandels, all made by the same local winery, Harney Lane Vineyards:

• The 2020 Harney Lane "Home Ranch" Zinfandel ($32) is almost an essence of what many people love about Zinfandel—round, plumpish yet bouncy on the palate, with velvety flavors, almost plush in their softness, signaled by exuberant aromas of chocolaty fresh berries and a touch of strawberry. "Friendliness" personified...

Apr 15, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

At the spring Lodi Wine Festival, wines were showing off the appellation better than ever!

Burlington Chandler proprietor Mark Chandler (middle) and his son Dave (right) pouring at the 2024 Lodi Wine Festival.

Lodi wines are better than ever. 

That's the happy thought I walked away with after a spin through the spring Lodi Wine Festival, taking place last Saturday (April 6, 2024) at the historic Ole Mettler Pavilion on the Lodi Grape Festival grounds.

In what ways are Lodi wines better? Number one, they're fresher and purer than ever, not so much overripe, overly alcoholic or overly oaked as many of them were just 10 or 15 years ago.

Sure, many homegrown Lodi wines are still made in "commercial" styles. A good number of, say, Cabernet Sauvignons or Zinfandels made to taste like what average consumers expect out of a Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel, no matter where they come from. Not, in other words, like it tastes like it could come from Lodi, and only from Lodi...

Apr 8, 2024 at 2:00 PM Permalink

Lodi's spring Wine Festival is your yearly opportunity to taste the latest handcraft releases grown in America's largest winegrowing region

Inside the historic, barrel-shaped Ole Mettler Grape Pavilion at the Lodi Grape Festival.

Each spring since 1980, the Lodi Grape Festival has been holding an early April wine festival on its fairgrounds. It is always the Lodi region's first large wine tasting event of the year.

This year, the 2024 Lodi Wine Festival takes place this coming Saturday, April 6. As always, it is held in the historic Ole Mettler Grape Pavilion, a ribbed wooden showroom built in 1949 that makes you think you're in the inside of a gigantic wine barrel. Very Germanic... very "Lodi!"

Apr 3, 2024 at 12:00 PM Permalink

Haarmeyer's Lodi wines express sense of place, even when made from the most exotic grapes

Haarmeyer Wine Cellars winemaker/owner Craig Haarmeyer in his cellar filled with puncheons (double-size barrels)

An orchestra contained in a wine

Let's start by talking about a single Lodi grown wine, which could very well be the most unusual wine in the world (no exaggeration), before getting to the vintner behind it.

Today's topic of interest is the 2023 Haarmeyer Wine Cellars Victor Weisser, Gemischter Satz ($28), which is a pale gold colored wine with the faintest rose tinted hue. It looks like a typical white wine, and walks and talks like one—honeyed and floral scents somewhat akin to dianthus (vanillin clove/pepper) and, beneath, a fresh bag of potpourri laced with tobacco leather and dried citrus, with suggestions of honeydew rind...

Apr 1, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Conversations with an English writer about the golden rule when telling the story of old vines

Lodi winemaker Mike McCay in Bonotto Vineyard—originally planted in the 1930s and, up until recently, producing Zinfandel that disappeared into anonymous vats of "jug" wines, but now recognized as a vineyard-designate varietal with distinctive qualities of its own.

Just minutes before a virtual webinar coming out of London and hosted by The Old Vine Conference this past March 25, 2024, a distinguished British journalist named Tamlyn Currin—also widely known as the Sustainability and Senior Editor for JancisRobinson.com—peppered me with questions in preparation for her on-air introduction to recipients of 2024 Old Vine Hero Awards...

Mar 27, 2024 at 1:00 PM Permalink

The consequential role of women in the Lodi wine industry

Oak Farm Vineyards winemaker Marilia Nimis-Schrader presiding over a recent harvest in Lodi's Mokelumne River appellation.

March is Women's History Month. We should, no doubt, celebrate the contributions of women to events and history every month, on each day of the year; but in its wisdom, U.S. Congress (in 1987) selected March as the month to celebrate the achievements of women towards our nation's fortunes and destiny.

The wine industry, however, is one place where women are still "catching up," so to speak, despite the fact that women make up just over half of the country's population, and currently over 58% of the country's overall work force...

Mar 22, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Latest update on the 100+ grapes grown in Lodi

Harvesting of Nebbiolo—a rare (for California) grape native to Italy's Piemonte region—in Clements Hills-Lodi's Anaya Vineyards.

When the first-ever scholarly book on Lodi winegrowing was published in 2022, an entire chapter was devoted to 130 grapes, complete with photographs, representing each and every variety commercially grown in the appellation. Re Lodi! The Definitive Guide and History of America's Largest Winegrowing Region (2022, KitchenCinco Press).

Almost immediately after this 400-page tome was published, it was out of date. At least insofar as grape varieties.

A few grapes listed in the 2022 publication have since been dropped by growers, just over the past three years. A larger number has been added, simply because both new and established growers in Lodi have been a restless lot, busily cultivating brand new (at least for Lodi, if not most of California) varieties. The winegrowing industry, after all, is a fluid business, controlled by supply and demand, consumer trends and economic factors...

Mar 20, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink