LVVR Sparkling Reserves combine the exuberance of Lodi grapes with classic champagne elegance

LVVR Sparkling Cellars owner/winemaker Eric Donaldson in front of his tasting room/winery in Lodi's Tuscan Winery Village.

One of Lodi wine country's biggest success stories has been LVVR Sparkling Cellars, founded in 2012 by owner/winemaker Eric Donaldson, prompted by the encouragement of four friends who happen to be sisters named Leticia, Vanessa, Virginia and Rose (hence the name, LVVR).

It has been just five years (in 2016) since LVVR first opened its doors to the public in Tuscan Winery Village in Lockeford, east of the City of Lodi. Just over the past two years, according to Donaldson, production has expanded by over four times. He not only crafts sparkling wines for his own brand, but he now produces a myriad of different sparklers for over 40 other wineries based in Lodi, the Sierra Foothills and elsewhere in the state...

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'Tis Autumn in America's largest winegrowing region

Varying colors of autumn in the Fry family's Marian's Vineyard — elongated-spurred, own-rooted head trained Zinfandels that have seen no less than 120 yearly cycles during the course of their lives.

The trees say they're tired, they've borned too much fruit
Charmed all the wayside, there's no dispute
Now shedding leaves, they don't give a hoot
La-di-da, di-la-di-dum, 'tis Autumn

- Henry Nemo, 'Tis Autumn (most notably sung by Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Stacey Kent)

In Lodi, it is well known, grapevines can live long lives. While historic regions like Mother Lode Country in Amador County have grapevines planted as long ago as 1853, there are more vines over 50 years old in Lodi than anywhere else in the U.S...

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Lodi Winegrape Commission celebrates its 30th anniversary

The Lodi Winegrape Commission's Lodi Wine & Visitor Center, established in 2000.

Today (November 16, 2021) is National Zinfandel Day. We strongly advise you to pull out of bottle of Zinfandel, preferably one grown in Lodi, to celebrate this "all-American" grape with us (while we now know that Zinfandel originated in Croatia, it is in California that the grape has come to excel like nowhere else in the world). Read why you should be drinking "Lodi" here.

Also today, members of the Lodi Winegrape Commission come together to celebrate the organization's 30th anniversary...

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