A new, different, exciting style of ancient vine Lodi Carignan

Lorenza's Melinda Kearney with ancient vine Carignan in Lodi's Rauser Vineyard, planted in 1909.

Lodi ancient vine Carignan, 2.0

Lorenza Wine—owned and operated by the mother/daughter team of Melinda Kearney and Michèle Ouellet—has recently released their first red wine sourced from Rauser Vineyard, an own-rooted, east side Lodi vineyard planted in 1909 primarily to Carignan, with small amounts of interplanted Alicante Bouschet and Zinfandel.

The 2023 Lorenza Rauser Vineyard Mokelumne River-Lodi Carignan ($36), however, consists entirely of Carignan. What is noteworthy is how this wine came about, resulting in a totally unique style of this varietal red.

Lorenza, you see, specializes primarily in dry rosé. For the first ten years of its existence, that’s all that was bottled under this brand. Grapes were sourced from Lodi vineyards planted to the classic Southern French grapes, Grenache, Cinsaut, Mourvèdre and Carignan. The Lorenza style was to pick the grapes very early in the season—at sugar readings as low as 18° Brix—to produce a very light, airy, crisp style of rosé, preferably between 11.5% and 12.5% alcohol.

The 1909 Rauser Vineyard is one of three Carignan sources going into Lorenza’s rosé blends. In 2023, Melinda had the hankering to also produce a stand-alone red wine from Rauser, taking the grapes picked at barely over 18° Brix to produce a remarkably light and zesty edged red wine, finishing at just 11% ABV (i.e., alcohol by volume). 

The result is a beautifully floral style of red emanating scents of high season strawberry, notes of Bing cherry and red licorice, and a touch of hibiscus tea; these flavors dancing in a lightly tart palate-feel unimpeded by any excess of tannin or oak (strictly neutral barrel aging), coming across as soft yet perky, bright and savory.

According to Melinda, “Rauser Vineyard is so old that it probably ceased to have a manicured look long ago, but you can’t judge a book from its cover. The fruit is special. So good, we always wonder how it would turn out as a red wine rather than just as a rosé. I describe its nose as 'strawberry pie,' with all the spices. It has a structure—it really gives a mouthful of flavor—despite being just 11% alcohol.

Melinda Kearney with the latest releases of Lorenza Rosé and Carignan.

“In the winery, the wine was treated very gently by design to minimize tannin. The idea was to present a red wine that has a little bit of grip but is very gentle, giving a delicate, elegant profile—my ideal style of red wine!”

The Carignan resurgence

Avid Lodi Wine readers have probably noticed that lately we have been talking a lot about Carignan, one of Lodi’s most overlooked heritage varieties. That is because this grape is in the middle of a fairly serious resurgence.

At long last, Lodi's historic Carignan plantings—such as Spenker Ranch (planted in 1900), Mule Plane Vineyard (late 1920s), Nicolini Ranch (1930s to ‘70s) and Rauser Vineyard (1909)—have been “rediscovered” by a steadily growing number of small, handcraft producers such as Birichino, Christopher Cellars, Dent de Lion, Fine Disregard, Marchelle, Markus Wine Co., McCay, Monte Rio, Perlegos Family, PRIE Winery, Sandlands and Stonum. 

Carignan clusters in Rauser Vineyard, east side of Mokelumne River-Lodi AVA.

Even larger producers such as Bokisch, Klinker Brick, Michael David and Van Ruiten Family have been bottling varietal Carignan from the handful of heritage vineyards that have somehow survived the “modernization” (i.e., the transition to popular varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc) of the California wine industry.

Strange as it may now seem, Carignan was once the most widely planted grape in all of California. In 1971, for instance, the California Crop & Livestock Reporting Service listed the acreage of California’s five most popular wine grapes:

Carignan—27,241 acres
Zinfandel—21,424 acres
Colombard—18,660 acres
Grenache—13,530 acres
Chenin blanc—8,689 acres

By comparison, in 1971 there were just 7,616 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, 3,446 acres of Pinot noir, 3,057 acres of Chardonnay, 1,594 acres of Sauvignon blanc, and 426 acres of Merlot planted in California. The ‘60s and ‘70s were a different era, primarily because the vast majority of table wines consumed in the U.S. were generic jug wines rather than premium varietal wines.

Rauser Vineyard Carignan, May 2025.

Of course, the other reason why grapes such as Carignan, Zinfandel and Grenache were once predominant in California is because these are all classic Mediterranean grapes, and most of the state’s wine regions (from Sonoma and Napa all the way down to Santa Barbara) are classified as Mediterranean climate zones.

Lorenza’s latest rosé is finer than ever

Melinda Kearney is extremely pleased by the latest bottling of the brand's signature wine, the 2024 Lorenza Lodi Rosé ($26), primarily for the reason why all handcraft style vintners should be pleased: Because their grape sources are better than ever.

The 2024 Lorenza dry rosé is a seamlessly light and lithe blend of Cinsaut (33%), Carignan (31%), Mourvèdre 20%) and Grenache (16%). The result is fragrant yet stony, with subtle notes of herby iced tea in the nose; crisp, light (12.5% ABV) and zippy on the palate, finishing with lingering tastes of strawberry and a gentle, faintly briny minerality.

Lorenza's Melinda Kearney and Michèle Ouellet Benson

“The last three vintages of Lorenza rosé,” says Melinda, “have truly been about an evolving alchemy of the blend. We like to think we get better as we go along. As time goes by we’re using less Grenache and more Cinsaut. Much of the Cinsaut component comes from the 1886 Bechthold Vineyard—which we also bottle as a separate vineyard-designate red—but for the rosé we’re also using Cinsaut from younger vines in Sprague Family Vineyard.

“We always want to use at least a little Grenache, though, because it’s such a classic variety for dry rosés, always contributing a strawberry/raspberry note with a baking spice component.

“Carignan, I think, is the underrated component for rosé. I love it! We discovered early on that in rosés the grape adds such a bright, zingy, high note, it’s almost electric in the overall effect. This is exactly the reason we now love making red wine from the variety!”