One of the most interesting things to happen in the Lodi appellation just over the past three, or four years is the sudden popularity of an 18-acre vineyard called Somers. Ten years ago the owners of Somers Vineyard couldn’t give their fruit away because it produces a translucent, light red wine (barely 12% ABV) with…
Industry disproportions To start part 3 of our series on Women Winemakers of Lodi, let’s talk about the evolving role of women in the wine industry. It is progressing, but not fast enough. In a recent article entitled The Role of Women in an Evolving Wine World, it was pointed out that as much as…
The differences between the sexes Salary discrepancies and gender/job pigeonholing are as much a part of the challenge of today’s women winemakers as they are for women in all American industries. This does not preclude the basic fact recognized throughout the wine industry: That lead women winemaker, where they are to be found (an estimated…
After a two-month delay due to (you guessed it) another Covid surge, Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (a.k.a., ZAP) will be holding its 2022 ZinEX Grand Tasting in San Francisco this coming Saturday, March 26. For Zinfandel lovers of the world, this event is the holiest of holy days of obligation. If you want to find…
We can’t let Women’s History Month slip completely by without highlighting the modest yet growing number of women winemakers specializing in Lodi appellation-grown wines. The old adage is undoubtedly still true: For a woman to succeed in a business traditionally dominated by men, a woman has to be twice as good as the average man….
What do wine lovers want? On one hand, every other day there seems to be a new “natural wine bar” popping up in cities big and small, near (Sacramento and San Francisco) and far (Miami and New York). Yet, on the other hand, America’s best-selling wines are still, by far, the average-$10 brands — made…
Perhaps the biggest changes since we last visited Oak Ridge Winery three years ago is that this east side Lodi winery is now owned by one family — the Maggios recently bought out all of their former partners and investors — plus the fact that it is now, effectively, operated almost entirely by women. Rudy…
At this past January’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, a total of 12 Lodi-grown wines were selected as Best of Class winners. “Best of Class” means exactly that: After judging all the wines, judges select their favorites in each class and price category The 2019 Mikami Vineyards Lodi Petite Sirah ($35) was named 2022 Best…
Besides a Sweepstake-winning white, Lodi vintners and growers garnered dozens of gold medals at the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition last month. The competition was stiff, involving wines from all over North America. In 2022, as in past years, this entailed over 5,500 entries submitted by some 1,000 wineries. As wine judgings go, this…
Continued from A full telling of the Plains Miwok, the “first people of the Mokelumne” The Indian population is declining. They live well free but as soon as we reduce them to a Christian and community life they decline in health, they fatten, sicken and die. — Mariano Payeras Borrás (1769-1823, and early 1800s Father-President…
To know the people who originally lived in the watershed area now recognized as the Lodi Viticultural Area is to know why wine grapes grow so well here. Almost effortlessly, Lodi has become easily the most widely planted wine region in the United States, growing twice as much acreage of vines than Sonoma County and…
Although there are many “serious” wine lovers who look forward to Lodi‘s Wine & Chocolate weekend each year, the participating Lodi wineries, as well as the organization behind the event (Lodi Winegrape Commission), also look forward to this celebration for what it is: an opportunity to turn on wine aficionados who are discovering the joys…
Lodi’s Peltier Winery & Vineyards produces an amazing Petite Sirah. Perhaps the finest in Lodi wine country. No doubt, this is what many wine lovers going from winery to winery in Lodi during last month’s “Celebrate Petite Sirah!” event (January 15-17, 2022) may have already discovered, if they happened to have ventured out to Peltier…
A mother/daughter team finds rosé heaven in Lodi One of the hottest wine categories over the past few years has been dry rosé. Everybody’s drinking dry rosés. It’s great for casual wine lovers, but the sensory complexity of bottlings out in the market has grown so varied, even connoisseurs have taken to sipping rosés in…
What happened? The question popped up this past January 14, when the results of the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition were announced. This event is the largest judging of North American wines in the world. According to the SFCWC website, the 2022 competition involved “approximately 5,800 wines submitted by over 1,000 wineries… [blind tasted…
It would behoove Lodi wine lovers who live or travel within the vicinity of Sacramento to mark down February 2, 2022, on their calendars. This is the day that Kevin Luther, the owner/winemaker of Voluptuary & Lucid Wines, opens the doors of his new tasting room/winery in the R Street Historic District corridor of Sacramento…
The general thinking, when it comes to micro-sized wine wineries such as Sabelli-Frisch, which produces barely 50 to 100 cases of every bottling, is that craftsmanship on such a small scale had damned well better result in exceptional wines. Still, it’s not really a fair expectation. Why should big commercial wineries be excused for boatloads…
It’s back by overwhelmingly popular demand! Many a first-time Lodi wine lover has enjoyed this yearly experience — where Lodi vintners swing open their doors and wow them with their fresh, sumptuous wines, delicious culinary offerings, and homespun hospitality — and walked away with a lifetime’s appreciation for Lodi wine country. By the same token,…
Glacial market changes since the 1970s Changes in the wine market typically go slowly but surely. Fifty years ago, for instance, nearly half of American wine consumers were still drinking fortified dessert wines. Since these were sweet, generic category wines such as Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Muscatel, winegrowing regions such as Lodi were thriving with…
A huge part of Lodi wine growing is its heritage. The first definition for heritage given by Merriam-Webster is something transmitted by or acquired from a predecessor. In 2021, the Lodi industry lost one of its most original predecessors, Bob Koth. Koth was not one of Lodi’s larger growers (never cultivating more than 26 acres…
2021 began with the feeling that things will never be the same. Not after a year like 2020. The repercussions have not been felt like ripples, but more like tidal waves. In the midst of all this chaos, winegrowers and vintners in Lodi wine country experienced a more than satisfactory 2021 harvest. The weather throughout…
If anything, 2021 has been a great year for red wine blend releases in Lodi wine country. It seems that the most interesting new wines have not been varietal bottlings, made mostly from a single grape, but rather red wines blended from different grapes. Three seems to be a magic number when it comes to…
Zinfandel reapproximated Lodi is justifiably renowned for its Zinfandel, a grape known to improve as vines get older. In Lodi, an “old vine” is defined as something planted prior to the mid-1960s, when free-standing (i.e., untrellised), own-rooted viticulture was still a rule of thumb. There are more acres of old vine Zinfandel in Lodi than…
There are over 100 grapes commercially grown in the Lodi appellation. All the same, the region justifiably hangs its hat on what are called “old vines,” and for good reason: There is more acreage of old vine plantings in Lodi than in any other California wine region. Over the past two years, the Lodi Winegrape…