One of our most interesting recent wine and food experiences occurred just this past summer, when we hosted nine sommeliers from across the country, here to study Lodi winegrowing for three and a half days. Our opening night dinner took place at The Gypsy Bistro, a comfort food restaurant housed in one of what was…
You might call Lodi’s Stonum Vineyards a “best kept secret,” when in fact, it may be one of Lodi’s best winery-estates period, even if you haven’t yet heard of it. By way of explanation, there are a few factors accounting for Stonum’s under-the-radar profile. First, the winery came out with its first commercial wine (a…
The just-released 2016 Peltier Winery Schatz Family Reserve Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon ($60) opens up a new chapter for Lodi grown Cabernet Sauvignon. Yes, other excellent, lavishly fruited, round and expansive Cabernet Sauvignons have been growing in vineyards surrounding the City of Lodi, bottled by wineries such as Mettler Family Vineyards, Michael David Winery, Van Ruiten…
Well over 90% of wine grapes grown in Lodi still go to California’s largest wineries rather than to the smaller Lodi based wineries that are now popularizing wines with “Lodi” on the label. This means that most of Lodi’s grapes still go into wines that carry a “California” appellation, with no mention of Lodi on…
That wine and cheese go together is a concept that needs no explanation, much less justification. Fish swim, birds fly, and there’s nothing like a table set with wedges of cheese and glasses of wine from two, three or more bottles. We will say this, though: Through experience, lots of wine lovers know that certain…
Besides skill, there is a certain amount of brute strength, or at least a mental toughness, required to pick wine grapes. Otherwise, anybody could do it, when in fact not everyone is willing to do it, or even capable of doing it. It’s too damned hard. Take your typical tote tub, or stackable plastic lug…
One of the joys of the annual wine harvest is being able to get up close and personal with a good variety of grapes, bursting with ripened flavors on the vine. Since there are over 100 wine grapes grown in Lodi alone, this time of year is paradisiacal for a professional oenophile able to walk…
One of our endeavors during the four days last week when visiting sommeliers selected by SommFoundation explored the Lodi Viticultural Area was to find out where they thought Lodi grown wines fit with the wines of the rest of the world. So we did this in a way that sommeliers love best: blind tasting. We…
Last week – from Sunday, September 8 to Thursday, September 12 – eight sommeliers selected from across the U.S. and Canada by the SommFoundation (a scholarship program associated with the Guild of Sommeliers) – visited Lodi wine country for a full-immersion course. These eight wine professionals were selected from a list of over 60 applicants….
Greg Stokes and Deborah Elissagaray, the husband/wife winemaking owners of Ursa Vineyards, relocated to the Sierra Foothills back in 2001 from Santa Cruz Mountains in order to pursue their love of warmer climate winegrowing, after meeting at David Bruce Winery where they specialized in Pinot noir. While they source most of the grapes for their…
In Lodi we talk a lot about Zinfandel because it’s been the appellation’s leading wine grape at least since the 1880s. But Lodi also grows a lot of Chardonnay. According to the USDA’s 2018 California Grape Acreage Report, there are 12,416 acres of bearing Chardonnay vines in Lodi, compared to 17,814 acres in Monterey, 15,819…
Historic Impact of Climate and Soil on Grape Selections and Wines One thing growers and wineries have learned long ago about Lodi, by far and away America’s largest winegrowing region, is that wines from this region have their own sense of place. Cabernet Sauvignons grown in Lodi, for instance, tend to be softer in feel…
Most of the Lodi’s growing legion of wine fans have come to know the top brands. Names such as Michael David Winery, Klinker Brick Winery, LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards, and Mettler Family Vineyards have been making waves from coast to coast, not to mention in Alaska and Hawaii. Largely within the local market, smaller…
“I loved cheese,” explained Bettyann Spenker to a captive crowd of visitors to her Spenker Family Winery & Artisan Creamery,” but I was never a cheese expert. But I was a winemaker, so I thought, why not? I taught myself to be a cheesemaker.” Two weekends ago the Spenker family’s combination winegrowing/cheesemaking barn finally opened…
It’s happening, slowly but surely: Lodi grown Chardonnay that tastes like it comes from… Lodi! The newly released 2018 Harney Lane Winery Scottsdale Vineyard Lodi Chardonnay ($28) represents a resounding step in that direction, and it’s delicious despite not following in the fuller bodied, round, soft, fleshy and lusciously fruited and creamy oaked style that…
When I first moved to Lodi, just before the 2010 harvest, one of the conversations that taught me most about the region was with longtime grower Jonathan Wetmore, who owns the Lodi based vineyard management company called Round Valley Ranches. Round Valley Ranches farms over 2,000 acres of wine grapes for both large wineries (such…
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….
At the recent Lodi Vineyard & Wine Economics Symposium (June 27, 2019), there was a panel discussion entitled “The Art of Negotiation” focusing on best practices for vineyard owners seeking to bolster wine grape prices, while communicating the integrity of their product to potential grape buyers as well as to the media, trade and consumers…
One of the most important recent developments here in Lodi is the bottling of five new single vineyard designated bottlings by LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards – a family that traces their farming roots in the Lodi Viticultural Area as far back as the 1870s. The significance is twofold: 1. The highlighting of single vineyards…
Bringing natural and Biodynamic principles to Lodi “Grow what belongs here… be patient” is what you read on the Web site page explaining the farming philosophy of DaVero Farms & Winery, founded by Ridgely Evers and his wife Colleen McGlynn. While DaVero Farms & Winery is located in the Healdsburg area of Sonoma County, there…
Anaya Vineyards owner/winemaker Gerardo Espinosa sampling deep, dark red emblematic of his family’s Clements Hills vineyards Lean and iconoclastically tart and edgy skin-contact Pinot gris. A rarely seen Nebbiolo showing…
When there’s something strange in a wine produced by a small winery or home winemaker, who you gonna call? In Lodi, professional and amateur winemakers alike enjoy the distinct advantage of being able to call upon Lodi Wine Labs, located right here in the City of Lodi just adjacent to California Hwy. 99. Lodi Wine…
The native Hawaiian dish called poke (pronounced poh-keh) is now found seemingly everywhere outside the fiftieth state. It was bound to happen, with millions of people from around the world visiting the Hawaiian Islands each year, and then going back to their homes in New York, California, Minnesota, Texas, and everywhere else in the American…
“How do Lodi wines relate to the big picture?” That was a question asked by Jim Gordon at the Lodi Vineyard & Wine Economics Symposium last week (June 27), in a seminar entitled Modern Lodi: The Media View on Lodi Wines’ Stature In the Marketplace. Mr. Gordon’s outlook on Lodi wines, and Lodi as a…