The crying of Lot 13 Don’t look now, but White Zinfandel may be back, and better than ever! That is to say, White Zinfandel vinified more like a connoisseur’s wine: bone-dry – not a hint of residual sugar in the taste – and from intensely flavorful, ancient vine fruit. The 2014 McCay Cellars Lodi White…
Continued from: The Mokelumne River Viticultural Area (part 1 and part 2) Transition from Table Grape to Premium Varietal Wine Production About 40% of California‘s entire annual Zinfandel production is grown in the Lodi AVA; almost all of that, in the 42,000 acres of planted vines comprising the Lodi sub-region of Mokelumne River AVA. While…
Continued from The Mokelumne River Viticultural Area (part 1) From sandy loams to loamy sands When Lodi winemakers extol the qualities of Mokelumne River AVA grown grapes and wines, almost universally they talk mostly about soil. It is topography and soil that distinguishes Mokelumne River from the six other sub-appellations of Lodi, and it is…
Boundaries, heart and soul The Mokelumne River AVA (American Viticultural Area) is one of the seven sub-appellations located within the larger Lodi AVA established in August 2006 by the TTB (the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Tax and Trade Bureau). The AVA is named after the Mokelumne River, which drains out of the Sierra Nevada…
In our previous post (Is Zinfandel breaking out?) we cited a number of wine industry professionals who truly believe that Zinfandel can be made in more restrained, elegant styles – not unlike the finest Pinot Noirs or Burgundies – and that, in fact, we are beginning to see a paradigm shift towards that direction. What…
This past January 28-31, Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (a.k.a. ZAP) held its 24th full-scale “Experience” in San Francisco’s Presidio, with the theme: Zinfandel is a rising star… reach out and grab it. Zinfandel, of course, has always been a longtime star in the varietal market. In fact, Zinfandel’s dominance in California vineyards dates back well…
Continuation of a Part 1: The origins of the Lodi Viticultural Area In 1991, some 600 Lodi AVA growers came together to form the self-mandated Lodi-Woodbridge Wine Commission (now called the Lodi Winegrape Commission) for the purpose of regional promotion, education and viticultural research. This would be a momentous development, playing a crucial role in…
The ATF received a petition for a Lodi AVA from a group called the Lodi District Vintners Association in August 1982, which went through an approval process lasting nearly four years before finally being granted in February 1986. What is an American Viticultural Area – commonly abbreviated as AVA – and why should you care?…
Borra Vineyards winemaker Markus Niggli in Gill Creek Ranch Vermentino planting Among the many alternative white wine grapes cultivated in Lodi in recent years, Vermentino might hold the most intriguing…
David Ramey, owner of the acclaimed, Sonoma-based David Ramey Wine Cellars – known for peerless Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons – has been one of America’s most respected winemakers since the 1980s and ’90s, when he did groundbreaking work at wineries like Matanzas Creek Winery, Chalk Hill Estate, and “super” Napa Valley wineries like Dominus Estate…
Everybody knows that the best Zinfandels come from ancient, gnarly, head trained vines. Not. Try telling that to Jason Mikami, the owner/grower of Lodi‘s Mikami Vineyards. Or to Mr. Mikami’s Vineyard Manager, Mike Manna – President/CEO of Manna Ranch Inc., one of Lodi’s most important vineyard management companies (cultivating over 2,600 acres) – or Kian…
Wine, it is often said, is made in the vineyard. Which sometimes brings up the jocular comment: then why the heck do we need wineries? Well, good wine does come out of wineries. But it also needs hands – lots and lots of hands of men and women with the work ethic, talent and creative…
Thousands of wine lovers can’t be wrong! It was a wet, wet pre-Valentine’s weekend, to be sure, which did nothing to dampen the hearts and spirits of wine and chocolate lovers pouring in from all over for Lodi wine country’s annual rites of February pleasure. Lodi’s Wine & Chocolate Weekend, after all, is all about…
The more consumers and wine critics have come to appreciate kinder, gentler, more feminine styles of California Zinfandel, the more they are appreciating Zinfandels grown in Lodi. Adding to that increasingly verdant vein, major Lodi growers Markus and Liz Bokisch have just released their first-ever Zinfandel; bottled under a brand new label – Tizona by…
CHOCOLATES AND WINES, FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS How fortuitous that two of the most wonderful things in the world – wines and chocolates – go so well together! In fact, it has been suggested that chocolate may be as natural a match for wines as cheese! This is why, during the past three vintages,…
This week Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (a.k.a. ZAP) hosts its twenty-fourth annual “Experience” in San Francisco (on January 28), attended by thousands of avowed Zinfandel enthusiastss. 2015′s chosen theme: “Zinfandel is a rising star – reach out and grab it.” For many reasons, you can probably also say the same thing about about Lodi: as…
Wine judgings don’t get much bigger or more prestigious than the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Last week’s event – completed January 13, 2015 – was no different: a total of 6,417 wines entered from more than 28 states. There were Gold Medal winners from California, Oregon and Washington, as well as Texas, Ohio, New…
Don’t look now, but Lodi’s Wine & Chocolate Weekend is just around the corner: coming up February 7 & 8, 2015 (Saturday/Sunday). Time’s a’wastin’, if you’re still just thinking about it! This will be the 18th annual celebration of Lodi’s eminently approachable, luscious, juicy style of wines, showcased with a proliferation of complimentary chocolates, savory…
In 1991, when ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) held the first of its annual tasting extravaganzas in San Francisco, there was little inkling of just how big an event it would become. All the original organizers knew is that Zinfandel – a cultivar singled out by California’s winegrowing pioneers as far back as the 1850s…
Happy 2015! We’re looking forward to another year of exciting achievements by the Lodi winegrowing community. But before embarking towards this bright new horizon, we thought it worthwhile to take another look back at our favorite, and most informative, blogposts from 2014: not so much out of fear of forgetting our past and being condemned…
Dale Goff of Goff Photography is one of Lodi’s most accomplished professional photographers. Mr. Goff, in fact, has been photographing the Lodi American Viticultural Area for going on 20 years. Says Goff, “This past year was as wonderful as the first… the Lodi Winegrape Commission, in fact, was my first major account in the Lodi…
Jeremy Wilson – a sommelier who writes the Texas Wine Lover site and lives in the officially recognized Texas Hill Country AVA (approved in 1991), where he works for Kuhlman Cellars – recently wrote to us, telling us that he believes the Lodi AVA has a lot in common with the Texas wine industry. Not…
As we come to the end of another year in Lodi wine country, let’s look back at some of the highlights of 2014 gleaned through widely read wine publications and blog sites. Just a small percentage of American wine lovers subscribe to Decanter, a publication in the U.K. that bills itself “The World’s Best Wine…
Attention, last-minute Lodi wine shoppers: Caught in the usual pre-Christmas time crunch? Then we have the perfect one-stop, direct-from-the-source solution for you: Downtown Lodi‘s Estate Crush. Estate Crush is a custom-crush winery facility serving over 80 separate clients. This means they make wines for basically 80+ wineries; about half of them commercial brands, and many…