The Lodi ZinFest Wine Festival has never been just about Zinfandel. It’s always been about the huge variety of wines grown and produced in the Lodi AVA. At this year’s ZinFest, taking place Saturday, May 17, 2014 (12-5 PM) in Lodi Lake Park, two of California’s leading wine educators and professional wine judges will lead…
Don’t look now, but the annual Lodi ZinFest Wine Festival is nigh upon us; this year, taking place on Saturday, May 17, 2014 (12-5 PM) at the bucolic Lodi Lake Park. This is Lodi‘s biggest, most broadening, and undoubtedly funnest event of the year; but don’t let the name fool you: it’s not just about…
You might have heard that some crazy, unlikely, yet very in-ter-resting (to quote Arte Johnson) things have been happening in Lodi these past few years. A lot of this activity has been emanating from one winery: Borra Vineyards, where owner/grower Steve Borra Sr. and winemaker Markus Niggli have been making waves. One of Borra’s latest…
Odisea Wine Company – a small, artisanal winery based in Napa – has produced Lodi‘s first Verdejo: a 2013 bottled under their Flor de Viña sub-label. The Verdejo grapes were grown in the cobbley clay loam slopes of Bokisch Ranches‘ Clay Station Vineyard, in Lodi’s Borden Ranch AVA. The planting went into the ground in…
There’s a certain Slant of light, Emily Dickinson famously wrote, describing “Winter.” Don’t we know it, whether or not we can put it into our own words. Winter in Lodi is not nearly as much of a Dickinsonian “Heavenly Hurt” as in colder climate regions, but we have our own “Shadows… holding their breath.” This…
The new m2 Wines winery and tasting room, located at 2900 E. Peltier Rd. (just north of the town of Lodi), is a low slung, rectangular, 6,000 square-feet affair; looking like a gigantic lego brick with a square hole near the middle, plopped down on an open field of flowering mustard (a surrounding vineyard is…
ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) & LoCA present THE LODI ZINFANDEL EXPERIENCE Saturday-Sunday, March 29 & 30, 2014 Earth shaking things are happening in the Lodi AVA, which has always crushed over 40% of California’s Zinfandels. Today, a significant percentage of this crop – still sourced from largely own (or St. George) rooted, head trained…
To truly grasp Lodi Zinfandel, it helps to understand how they compare with Zinfandels from other California wine regions The problem is, there is a lot of misinformation out there; often perpetuated by journalists or, these days, by wine bloggers. In a recent “tips” blog, for instance, one well meaning writer proffered these pearls of…
The 12 Zins of Lodi 2014 have been chosen by a jury of eight respected wine professionals, as a result of a formal tasting taking place in San Francisco this past February 5th, organized by Charles Communications Associates for LoCA. These 12 Zinfandels were selected for being representative of the best of what the Lodi…
In a recent polemic issued on his Web site, the widely read wine critic Robert M. Parker Jr. commented on the disproportionate attention paid to “unknown” grapes by some of the new “absolutists”: “What we also have from this group of absolutists is a near-complete rejection of some of the finest grapes and the wines…
LODI’S 17th ANNUAL WINE & CHOCOLATE WEEKEND February 8 & 9, 2014 | 11am – 4pm Why do we love Lodi’s Wine & Chocolate Weekend? Let us count just some of the ways… Chocolate molé enchiladas and Bokisch Vineyards‘ exotic Spanish varietals at Downtown Lodi’s Cellar Door… The gushing chocolate fountain and super-fine Italian varietals…
I’m going to grow my hair down to my feet so strange ‘Til I look like a walking mountain range Ride into Omaha on a horse Out to the country club and golf course Carrying the New York Times Shoot a few holes, blow their minds… – Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Free No. 10…
The results of the 2014 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition held earlier this month are in, and Lodi American Viticultural Area grown wines have fared better than ever! This year wines with Lodi on the label took home a total of 201 medals: 36 of them gold medals; and out of those, 3 earning double-golds…
This event takes place next week Saturday, January 25, 2014 (10 AM to 6 PM), in the Observation Post of The Presidio (211 Lincoln Blvd.). Tickets are $70/person ($60 for ZAP members); and you can find further details on the TERROIR TASTING page of ZAP’s Web site. At the TERROIR TASTING, zin enthusiasts will be…
Let’s talk chicken and wine matches. ¿Por qué? • Chicken is for all-time, anytime, and everywhere – on the menu of three-star restaurants, and on the menu in every home, in every pot or skillet, any night of the week. Paul Bocuse and Julia Child have made chicken a fetish, and so have Colonel Sanders…
What are wine lovers looking for in 2014? Whatever it is, you can be sure that the Lodi is in the thick of it — as America’s largest American Viticultural Area, it has to be. Let’s break it down, according to some of the buzz we are hearing in the opening days of the New…
Welcome to 2014! The second half of 2013 was dominated, of course, by the Lodi Wine Country harvest. Vintage 2013 was among the earliest on record: white wine and sparkling wine grapes — such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir — were being picked by the end of the first week of August, at…
Out of the thousands of photos we take of Lodi Wine Country each year, we do have our favorites: photos that express the vivid realness, sense of family and heritage, the heroism, and sheer joy of Lodi grown wines, vines, and good times. Part 1 of our favorite photos of 2013:
What are the lodiwine.com blogposts from the past twelve months that we love best? Those would be the ones that explain exactly what makes Lodi AVA grown wines different from wines grown elsewhere in the world. Make no mistake: with more than 80 bonded wineries in Lodi today (more than twice as much as just…
Ripken Vineyards & Winery – one of Lodi‘s largest and most important growers – actually became a bonded winery because owner Richard “Rip” Ripken loved to play Santa Claus every year. According to Rip’s daughter, winemaker Susan Ripken, “My dad would go around during Christmas time and play Santa by handing out the wine we…
It’s the same for all wine regions that become known for certain wines… be it Napa Valley for Cabernet Sauvignon; Sonoma, Santa Barbara or Willamette Valley for Pinot Noir; or Lodi for Zinfandel: choosing what is “best” becomes more a matter of personal taste or preference. In other words, don’t believe numerical scores or “expert”…
For the Scott family, who own and operate Sorelle Winery – one of Lodi‘s most successful wineries in recent years – family is everything, and that’s the way they celebrate the Christmas season as well. The Sorelle estate is located on the site of the original plantation home built by Jonathan Dodge Holt in 1866,…
We’re on a roll, so we’re going to continue our culinary ruminations on Lodi grown wines. A lot of wine lovers are not so partial to Petite Sirah in warm months, and who can blame them? Red wines made from Petite Sirah – a grape technically known as Durif (named for the French scientist who…
As cold weather continues to drive us into the kitchen, now is as good a time as any to talk about one of the most culinary wines of all: red wines made from the Tempranillo grape. There’s something about Tempranillo — its earthy subtlety combined with rich flavors and supple texturing — that makes a…