Lodi Crush has become a magnet for small, independent wine brands⏤primarily one- or two-person operations⏤who, almost as a rule, prefer minimal intervention, alternative style wines appealing to the growing minority of oenophiles who prefer less commercialized, almost raw tasting wines. For the most part, this subset of handcraft artisans also look for grapes that are…
Every year it’s the same. Fall seeps into your veins like a transfusion. The palate reawakens. Not that it was comatose during the summer months. It’s just alerted to new sensations. Lou Reed once wrote a song about renewed outlooks on life, called “New Sensations”—not so much about a change in seasons as change of…
At the break of dawn this past Monday, September 23, Markus Wine Co. owner/grower/winemaker Markus Niggli and his veteran crew of field hands picked the landmark Church Block Vineyard. Church Block is located just south of the City of Lodi, and is just a postage stamp-sized block (1.5 acres) located just east of the old…
In 1934 Lodi was in the mood to celebrate. Naturally, local farmers and city organizers felt that it should also be a celebration publicizing the region’s number one commodity: Grapes. Not that there was much else to celebrate. The entire country was still in the throes of the Great Depression, affecting Lodi as much as…
A legacy of longtime Lodi families There is nothing like the sight of ancient vine Lodi Zinfandel being picked and packed, right in the vineyard, for fresh fruit shipping directly to stores catering to home winemakers clear across the country and to our neighbors in Canada. If you recall, many of Lodi’s longtime winegrowing families…
For most of Lodi‘s smaller, handcraft wineries, the 2024 wine grape harvest began in mid-August. The pace of the picking of old vine blocks, which are generally lower yielding than younger trellised vineyards, picked up during the last week of August and first week of September. A big question for much of the industry has…
Co-written with Anna Delgado and Elvira Fonz-Gutiérrez Just a few years ago the wine industry talk was all about Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996). What do Millennials want? What are Millennials thinking? Especially, what are Millennials buying? Nowadays, or so it seems, it’s more about Generation Z (born 1997-2012), the latest generation to…
In recent years, the roll call of winemakers based outside the Lodi appellation who are producing wines from Lodi grown grapes has been getting bigger and bigger. This, if anything, is a far cry from just twenty or thirty years ago when many vintners openly ridiculed the very idea of making wines from Lodi grapes….
Over the past four or five years the wine industry in California has been dealing with the serious issue of overplanting of grapes⏤a crisis that has been challenging wine industries in virtually every wine producing country in the world over the past twenty years (see our previous post, While wine consumption in the U.S. slumps,…
Why is a wine bottle bearing the Certified Green seal⏤indicative of wines farmed according to LODI RULES (or its equivalent outside the Lodi appellation, CALIFORNIA RULES) for Sustainable Winegrowing⏤more important than ever? I can think of two words: Generation Z. So what is Generation Z (a.k.a., Gen Z), and why should you care? Gen Z…
Early history of American wine appreciation Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Usually, of course, when we cite this well known quote, it is in reference to more sinister subjects. When it comes to wine, though, it also seems like we are constantly repeating the past, and only punishing ourselves…
It may be time to rethink your choice of bottle closures. This was the overriding message, this past May 2024, when for the first time in the entire United States, there was a harvesting of cork trees⏤on UC Davis campus. The cork tree harvest was actually a demonstration conducted by Cork Supply USA for the…
The objective of Vitis vinifera, or grapevines, from their very beginning⏤speculated as dating back over a million years ago, based upon evidence of fossilized leaves and seeds⏤has always been the same as that of humankind: To bear fruit and multiply. In the Northern Hemisphere, this basic objective becomes visible during the months of July and…
Nebbiolo picker in Anaya Vineyards’ Potrero Vineyard, Clements Hills-Lodi AVA. It is time to catch up with Anaya Vineyards, one of Lodi wine country’s most interesting stories; especially since the…
Our recent consecutive days of over 100° F. temperatures are just one of the many signs that our climate is changing as we speak. So is the uptick in forest fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, and many other weather events posing a direct threat to populations, industries and economies. So far the distance between Lodi…
Climate change’s global impact and near-future projections Never mind the squabble over the causes. Vintners all over the world are now living with climate change, manifested as warming of temperatures on a global scale. The question is, how is the wine industry adjusting to this phenomenon? In France’s Bordeaux region, a centuries-old bastion of wine…
Since the start of the year (2024) the media has besieged wine consumers with bad news about the state of wine in America. American wine consumption is down, at least in terms of per capita and total gallons. Yet enthusiasm for wine across the country is greater than ever. Let’s discuss… According to Wine Institute’s…
It’s summer. Perfect time to talk about… salads! When the weather gets hot, the body almost craves this healthy alternative to heavy, starchy meals. Salad lovers know that if you get crafty⏤like utilizing crisped bits of bacon, slivers of salmon, smoked tuna or crabmeat, and slices of cheese like feta and mozzarella⏤you are essentially creating…
So far the summer of 2024 has been… let’s just say, ugh. A little hot. Besides well-chilled whites or sparklers, the perfect wines for weather like this are refreshingly dry rosés, which are made by more wineries than ever because this style of wine is, simply, more popular than ever. Lodi produces such a wide…
Anna Delgado (co-writer) “When was the last time,” I recently read on a Substack page called Wineshop Punk, “a wine writer sat down to have a glass with a young person?” Wineshop Punk is penned by a 26-year-old named Anna Delgado. She herself is crazy about wine, having taken a job at a Lodi tasting…
JSL Wines owner/winemaker Joseph Smith. JSL Wines is a new Lodi-based brand, founded in 2021, but is far from new in respect to its owner/winemaker, Joseph Smith. If you have…
This past Sunday/Monday (June 23-24), Lodi‘s Wine & Roses Hotel welcomed guests to the first of their planned “Neighborhood Night” events in Towne House Restaurant. The newly launched Neighborhood Night dinners every Sunday and Monday night, explains local influencer and marketing consultant Tracci Dare (retained by Wine & Roses Hotel), will entail 3-course offerings for…
The environmental factor It’s time to talk about Zinfandel. Oh, I admit, for me, it’s always time to talk about Zinfandel. That is because I am what people often used to call a “foodie.” Better than “wine geek,” I guess. Be as it may, Zinfandel is a far, far more food-versatile wine than many wine…
Picking the perfect wine for a dish, or preparing a perfect dish for a pre-chosen wine, is a lot less mysterious than you may think. In fact, it’s as easy as pie. Make that, easy as an ice cream sundae. Everyone knows, for instance, that vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate syrup go great together…