It’s always good news when a Lodi AVA winemaker makes good: on a wine list in an hoity-toity restaurant like The Kitchen in Sacramento, or in the effusive columns of discriminating critics like San Francisco Chronicle’s Jon Bonné, who recently wrote… A Lodi resident and grape grower since the 1980s, McCay has been making his…
I feel a change coming on… – Dickey Betts (Allman Brothers’ Pony Boy) If you have not yet properly introduced yourself to the world of Lodi wines, you might seriously consider attending LoCA Uncorked – The Best of Lodi California Wines, taking place this Saturday, October 6, 1-5 PM (starting at 12 PM for trade…
Although the Lodi vintners began picking white wine grapes like Sauvignon Blanc and Verdelho in August, and Zinfandel as early as the first week of September, so far the 2012 harvest has been a little more mañana and a little less of the usual frenzied poco loco. There was a slight spike in activity in…
There once was an artist formerly known as Prince who is now known as… Prince. Well, there once was a yearly event in October known as the Treasure Island WineFest that is now known as LoCA Uncorked – The Best of Lodi California Wines… and why not? Like a Prince by any other name, these…
Part of being a winemaker in Lodi, evidently, is being a prognosticator; albeit, no spooky powers necessary – just good sense. During the first week of October 2010, on the day that Steve Borra, and his Borra Vineyards field manager Manuel Maldonado picked the grapes going into their yearly “field blend,” Borra winemaker Markus Niggli…
The latest wine by Harney Lane Winery – a red wine bottled as the Harney Lane Lodi Patriarch’s Promise ($40) – is as special as any that this acclaimed winery has ever made: thick and chewy with dense, yet perfectly smooth, flavors of dried trail-mix berries, spiced with cinnamon, cracked pepper and, strangely enough, aromatic…
Of yearly harvests, Carl Sandburg once waxed poetic: Under the summer roses When the flagrant crimson Lurks in the dusk Of the wild red leaves, Love, with little hands, Comes and touches you With a thousand memories, And asks you Beautiful, unanswerable questions. … and some of our own memories of the first few weeks…
Wines, that is to say, that are very much contemporary in terms of having a little lighter body and zingier,, tongue prickling natural grape acidity – qualities associated with wine descriptors like “balance” and “elegance.” Either that, or wines that simply slap you upside the head with never-before-tasted sensations, tasting very much of a “place,”…
As part of Discover California’s official California Wine Month, Lodi’s winegrowers have put together an exciting calendar of events running through the entire month of April and through October 6, 2012: the LoCA Road Trip! And to make it easy for you to pick and choose, there is a LoCA Road Trip Passport that will…
!ZaZin Zinfandel clusters, early August 2012 Patrick Campbell – who lives in Santa Rosa, CA, and is the owner/vineyard manager of Tierra Divina Vineyards – sources grapes from his two…
The cool thing about Estate Crush, located in Downtown Lodi, is that a number of small lot growers’ wines are produced (as well as sold) there. Third generation Lodi farmer Ross Schmiedt has his Twisted Roots wines made at Estate Crush; so does Bob Lauchland, who has been having fun with his whimsical Crazy Legs…
Most of the cats that you meet on the streets speak of true love, Most of the time they’re sittin’ and cryin’ at home… Truckin’, like the do-dah man… – Grateful Dead “There’s something about shouting Road Trip! that immediately makes you think of good friends,” says Heitman… “laughter and blaring tunes, windows down, fingertips…
There’s a word we used to use in Jamaica called ‘streggae’. If a gal is walking and the guys look at her and say “Man, she’s streggae” it means she don’t dress well, she look raggedy. The girls would say that about the men too. This one morning me and my two friends were playing…
This past Tuesday, August 14, we spent a day checking out the progress of Lodi‘s 2012 crop; which, in fact, was already underway — at least in the Vista Luna Vineyard in Lodi’s Jahant AVA, where we found Markus and Liz Bokisch hand picking Verdelho for their Bokisch Vineyards brand, a select group of their…
The Zinfandel Advocates & Producers’ Grill-O-Rama took place this past Saturday, August 11 at Rock Wall Wine Company’s giant hangar-turned-winery by the San Francisco Bay, in Alameda. Kudos to ZAP for showcasing Zinfandel in context of where it really tastes best: with grilled, or barbecued, foods, such as the pulled pork tacos in fresh lime…
There is a new winemaker at Van Ruiten Family Winery; which, since founded by John Van Ruiten Sr. in 2000, has emerged as one of the Lodi American Viticultural Area’s most consistent, and beloved, producers of wines that are now sold in over 40 states across the country. Ryan Leeman, who crafted numerous award winning…
The mud, sweat and cheers were supplied by three vintners who were among the contingent of the seven wineries representing Lodi, and its “LoCA crazy-by-the-barrel” energy, at this mountain high festival: Joe Lange of LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards, Michael McCay of McCay Cellars, and David Phillips of Michael David Winery. Lange, McCay and Phillips…
Sometimes a wine just makes itself. Or practically… In the case of a good red Zinfandel, you still have to pick the grapes and get it into a fermentation vat, and watch it a little to make sure things don’t go south as it starts to bubble up and turn those sugars into alcohol, while…
It was during one of their first trips to Spain when Rick and Erin Taylor first tasted a wine made from the Graciano grape, right from a barrel in a little bodega (winery). “We were blown away,” says Mr. Taylor. “It was unlike anything else we’d ever tasted.” Later, when the Taylors discovered that Markus…
Tannat is not a wine grape to be trifled with. Its black-purplish color can be intimidating, and its thick, tannin laden texture a mountainous affair. If none of that bothers you in a red wine, then you can, to paraphrase Jimi Hendrix, chop it down with the edge of your hand. Maybe pick up all…
ZAP – the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers organization that has done more to popularize the joys of California Zinfandel than anything in the world, apart from the wines themselves – knows where its bread is buttered. Zinfandel has become an everyday go-to beverage around the world (they’re even rocking with it in places as far-off…
There’s always one in the bunch. A newly loosed winegrower, seemingly oblivious to industry trends; making a decision to plant, as his centerpiece, a grape with a solid track record of market disappointment: California grown Sangiovese. If classic Sangiovese is all about crispness and restraint, and strength with refinement, then the 2010 Sorelle is a…
This month Borra Vineyards – which holds the distinction of being the oldest of Lodi’s small, family owned wineries (originally bonded in 1975) – will be coming out with a brand new sub-label of sorts, to be called Intuition, which will pleasantly surprise, if not shock, even the most knowledgeable of Lodi wine lovers. Why…
Summer is heating up with a vengeance; and this year the wines that seem to be on everyone’s lips are dry rosés. And a good rosé, to paraphrase the bard, by any other name may smell as sweet, but are certainly not all the same. To begin with, rosé wines come in many shades of…