But to live outside the law, you must be honest… – Bob Dylan (Absolutely Sweet Marie) Lodi’s Fields Family Wines has released what might be considered the region’s first Super Tuscan style wine: the 2010 Fields Family Lodi Il Ladro ($25). Why il ladro – Italian for “the thief”? The story goes back some six,…
The vineyards belonging to Heritage Oak Winery are tucked atop a particularly bucolic bend of Mokelumne River, just east of the town of Lodi. Out of Heritage Oak’s 186 acres, 105 is devoted to wine grapes, and the rest to fauna and flora: a beautiful convergence of riparian woodlands and vines, teeming with life —…
These are the good old days… – Carly Simon (Anticipation) At an event that is called Lodi Spring Wine Show, which took place on Lodi Grape Festival grounds this past weekend (March 30-31), you would hope and pray for wines that taste of spring: growth and renewal, hope and light, freshness and flowers, love in…
Inspired by Earth Day coming up on April 22, the state of California has designated April 2012 as “Down to Earth Month,” encouraging everyone to embrace earth-friendly California wines made with winegrowing and winemaking practices specifically defined by principles of sustainability. For over twenty years the Lodi American Viticultural Area has been a leader in…
Zinfandel is far, far more food versatile wine than you may think… But it wasn’t always like that. Just twenty years ago the country was still awash with pink colored “White Zinfandel,” and obsessed with Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. So much so that many of California’s mainstream wineries went so far as to drop…
Some 200 years ago the French gastronome Brillat-Savarin wrote that “the discovery of a new vineyard does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a new star.” The exciting thing about the Lodi AVA is that new discoveries like this are happening with more frequency, as vineyards that for a long time…
Strange as it may seem, nowadays it takes guts to make a good, fruity pink wine. Think of it: of the 80-something Lodi wineries in business today, how many of them produce a White Zinfandel? Almost none. Even in the land of Zinfandel grapes, gone are the days when a specialty winery can offer something…
If there was a wine he would want to drink every night, according to JC van Staden, the winemaker at Lodi’s Peltier Station, it would be one like the 2006 Peltier Station Reserve Lodi Teroldego ($35). Peltier Station’s Teroldego is, as Old World wine enthusiasts might say, a “banker” – meaning solid, stolid, and dry…
Ever wanna catch lightning in a bottle? For a limited time only – and we cannot overstate the term “limited” – you can try some: the 2010 Michael Klouda Broken Vine Lodi Zinfandel ($16). A wine that literally qualifies as the rarest of the best of Lodi’s Zinfandels. The story: the Broken Vine moniker refers…
By the middle of March the yearly pruning of Lodi’s vineyards, which for big growers can start as early as the December before, is usually all done — just in time for buds left on the naked vines to begin to pop open and grow into new shoots. But because of 2012’s dry winter –…
Is there no end to the originality and authenticity of Lodi as an American Viticultural Area? The 2009 Jessie’s Grove Lodi Ancient Vine Tokay ($35/500 ML) is like a strangely beautiful, exotic bird. According to winemaker/proprietor Greg Burns, it is “another one of our sweet indulgences.” Oh, it is something of a sweet, fortified (16.82%…
Ursa Vineyards is made up of the husband and wife winemaking team of Greg Stokes and Deborah Elissagaray, who founded their own winery in the Sierra Foothills sub-AVA of El Dorado in 2001. Yet a large part of Stokes and Elissagary’s book comes from grapes grown by Ron Silva of Silvaspoons Vineyards, located in Lodi’s…
Leland Noma, says Tim Holdener, winemaker/proprietor of Macchia Wines, “is one of Lodi’s premier growers… always agreeable, and a really good partner.” Holdener adds that Noma also grows “some of the highest priced grapes in Lodi,” but he’s not complaining. Especially when you consider the consistently award winning acclaim Noma’s grapes have won for Macchia:…
Part 2 – Why Lodi’s Bechthold Cinsault may be the “future” of wine The well known phenomenon of “old vines” is, first of all, the fact that they tend to produce more intense wines because older vines naturally set lower crops. Bechthold Vineyard, planted in 1886, is as old as it gets for Lodi –…
Part 1 – The rediscovery of a diamond in the Delta mists Tegan Passalacqua, the vineyard manager of the esteemed Turley Wine Cellars, calls it “one of the last of the great dry farmed vineyards in Lodi.” Jillian Phoenix, the former winemaker of Bonny Doon Vineyard and current winemaker/co-owner of Phoenix Ranch in Napa Valley,…
Nearly 5,000 lovers of love, life, chocolate and all the variations of lush, juicy Lodi wine cannot be wrong about Lodi’s Wine & Chocolate Weekend this past weekend, February 11-12, 2012. Just four of the many vinous and chocolate infused highlights that were enjoyed: 2007 Van Ruiten Family Lodi Late Harvest Viognier ($27/500 ML) with…
If we told you that there is a successful 300,000 case Lodi winery owned by some of this American Viticultural Area’s oldest families, producing wines that are flying off store shelves across the U.S. as well as in European countries like Sweden, then you might say, “yep, Michael-David sure has grown.” But we’re not talking…
On the cusp of Lodi Wine Country’s upcoming Wine & Chocolate Weekend (this weekend, February 11-12, 2012), it behooves us to talk about a favorite subject: the ideal wines for drinking with chocolates. One the best and easiest wine matches in the world is sweet red wine – fortified sweet reds like Port and late…
Since its inception in 2008, Harney Lane Winery has shot up the proverbial charts of Lodi wine lovers with hit after hit of outstanding Lodi grown wines. A flowery fresh Albariño, a first class barrel fermented style of Chardonnay, a velvet lined leather glove-y Tempranillo, and a cigar blast of a Petite Sirah have all…
The yearly Grand Tasting put on by the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (i.e. ZAP) in San Francisco turned 21 this past Saturday, January 28: that is to say, after over two decades, it’s matured into one of the grandest, most bodacious yet, if you can believe it, most civilized wine events in the country. A…
Another one of the Lodi American Viticultural Area’s gold medal winners at the prestigious 2012 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition was the 2009 Sorelle, Manna Ranch Reserve Lodi Primitivo ($27): a round, fleshy, velvety, medium bodied red, inundated with vibrant, smoke tinged raspberry and black cherry aromas, unimpeded by moderate, pliant tannin. Pour one of…
It seems like just yesterday that Michael~David Winery was one of those little Lodi wineries that could. We still have lots of those kinds of producers, but the company driven by brothers Michael (CEO/owner) and David (President/owner) Phillips now do things on the scale of hundreds of thousands of cases – still peanuts compared to…
Friends, lovers, wine countrymen, lend us your ears, noses and tasting palates: Lodi’s 15th annual Wine & Chocolate Weekend is upon us; taking place February 11-12, 2012 (11 AM-4 PM), when over 45 of our wineries roll out the Valentine’s-red carpets to their doors to show off their richest, juiciest wines with decadent chocolates and…
Borra Vineyards grower/proprietor Steve Borra has always cut quite a figure in Lodi’s winegrowing circles, with his signature cowboy hat and crusty handlebar mustache – he even walks into a room with a rider’s bowed gait. Then again, these days Mr. Borra has a lot to take a bow for; especially since last week’s very…