The real scoop, straight from the source… First things first: never believe everything you read, especially if you’re like most people when it comes to news reports – you only read the headlines and scan for the sensational words. California grape growers suffer a sobering spring, was the title of the Associated Press release printed…
Here comes the sun, summer concerts and glorious wines of Lodi’s wineries… It’s that time of year again: wine country summer concerts, and the opportunity to soak in those long, lingering golden sunsets with good food, family, friends and of course, the juicy style of wines for which Lodi is especially known… good times. So…
Little known Portuguese grapes that blow your mind… You can always tell the best winemakers: they are always the most curious, or just plain restless. It was his search for red wine alternatives to the big Zinfandels for which he had become known, eight years ago, that led Jeff Runquist — the winemaker/proprietor of Jeff…
The first ever Barbera Festival took place this past weekend, on June 11, in the foothills of Plymouth in Amador County. Skies were a bright baby blue, and the temperature warm but not scorching, as over 80 Barbera producers from all over California set up their tables under the walnut trees of Cooper Ranch, which…
A census taker once tried to test me… I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti… For food and wine lovers, is there anything more chilling, yet strangely stimulating, than that explication enunciated by Anthony Hopkins’ Dr. Hannibal Lecter, in conversation with Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling, in The Silence of the…
Slow Food Lodi visits with Lodi’s Lucero Organic Farms The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture Program) offered by Lodi’s own Lucero Organic Farms is now in full swing, offering you a choice of two box sizes ($19 per half share, $29 for a full) that can be picked up each Wednesday all the way through mid-December……
Sugarplum fairy came and hit the streets Looking’ for soul food and a place to eat… – Lou Reed TAPAS — the Tempranillo Advocates Producers & Amigos Society — holds its 2011 Grand Tasting this Sunday, June 5 in San Francisco’s Fort Mason (Herbst Pavilion); and if you’re a wine lover forever seeking bold, soulful,…
A quintessential Lodi wine country story… When things go bad, the old saw goes, you take lemons and turn them into lemonade. Steve Felten, the colorful yet pensive winemaker/proprietor of Klinker Brick Winery, tells us that when he was first forced to turn grapes into wine, he wasn’t exactly thrilled by the prospect. “It started…
Good photography is like good poetry, or verse set to music: so much contained in so little, like Blake’s worlds gleaned through grains of sand. Good wine is like this, too: capable of conjuring images you can smell, taste, feel, even hear — like bodies in untold positions, from innocent to obscene, seductive to careening….
The only things outnumbering the delicious variety of Zinfandels and other outstanding Lodi grown wines at the 2011 ZinFest Wine Festival this past Saturday, May 14 were the blissed-out faces of the people who came from far and wide to enjoy this classic modern day Delta celebration. Mr. Bokisch also observed that “the crowd makeup…
Warming up to Lodi’s ideal BBQ wines… Who doesn’t associate the welcome length of spring days, and incoming sun soaked waves of summer, with barbecue? It’s an American thang, although you might think of it as a perennial return to basic, human, primal instincts; reminding us of one of Woody Allen’s classic quips: Why does…
Read all about what’s going down music-wise at this Saturday’s ZinFest Wine Festival ! The ZinFest Piano Bar Joe Spraker’s awesome piano prowess will ease your zin sippin’ with songs — a little rock, a little country, and a lotta fun! Enjoy a glass of wine at the ZinFest Piano Bar, located in the Wine…
Understatement of the year: there will be a lot of terrific wines to taste at the 2011 Lodi ZinFest Wine Festival on Saturday, May 14 (12-6 PM) at Lodi Lake Park. Over 250 of them, produced by over 50 participating wineries. Therefore it might be a good idea to plan ahead, and save your palate…
Each year, the Lodi ZinFest‘s Friday night Vintner’s Grille at the Lake is a special affair when you can mix and mingle with Lodi’s finest winemakers and growers, while watching the sun sink into Lodi Lake in its customary spring blaze of violets, blues, reds and oranges. Then comes the crisp, cool air of our…
In addition to the ZinFest Wine School at Lodi’s ZinFest Wine Festival taking place this coming May 14 in Lodi Lake Park, wine lovers may enjoy delectable tastes of the region’s wine country cuisine under the tent of the ZinFest Cooking School. There’s a lot to be said about accessibility in a sensory sense, and…
Winemakers who have been working with Zinfandel vineyards grown on both the east and west sides of the Lodi AVA (i.e. American Viticultural Area) have long known that there are some differences between the wines, despite overlapping characteristics reflecting the pretty much consistent Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta influenced macroclimate and soil types found in Lodi….
Lodi is invading the beautiful, sun splashed seaside towns of Southern and Central California! No less than 10 of Lodi’s finest wineries will be present and accounted for at the 2nd Annual California Wine Festival, which takes place in two outdoor venues, on two sets of dates: the first, in the laid back, sea salt…
In real life, contractors don’t arrive on Friday and leave you the following Sunday with a gleaming, new, 2,000 foot outdoor living area, complete with a 40×18 foot arbor, wet bar and fire pit. But this is television, and it’s also Lodi’s Ripken Vineyards & Winery — where you always find a rusted metallic pig…
Artist Vince McIndoe and m2’s Layne Montgomery create a memorable ZinFest bottling… Each year the Lodi ZinFest commissions one of the region’s most respected wineries to blend a commemorative label ZinFest bottling from their finest cuvées. In years past, Michael~David, Macchia, St. Amant and Klinker Brick have had that privilege, and this year m2 has…
The ZinFest Wine School at Lodi’s ZinFest Wine Festival, taking place this coming May 14 in the lush riparian setting of Lodi Lake Park, will offer wine lovers a picnic basketful of opportunities to learn while you savor the vinous bounties of Lodi. For instance, have you ever wanted to experience the task of a…
He’s a poet, he’s a picker, sings Kris Kristofferson in Pilgrim. A walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction… Since 1992, winemaker Patrick Campbell has been pickin’ grapes outside of his home vineyard/estate atop Sonoma Mountain, working with old time Lodi family growers to produce a wine he calls REDS: a red wine, of course,…
Is there such a thing as a “classic” Lodi Zinfandel? Good question, because in many cases, the style of a winemaker or winery certainly does trump sensory qualities often associated with vineyard sites. Michael~David’s Earthquake Zinfandel, for example, has become somewhat iconic: consistently black as night, big in alcohol, muscular in tannin, and yes, as…
Who is that gaucho, amigo, why is he standing there in your spangled leather poncho? Suddenly Lodi has a shiny new wine producing specialist in town; although not totally “new,” because he’s been nursing wine grapes here since the late nineties, at the far western edge of Lodi’s Clements Hills AVA, where the Mokelumne River…
Politically incorrect vintage wine sign… A dozen or so years ago a wine/foodie contrarian named Willie Gluckstern came out with a ridiculously cheap (in a good way) $12 book called…