skip to main content

Lodi Winegrape Commission

  • Home
  • Wineries
  • About
  • Visit
    • Visitor Center
  • Club
  • Events
  • Store
    • LODI RULES Sustainable Certification
    • White Wines
    • Rosé Wines
    • Red Wines
    • Sparkling/Dessert Wines
    • Old Vine Wines
    • Merchandise
  • Blog
TOP

Letters from Lodi

An insightful and objective look at viticulture and winemaking from the Lodi
Appellation and the growers and vintners behind these crafts. Told from the
perspective of multi-award winning wine journalist, Randy Caparoso.

Randy Caparoso
 
March 2, 2011 | Randy Caparoso

The wave of the future in Ironstone’s past

IMG_2893

Good ol' Mother Lode country hospitality

The Kautz Family’s Ironstone Vineyards continues to lead Lodi into the future…

Why pay more for a perfectly delicious bottle of wine than you have to? Part and parcel of Lodi’s dramatic emergence as an ultra-premium quality winegrowing region since the turn of the millennium has been the fulfillment of that question.  Today Lodi wines not only deliver quality, they overdeliver for the price; and it all starts in the vineyard…

IMG_2938

Fact #1:  Lodi is California’s single largest producer of Vitis vinifera — grapes belonging to the European family of classic wine grapes — simply because these grapes thrive in the AVA‘s rich soils and moderate Delta climate (the latter factor, pretty much on the par with the climate found in mid-Napa Valley and most of Sonoma County).

Fact #2:  While the ease of growing Vitis vinifera has resulted in Lodi’s past reputation primarily as the source of many of California’s lower priced wines, these very same ideal growing conditions are also the reasons why more and more of the state’s finest wines have recently been coming out of Lodi — the region’s Mediterranean terroir just as conducive to growing wine grapes for quality as it is for quantity.

Fact #3:  Because many of Lodi’s winegrowing families first established themselves anywhere from 50 to over 100 years ago — growers in their third, fourth, fifth or even sixth generation are a norm in Lodi, unlike anywhere else in the U.S. — ultra-premium quality wines from Lodi typically do not come with prices reflecting start-up, or replanting, costs typical of wines from, say, Napa Valley or Sonoma County.

IMG_1897

… and that’s just the way it is:  especially for Ironstone Vineyards, a Sierra Foothills (Murphys, Calaveras County) winery founded in 1988 by longtime Lodi grapegrower, John Kautz.

The Kautz family originally arrived in Lodi in the 1920s, and it was in 1948 when John Kautz first augmented the family’s row crops and orchards with 12 acres of wine grapes on the eastern side of Lodi.  In no time Kautz Family Vineyards’ Lodi plantings grew to 5,500 acres, followed by another 1,300 acres of vines, cattle ranch, and (eventually) winery property in the Foothills, on land originally owned by the grandfather of Gail Kautz, John’s wife.  Today Kautz stands as California’s tenth largest grower of wine grapes; much of that success attributable to pure skill, business acumen, and old fashioned horse sense:  through the years, Kautz consistently found himself in the driver’s seat, having aggressively planted grapes like Chardonnay and Merlot well ahead of booming consumer demand throughout the sixties, seventies and eighties.

For successful winegrowers, life is more than just a box of chocolates:  it pays to know, well ahead of time, what’s in each one.

IMG_2936

Steve Millier, Ironstone's crafty Director of Winemaking

… and typical of Lodi’s adept growers, the vast majority of Kautz’s grapes ends up in wines bottled by numerous other California wineries (there’s traditionally been a lot of good Lodi fruit in “Napa Valley” and “Sonoma” wines), while a small percentage of the finest grapes are cherry picked for the Kautz family’s Ironstone label.

Fact #4:  For sheer, joyous purity of varietal fruit definition, not to mention deliciousness, it’s hard to beat Ironstone’s Lodi sourced, $10-$12 bottlings of Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Old Vine Zinfandel — few wineries, from anywhere on the West Coast, matching Ironstone’s consistency of quality across the board!

This past week we took the hour and a half drive through the green, rolling lower Foothills between Lodi and Murphys to meet up with Steve Millier, Ironstone’s crafty V.P. and Director of Winemaking.  Millier has been working with Mr. Kautz and his son Steven Kautz ever since the winery’s “wine caverns” were dynamited, pick axed and shoveled out from solid limestone rock — in good ol’ fashioned Mother Lode style — in 1989 (since then, a beautifully dramatic, seven story winery, visitors center and museum have been erected over those caverns, wowing legions of intrepid wine lovers during visiting hours, Wednesdays through Sundays).

IMG_2913

Our tasting notes, along with some of Mr. Millier’s insights:

2008 Ironstone, California Chardonnay ($10-$12) – Although this wine carries a California, rather than Lodi, appellation, 100% of the grapes in this wine are grown in the Kautzs’ Lodi vineyards, and Millier takes pains to vinify it as a pure expression of “fruitfulness” — in fact, deliberately in a return to the styles of the sixties and seventies, when everything seemed innocent or groovy —  sans the oak, excess alcohol or other distractions that typically weigh down the majority of Chardonnays made today.  Sweet apple, lemon/citrus, and fresh leafy green fragrances are pervasive in the nose; and the taste is crisply dry (don’t look here for soft, mushy tutti-fruitiness), lightly tart, taut, trim and silky in the middle, like a Reese Witherspoon with abs of steel.

2009 Ironstone, California Merlot ($10-$12) – The film Sideways, Millier sighs almost longingly, “took a bite out of Merlot’s popularity,” and we can feel his pain:  this bottling, almost 100% Lodi grown, tastes like the red wine of every Merlot lover’s original dream:  plump, round, bouncy, juicy rich and mouthwatering; teeming with the lush black cherry qualities of the grape, without being flabby, heavy, insolent or supercilious.  A naive, domestic burgundy, perhaps, but as kissable as any ever made, notwithstanding the outrageously decent bill of fare.  If you miss this kind of vinous ardor, perhaps it’s time to come back to this genuinely compelling grape — at least, this one by Ironstone!

IMG_2932

2009 Ironstone, Lodi Cabernet Franc ($10-$12) – This is where the Kautz family and Millier really show their chops.  Mr. Kautz didn’t waste a second, Millier tells us, “when he returned from a trip to Bordeaux in 1989 and told us to plant this grape… immediately!”  130 acres of Cabernet Franc went into the ground that same year:  significantly, the largest single commitment to this Bordeaux variety in the entire state.  Today’s happy ending:  you would be hard pressed to find a varietal Cabernet Franc as fine, floral and focused as this one.  The nose is perfumed with the raspberry and mild peppermint spice characterizing the best side of this grape; without a hint of the herbal or bell peppery notes that have plagued Cabernet Francs grown elsewhere in California (and also not uncommon in Cabernet Franc based reds from France’s Loire River region).  Instead, Ironstone’s is fresh and flush with red faced fruit; soft and opulent like a good Merlot, but more slender and sleeker than typical Merlot (think Natalie Portman compared to Christina Ricci).  Oh, you cannot, should not ignore this Ironstone specialty…

2009 Ironstone, Lodi Syrah ($10-$12) – Like Merlot, this grape has been recently maligned; and when you taste Ironstone’s, you truly wonder why many consumers have gone away from it.  You cannot, after all, blame the Kautz family for the way the Australians began to bastardize the grape with their cheap and trampy hoards of “Shiraz” that once dominated supermarket wine sales.  The Kautzs lavish as much care on their Lodi grown Syrah as ever; and you taste that in this bottling, pristinely pretty, almost clamorous in its nakedness and intricacy:  brightly floral fragrances suggesting violets, a twist of black pepper, dark plums, a smidgen of raspberry, and pungent touches of fennel and sweet kitchen spices.  On the palate, just medium-full, curvy and spiced, with nary a rough or discouraging edge.

IMG_2924

2009 Ironstone, Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel ($10-$12) – “We’ve never gone for the jammy, alcoholic or oaky style of Zinfandel, even when that became the popular style in Lodi,” Millier tells us.  Okay.  Is this the biggest and richest of Zinfandels?  No, it isn’t.  Does it taste like Lodi grown Zinfandel?  Absolutely, positively, indubitably, yes… how else to you define this wine’s bright, blushing fruit qualities, bursting with strawberry preserves (not an overripe, or cooked, jamminess) tinged with juicy black cherry and cinnamon stick spice fragrances?  Ah, Lodi fruit!  On the palate, a Zinfandel of medium weight and soft tannin, yet sturdy and zesty through a lilting finish.  If you’ve never been a zin lover easily impressed by size or oak embellishments, you’re going to be a happy camper with this bottling, forged primarily from vines averaging 40 to 50 years of age.

2008 Ironstone, Lodi Reserve Zinfandel ($22-$25) – For this bottling, from vines averaging 70-80 years of age, Millier applies a slightly more aggressive barrel aging program; yet, like all the Ironstone wines, the predominant aromatic notes are of fruit — here, wild strawberry mixed with blackberry, dense and intense enough to give black chocolaty impressions — and the focus on the palate is on varietal fruit flavor rather than excess of tannin from either fruit or wood.  There’s a thicker, more velvety flow of these fruit forward qualities in the Reserve, compared to Ironstone’s lower priced zin bottling, while being no less lovely, and unabashedly feminine, in its seduction of curves.

Fact #5:  What’s not to love in Ironstone’s downright obsessive compulsion towards purer, unmucked expressions of Lodi “fruitfulness?”  If the history of the Kautz family’s past success tells us anything, this is more likely to be Lodi’s wave of the future, not of its past.

IMG_2899

Tweet
Pin It

Comments

Commenting has been turned off.
Blog Search
Recent Posts
  • March 5, 2021
    The use of varietal as a term, its history and passing practicality
  • February 25, 2021
    All about terroir
  • February 22, 2021
    Why consumers never needed experts to tell them what they like (like Elvis and Zinfandel)
  • February 16, 2021
    A Lodi based sheep company begins work on sustainable vineyard farming
  • February 11, 2021
    Silicon Valley Bank's 2021 State of the U.S. Wine Industry report focuses on immediate and unimaginable challenges
  • February 9, 2021
    The dangers of COVID-19 to serious wine lovers
  • February 4, 2021
    In 2021, what's a wine brand to do to stay ahead?
  • January 27, 2021
    ZAP offers free Zinfandel livestream tastings and how Lodi Zinfandels compare to Zinfandels from other regions
  • January 25, 2021
    How Lodi wineries have adjusted to pandemic challenges and changes in how they do business
  • January 19, 2021
    French students break down Lodi winegrowing, marketing, and its Alta Mesa appellation
Our Writers
  • Randy Caparoso (813)
Blog Archives
2021
  • March 2021 (1)
  • February 2021 (6)
  • January 2021 (6)
2020
  • December 2020 (7)
  • November 2020 (7)
  • October 2020 (6)
  • September 2020 (7)
  • August 2020 (7)
  • July 2020 (7)
  • June 2020 (8)
  • May 2020 (8)
  • April 2020 (8)
  • March 2020 (8)
  • February 2020 (6)
  • January 2020 (6)
2019
  • December 2019 (7)
  • November 2019 (6)
  • October 2019 (6)
  • September 2019 (5)
  • August 2019 (5)
  • July 2019 (7)
  • June 2019 (6)
  • May 2019 (6)
  • April 2019 (6)
  • March 2019 (6)
  • February 2019 (5)
  • January 2019 (7)
2018
  • December 2018 (7)
  • November 2018 (7)
  • October 2018 (9)
  • September 2018 (6)
  • August 2018 (7)
  • July 2018 (8)
  • June 2018 (7)
  • May 2018 (9)
  • April 2018 (8)
  • March 2018 (9)
  • February 2018 (8)
  • January 2018 (8)
2017
  • December 2017 (6)
  • November 2017 (8)
  • October 2017 (10)
  • September 2017 (5)
  • August 2017 (6)
  • July 2017 (7)
  • June 2017 (6)
  • May 2017 (5)
  • April 2017 (7)
  • March 2017 (6)
  • February 2017 (5)
  • January 2017 (7)
2016
  • December 2016 (7)
  • November 2016 (8)
  • October 2016 (7)
  • September 2016 (7)
  • August 2016 (5)
  • July 2016 (7)
  • June 2016 (7)
  • May 2016 (6)
  • April 2016 (6)
  • March 2016 (7)
  • February 2016 (6)
  • January 2016 (5)
2015
  • December 2015 (8)
  • November 2015 (6)
  • October 2015 (7)
  • September 2015 (5)
  • August 2015 (6)
  • July 2015 (7)
  • June 2015 (6)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (6)
  • March 2015 (6)
  • February 2015 (7)
  • January 2015 (5)
2014
  • December 2014 (8)
  • November 2014 (5)
  • October 2014 (7)
  • September 2014 (5)
  • August 2014 (3)
  • July 2014 (5)
  • June 2014 (6)
  • May 2014 (7)
  • April 2014 (7)
  • March 2014 (5)
  • February 2014 (4)
  • January 2014 (7)
2013
  • December 2013 (8)
  • November 2013 (6)
  • October 2013 (7)
  • September 2013 (5)
  • August 2013 (6)
  • July 2013 (4)
  • June 2013 (4)
  • May 2013 (4)
  • April 2013 (5)
  • March 2013 (2)
  • February 2013 (2)
  • January 2013 (4)
2012
  • December 2012 (7)
  • November 2012 (9)
  • October 2012 (9)
  • September 2012 (7)
  • August 2012 (9)
  • July 2012 (8)
  • June 2012 (8)
  • May 2012 (9)
  • April 2012 (8)
  • March 2012 (9)
  • February 2012 (7)
  • January 2012 (9)
2011
  • December 2011 (7)
  • November 2011 (8)
  • October 2011 (7)
  • September 2011 (7)
  • August 2011 (8)
  • July 2011 (8)
  • June 2011 (9)
  • May 2011 (7)
  • April 2011 (9)
  • March 2011 (8)
  • February 2011 (8)
  • January 2011 (7)
2010
  • December 2010 (8)
  • November 2010 (6)
  • October 2010 (2)
  • September 2010 (6)
  • August 2010 (5)
Additional Resources
  • Media & Trade
  • Lodi Winegrape Commission
  • Donation Requests
  • Returns & Cancellations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
Contact

Lodi Wine Visitor Center
2545 West Turner Road Lodi, CA 95242
209.365.0621
Open: Thursday - Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm

Lodi Winegrape Commission
2545 West Turner Road, Lodi, CA 95242
209.367.4727
Open: Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm

Have a question? Complete our contact form.

  • © Copyright 2021 Lodi Winegrape Commission
  • Winery Ecommerce by WineDirect