Lodi and Zinfandel like two ships passing in the night, perfect for summer barbecues!

Lodi Zinfandel specialist Mike McCay serving up his steel drum smoked, dry rub spiced baby back ribs.

June 21 marks 2023's first day of summer, but we can already feel the season in the air when many of our thoughts turn to... barbecue!

We've posted many a write-up on this food group for a couple of reasons: 1) who doesn't love barbecue when the weather gets warm? and 2) the perfect wine for barbecue happens to be made from the grape for which the Lodi wine region is best known—Zinfandel.

First, about Zinfandel—primarily, that is, red Zinfandel, although there are a number of good, dry Zinfandel rosés now being made—as the perfect barbecue wine: We have enjoyed many different wines with barbecues, from smoked dry rub baby back ribs to pulled pork in zesty tomato barbecue sauces, grilled marinated chicken, Korean style short ribs, teriyaki beef and more. After all is said in done, it is Zinfandel that usually tastes the best with almost all the variations of barbecue...

May 31, 2023 at 11:00 AM Permalink

Fun photo album of this past weekend's 2023 Lodi Wine Experience

Lodi wine lovers at the 2023 Lodi Wine Experience in Lodi Lake Park.

The Lodi Wine Experience has come and gone, this past May 19-20, 2023. This, of course, was the yearly event formerly known as Lodi ZinFest, which went on hiatus after 2019 due to public health concerns.

The 2023 celebration at Lodi Lake Park began this past Friday night with a Signature Dinner: a joyful gathering of 500 vintners and wine lovers under two large tents under the stars, sipping the region's finest wines with farm-to-table cuisine. Weather and temperatures were perfecto, and everyone danced the night away to the irresistible rhythms of live music...

May 26, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Mio Vigneto releases its first Lodi estate Ribolla Gialla while finishing its winery and visitor facility

Ribolla Gialla at a golden peak of ripeness in Clements Hills-Lodi's Mio Vigneto estate.

Mio Vigneto, a Clements Hills-Lodi project that has taken about eight years to come to fruition in terms of commercial production, has just released its first wine: the 2022 Mio Vigneto Clements Hills-Lodi Ribolla Gialla ($29).

Ribolla Gialla is a varietal that, over the past fifteen or so years, has become one of the hottest white wines among consumers and sommeliers with a thirst for alternative style wines, often made from unfamiliar grapes. Ribolla Gialla may be new to you, but it is not considered unusual in its native region of Friuli, in Italy's northeastern corner, or in Slovenia where it is grown just across the border from Italy. There is documented proof of demand for wines made from this grape going back to the thirteenth century...

May 24, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Farewell to Neal Overboe (1941-2023), a Lodi wine industry pioneer

Vintners-in-arms at Lodi Vintners (from left): Joseph Smith, Neal Overboe, Evangelos Bagias and Tyson Rippey.

Earlier this month, the Lodi wine community bade sad farewell to Neal Overboe (1941-2023), one of the pioneers of the region's modern day wine industry. Mr. Overboe mentored a number of Lodi's top winemakers, including Joseph Smith (Klinker Brick Winery), Barry Gnekow (Barry Gnekow & Associates, Vertical Palate), and Tyson Rippey (Lodi Vintners and Rippey Family Vineyards). Rippey says, "Neal was a brilliant winemaker, friend and husband to his wife Barbara who passed away in 2017 after 53 years of marriage..."

May 15, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Acclaimed winemakers and rarely seen producers among the wineries pouring at the 2023 Lodi Wine Experience

Vintners pouring at the 2023 Lodi Wine Experience Grand Tasting (clock-wise, from top-left): Markus Niggli (Markus Wine Co.), Greg La Follette (Marchelle), Jeff Morgan (Covenant), and John and Jeff Perlegos (Perlegos Family).

The Saturday, May 20, 2023 Grand Tasting segment of the Lodi Wine Experience will be an opportunity to taste wines by 44 wineries, most of them considered the finest producers of Lodi.

In 2023, however, the Grand Tasting will also feature a few producers who do not have tasting rooms in Lodi, or are based outside of the appellation—hence, tasting their wines, and being able to personally chat with their principals, owners or winemakers will be a rare and extraordinary opportunity indeed...

May 10, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Sensory distinctions of wide range of grapes going into dry Lodi grown rosés

Three of the winemakers appearing at the "Rosé All Day! seminar at the 2013 Lodi Wine Experience Grand Tasting: Bryce Willingham (Peltier), Melinda Kearney (Lorenza) and Christina Lopez (Acquiesce).

Rosé All Day! will be the subject of the 1:00 PM Wine Seminar taking place during the upcomiing 2023 Lodi Wine Experience Grand Tasting in the dreamily landscaped Lodi Lake, Saturday, May 20, 2023.

Lodi grown rosés are not just classically dry, but also made from a dazzling array of red wine grapes. Because rosé grapes are typically picked early each season to achieve light, graceful, mineral inflected styles, it is not always easy to delineate "varietal" distinctions in their aromas... 

May 8, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Monte Rio winemaker explains his puristic, terroir-driven approach to three Ancient Vines reds, from Lodi's oldest vineyards

Monte Rio Cellars owner/winemaker Patrick Cappiello toasting to ancient vines in Mokelumne River-Lodi's Spenker Ranch, own-rooted Carignan planted in 1900. Leigh-Ann Beverley.

Monte Rio Cellars—a small, independent, handcraft label owned and operated by former longtime New York City sommelier Patrick Cappiello—has just released three Lodi grown wines he is calling his "Ancient Vines" series. 

Many winemakers exaggerate. Cappiello does not. These three wines are absolutely "ancient" by most of the wine world's standards; all fashioned from the oldest vineyards of their grape type in the Lodi appellation, planted and cultivated on their own rootstocks by the Spenker family...

May 2, 2023 at 12:00 PM Permalink

Latest Perlegos Family wines include a groundbreaking Assyrtiko from Lodi's Clements Hills

John (left) and Jeff Perlegos with a tray of their 2022 Assyrtiko, a grape of Greek origin that is proving to be perfectly at home in Lodi's Mediterranean climate zone.

Lodi's first Assyrtiko

Perlegos Family Wine Co. is entering its second phase, following up on this grower/producer's inaugural releases this past October—and it's a doozy.

The big news: The release of the 2022 Perlegos Family Thera Block Clements Hills-Lodi Assyrtiko ($28), along with the family's latest vintage of a Lodi-grown Cinsaut as well as a Southern Italian-inspired Nero d'Avola...

Apr 27, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Ten reasons why old vines are more important than ever to the international wine community

Stampede Vineyard in Lodi's Clements Hills AVA, certified by Historic Vineyard Society.

In our continuation of Everything You Wanted to Know About Old Vines and Why They're a Big Deal—which is also the subject of our 12:00 PM Wine Seminar at the upcoming 2023 Lodi Wine Experience Grand Tasting in bucolic Lodi Lake, Saturday, May 20, 2023—let's drill down into more specifics on why old vine viticulture is more important than ever all around the world. Ten points...

Apr 24, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Why old vines are more important than ever all around the world

Monumentally strong, productive, natural-rooted Zinfandel, planted in 1901 in Lodi's Marian's Vineyard.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Old Vines and Why They're a Big Deal is the subject of the 12:00 PM Wine Seminar taking place during the 2023 Lodi Wine Experience Grand Tasting in bucolic Lodi Lake, Saturday, May 20, 2023. If you want to learn about old vines while tasting phenomenal wines made from vineyards anywhere from 80 to nearly 140 years old, you don't want to miss this event. 

The concept of old vines is a big deal in Lodi because there are more plantings over 50 years old—our technical (if unofficial) definition of an "old vine"—in Lodi than any other wine region in California, thus the entire country. More than that, though, old vines have recently attained a cachet appreciated by wine cognoscenti all around the world... 

Apr 18, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink