The latest releases of offbeat Zinfandel brands and varietals

Heritage Oak Winery owner/winemaker Tom Hoffman

Except for three strategically placed grape leaves, the depiction of the "hot babe" pin-up on the inaugural bottling of the 2012 Zin-Phomaniac Lodi Zinfandel (about $18) leaves little to the imagination. And the back label makes no bones either: The scantily clad bottle tempts you… remove the cork carefully, slowly, your desire building with every twist…

Oct 3, 2013 at 6:07 PM Permalink

Lodi’s Mediterranean identity reflected by huge diversity of grapes

Alicante Bouschet, September 2013: Lodi still cultivates blocks of this unusual wine grape, whose heyday was the first half of the last century

Harvest is a great time of year for photographing wine grapes, which become the most identifiable by their colors, shapes and overall morphology during that fleeting window just before they are picked...

Sep 25, 2013 at 10:20 AM Permalink

What an influential wine blogger thinks of Lodi wines

Elaine “Hawk Wakawaka” Brown, iPhone in hand, gets up close and personal with Silvaspoons Vineyards Torrontes grapes grown by Ron Silva (right) in Lodi’s Alta Mesa AVA

Elaine Brown, a.k.a. Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews, is a wine blogger, journalist, photographer and inveterate illustrator with a moderate yet rapidly growing, significant following. How significant? Somehow her observations, as she travels up and down the West Coast wine regions and (occasionally) the Old Country, always seem to pop up in places like Eric Asimov's New York Times wine articles, or in Jon Bonné's San Francisco Chronicle pieces. Brown, in other words, is influencing the influencers… messin' with the messers...

Sep 19, 2013 at 10:40 AM Permalink

Abba Vineyard turns sunlight into Syrah perfection

Stunning Lodi Wine Country sight: Abba Vineyard Syrah hanging from meticulous Smart-Henry trellis, like brilliant Christmas bulbs on a tree.

Last week Friday (September 13, 2013) Michael McCay of Lodi's vaunted McCay Cellars picked his Grenache from Abba Vineyard – owned by second-generation Lodi farmer Louis Abba Jr., and farmed by his son Phil Abba. Mr. McCay's excitement is palpable – not only because his supply has increased, but also because 2013 looks to be "our best Grenache yet… the fruit was perfect, just popping with flavor coming right off the vine..."

Sep 18, 2013 at 10:52 AM Permalink Comments (1)

Maley harvest harnesses latest technology to produce “pure” Lodi Zinfandel

Through musical vines: Todd Maley sorting Zinfandel in his family’s Weget Vineyard

The Lodi AVA‘s leading winegrowers are no longer shooting just for “varietal” identity in their wines. They are even more focused on producing wines that taste of “Lodi” because, in the end, this is what will set the region apart — not wines that taste like they could come from any other wine region...

Sep 11, 2013 at 11:39 AM Permalink

Lodi’s alternative wine grapes, headed towards photo finish

Majestic 107-year old Carignan vine in Jean Rauser’s east-side Mokelumne River-Lodi vineyard: recalling another era (in the 1970s), when Carignan was the most widely planted wine grape in all of California.

According to the 2012 Grape Acreage Report put out by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, approximately 10.2% of the total acreage of fruit bearing wine grape vines in California can be classified as "other" — including many of the “alternative” style varietals more common to Lodi than in other American wine regions, such as Albariño and Aglianico, Cinsaut and Souzão, Vermentino and Verdelho, Graciano and Teroldego, Marzemino and Montepulciano, Symphony and Schönburger, Touriga and Torrontés, Pinotage and Piquepoul, and many others of, frankly, commercially obscure identity, from Albalonga to Zweigelt...

Sep 5, 2013 at 12:17 PM Permalink Comments (1)

Just picked: one of Lodi’s top Zinfandel vineyards and last of Bechthold Cinsaut

“I was on fire when I woke up this morning,” says Jillian Johnson, the owner/winemaker of Onesta Wines.  On Friday, August 30, Ms. Johnson was the last of the slate of stellar winemakers to pick Cinsaut grapes from Bechthold Vineyard, the Lodi AVA‘s oldest vineyard (originally planted by Joseph Spenker in 1886).  “I’m always stoked the day I pick Bechthold,” says Johnson.  “Year in and year out, this vineyard performs no matter what, giving us beautiful, balanced fruit.  It was a great day when Mother Nature first gave us Bechthold.”  Johnson, in fact, has been working with Bechthold  longer than any of the winemakers currently sourcing from this venerated growth (since 2004, when she was the winemaker for Bonny Doon Vineyard)

Aug 30, 2013 at 11:25 AM Permalink

2013 harvest continues (Kerner, Albariño, and Cinsaut from Lodi’s oldest vineyard)

Yesterday (August 21, 2013) Borra Vineyards picked their Kerner grapes, which are grown by Brett Koth at his family’s Mokelumne Glen Vineyards, tucked into the tip of the Mokelumne River’s “Peninsula” (where the river bends into an upside-down u-shape, on the east side of the Mokelumne River AVA).  The Lodi AVA‘s Mokelumne Glen, for the record, cultivates the most extensive collection of German and Austrian grapes (over 40 varieties, whites and reds) on the entire West Coast.

Aug 23, 2013 at 11:06 AM Permalink

How to taste wine, and separate cinnamon from clove, women from the men, etc.

Wine tasting, as most people would tell you, can be difficult (please see Wine 101:  tasting and talking).  But here’s one thing most wine experts agree on:  women make better wine tasters than men.

A lot of it is cultural:  more women than men, to begin with, cook meals in kitchens, and being able to distinguish smells – which in foods and wines are what constitute “flavor” – is key to being able to cook well.  Many men, of course, also cook well (needless to say, most restaurant chefs are males).  Thus, many men taste wine just as well as women.

However, there is one thing about most men that can’t be helped:  they tend to be, well, like “men.”  That is, macho.  There is a famous American importer of French wines named Kermit Lynch who first openly discussed the “excess baggage” of men’s macho-ness.  In an October 1999 issue of Food & Wine Lynch was quoted to say, “Men seem to believe that they are wine experts just because they are men.  When they stick their nose into a glass of wine they think it would be unmanly to say something wrong or stupid.  So they get uptight.  It is difficult to taste properly when you are uptight…

Aug 15, 2013 at 10:57 AM Permalink

LangeTwins kicks off 2013 harvest with picking of Sauvignon Musqué

Last week Friday and Saturday (August 9-10), LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards kicked off their 2013 harvest in Lodi by picking their 50-acre Jahant Rd. vineyard planted to Sauvignon Musqué – a clonal variant of Sauvignon Blanc that produces more flowery, less herbaceous white wines than other varieties of Sauvignon Blanc.

Aug 12, 2013 at 10:53 AM Permalink