At 2024 ZAP, it is clear that California Zinfandel has finally grown up

There is undoubtedly no organization that has done more for a single varietal category than Zinfandel Advocates & Producers, a.k.a. ZAP.

When ZAP started back in the early 1990s, Zinfandel was on the ropes. Many of the bigger, higher profile brands were dropping the varietal from their line-ups. Cabernet Sauvignon had become California's most important varietal red. The popularity of Merlot was growing rapidly, and Pinot noir was being aggressively planted in the cooler climate pockets of the state where it belonged.

This was despite the fact that, for over 100 years, Zinfandel was the tried-and-true grape, adapting far more easily to California's Mediterranean climate than any other variety of Vitis vinifera (i.e., cultivars belonging to the European family of wine grapes) aside from Carignan. At the time, the future of Zinfandel was in serious jeopardy...

Jan 29, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Winter pruning, the crucial time of the year for vineyards, old vine plantings and wine quality

Meticulous winter pruning of the long, twisting arms of head trained, own-rooted Zinfandel first planted during the 1920s in Lodi's Clements Hills appellation.

Winter is coming

Winter, you can say, is the "quiet time" of year in wine regions around the world. Yet there is a lot going on. Not just in the wineries, where cellar hands are busy topping off barrels and getting white wines and rosés resting in tanks or wood ready for bottling. But also in the vineyards, in amongst the plants that are bereft of leaves, seemingly in the midst of a cold and continuously rain-soaked hibernation.

Consider the fact that, depending on plant spacing, there are somewhere from 900 to 1,200 grapevines per acre in most California wine regions. In Lodi, there are over 100,000 acres of planted wine grapes. This means there are over 90 million grapevines that need to be pruned during the course of each winter. If it sounds like a daunting task, it is!

Jan 25, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

For 2024 Lodi Wine & Chocolate Winery Tours (February 3), a description of each winery and their offerings

While Lodi's 2024 Wine & Chocolate weekend is a three-day event—including individual winery dinners on Friday (February 2) and a gala Winemakers Toast at Wine & Roses Hotel on Sunday (February 4)—the main event is still the self-guided, passport style Winery Tours on Saturday (February 3).

On this day, over 35 Lodi appellation wineries will open their doors between 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM. They each go all-out to outdo each other with special tastings, delectable treats, live music (at many wineries), and of course, lots of chocolate.

The challenge, as Lodi wine and chocolate lovers have found over the past 26 years, is picking and choosing where to go, as there isn't enough time or capacity (we want you to enjoy your Lodi Wine & Chocolate weekend safely and sensibly!) to go everywhere... 

Jan 19, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

A masterly photographer shows Nature and Lodi winegrowing under a muscular, jarring, different slant of light

Cutout of photograph exalting a Lodi ancient vine Zinfandel harvest by Allison Watkins.

There are photographers and there are photographers. We have invited Allison Watkins of Allison Watkins Studio to share a photo-essay because of her distinctively artistic feel for wine photography. Particularly her Lodi Viticultural Area photography.

Watkins lives in Napa Valley  and teaches fine art photography. An inveterate inhabitant of the darkroom since high school, she studied fine art photography while taking her BA at San Jose State University, which led to a Master of Fine Arts at San Francisco University...

Jan 15, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Lodi's Wine & Chocolate (February 2-4, 2024) is a finer, funner, purer, more multifaceted and educational experience than ever

Now is the time to snag tickets to Lodi wine country's most popular event of each year: the Lodi Wine & Chocolate weekend!

And it's coming right up, on February 2-4, 2024!

2024's proceedings will be the region's 27th celebration of the theme of Lodi grown wine, locally crafted chocolates (plus many other foods!), and of course, the love of companionship, be it with significant others, friends and family. These are the reasons, no doubt, why Lodi wine lovers have been coming out in droves each year for this unique experience.

Lodi Wine & Chocolate is, in fact, perhaps the most important business weekend of the year for the Lodi winemaking community. It has been not only an opportunity to reconnect with friends, both old and new, but it has served to generate funds in support of the region's continuing programs in marketing, education, research, and sustainable viticulture... 

Jan 10, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

1929 book on black grapes sheds fascinating light on the history of California wine

Close-up of Lodi old vine Zinfandel planted in the 1920s to meet the increased demand during Prohibition years, when Perelli-Minetti's groundbreaking research on grapes was conducted and published in "Black Juice Grape Varieties In California."

At the start of the 1920s, the California wine industry was still in its infancy.

Yet a reading of a 1929 publication entitled Black Juice Grape Varieties In California—authored by Joseph Perelli-Minetti for USDA's State of California Department of Agriculture—provides a fascinating glimpse into how far the science of winegrowing had advanced since the 1850s, and how far it has come between the 1920s and today.

This 80-page book, consisting of highly detailed photographs and notes on leaf and cluster morphologies of 38 of the major black skinned varieties cultivated during the 1920s, was loaned to me over the holidays by Tegan Passalacqua... 

Jan 9, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Personal thoughts on the start of another new year (2024) in Lodi

High wire trellised vines in December in Lodi's Jahant Viticultural Area.

I am not a Lodi native. I have, however, lived and worked in the appellation since 2010. I am looking forward to a fourteenth year in my adopted home.

For two weeks this past December (2023) I went back to my "roots," in the Hawaiian Islands. It was refreshing to see a lot of the old places and faces, and it also reminded me of why I now live in Lodi: Because it's real.

Like Hawaii, Lodi has its own facade; instead of mythical grass shacks and plastic hula skirts, the face of Lodi visible to most of the world is one of low priced wines made to cater to the usual expectations of mass market, supermarket products. Like Hawaii, there is a lot more to Lodi than that...

Jan 2, 2024 at 5:00 AM Permalink