Tegan Passalacqua's latest Sandlands releases signal an abiding commitment to Lodi

Tegan Passalacqua harvesting Zinfandel on the east side of Lodi's Mokelumne River AVA.

Last year (2022) marked Tegan Passalacqua's twentieth year with Turley Wine Cellars; most of that time spent as this iconic brand's director of winemaking. 2022 was also the thirteenth vintage of Passalacqua's personal brand, called Sandlands.

Both Sandlands and Turley are significant to the Lodi appellation because of the two-way-street relationship between the brands and grapes. Turley, to begin with, remains the nation's most prestigious producer of California Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, and the wines are sold in nearly every American market from Hawaii to New York... 

Jul 31, 2023 at 2:00 PM Permalink

How Lodi defies climate-related assumptions

Borden Ranch in the Lodi appellation, a wine region in which warm climatic conditions are utilized to optimal advantage.

Boy, it's been a hot July. Everywhere. This, ironically, following an unusually cool month of June in Lodi wine country. In fact, a cooler than normal first six months of the year. Whatever the case, everyone's talking about climate change, even outside political contexts. It doesn't matter what you think. There have been significant shifts in climate.

In respect to viticulture, during the past ten years no one has written more about the impact of climate change on the winegrowing industry than Dr. Gregory V. Jones, a renowned Oregon based research climatologist who is now the CEO of Abacela Winery (an industry leading Umpqua Valley estate founded by the professor's parents, Earl and Hilda Jones). For constantly updated, fascinating reads, look up Dr. Jones' highly detailed Weather and Climate Summary and Forecast...

Jul 25, 2023 at 12:00 PM Permalink

Perch Wine Co.'s first Lodi releases add to the growing number of independent handcraft producers looking to Lodi for alternatives

Adam David Saake was born and raised in Sacramento, and has never moved. After nearly 40 years, it is still the center of his universe.

He has, however, moved around just far enough to get a taste of the bigger world of wine grapes and products. Enough, you can say, to make a rational decison to specialize in grapes grown closer to his backyard, in Amador County and the Lodi winegrowing region.

You can also say that for a winemaker with only two real commercial vintages under his belt, Mr. Saake has achieved a modest degree of notoriety. There must be a reason. Is it the wines, his obdurate homie status, the fact that he is an upstart, teeny-tiny producer? Has he actually "paid his dues," or does that really matter? Whatever the case, here is his story...

Jul 20, 2023 at 9:00 AM Permalink

Images, songs and odes to an unforgettable wine country summer

Sunlight on dried moss on ancient vine Zinfandel during a Lodi summer morning.

Summer of 2023 may very well go down as your most memorable. If you live your life to its fullest, like a cup of the world's greatest wine, of course you will never forget it. Memories, as it's said, are made of this.

Like catchy songs, touching poems, and wine country photos that just scream... summer! Our rendering...

Jul 17, 2023 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Illustrated timeline of Lodi's grape history

1941 Lodi Grape Festival Queens proudly showing off the region's reigning grape at the time, the legendary Flame Tokay.

This past week we were asked by the San Joaquin County HIstorical Society to summarize a history of Lodi appellation grapes at their yearly "Past, Present & Future" event... within five or ten minutes. Impossible, of course, but the thought process did give us a good excuse to draw up a 175-year timeline of this history...

Jul 14, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Lorenza's sublime, new style of red made from Lodi's oldest vineyard

Melinda Kearney among ancient Cinsaut vines in Bechthold Vineyard, source of Lorenza's groundbreaking style of red.

Two months ago, at a dinner in Lodi where a guest winemaker from Italy named Cristiana Tiberio was showing off her world renowned Cerasuolo D'Abruzzo Rosé, I watched Lorenza Wine winemaker/owner Melinda Kearney, sitting across from me at the table, going through the usual studious tasting motions. After her first sip, her eyes looked like they were emitting superhero laser beams, and then a meditative smile took over her face, lasting the rest of the entire night...

Jul 6, 2023 at 2:00 PM Permalink

2023 California State Fair has a surprise Best Zinfandel of California winner from Lodi

Mark Chandler: Lodi grower/winery owner and California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition Chief Judge.

Here's a good story: For the past eight years Mark Chandler—the former Executive Director of Lodi Winegrape Commission (1991-2011) as well a past two-times Mayor of the City of Lodi—has been serving as Chief Judge of the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, the state's longest running professional wine judging (started in 1854!).

The Chief Judge, as it is, is also a Lodi region grape grower, and has recently started up his own wine brand, Burlington Chandler Wines, with his wife Jan Burlington Chandler and his son Dave Chandler.

Jul 3, 2023 at 8:00 AM Permalink