Our favorite historic passages extolling the glories of wine

Anaya Vineyards' Gerardo Espinosa—recently recognized as one of Wine Enthusiast's 2024 Future 40 Tastemakers—harvesting his family grown Petite Sirah.

Over the past four or five years the wine industry in California has been dealing with the serious issue of overplanting of grapes⏤a crisis that has been challenging wine industries in virtually every wine producing country in the world over the past twenty years (see our previous post, While wine consumption in the U.S. slumps, American appreciation of wine grows unabated).. 

This has led to quite a bit of hand-wringing, particularly in mainstream press. The oversupply of grapes, combined with recent statistics demonstrating a leveling off of consumer consumption in the U.S., is being described in a number of ways⏤a "grape apocalypse," a "dangerous crossroads," an "unprecedented" or "existential crisis," and so forth⏤leading to the conclusion: The American wine industry is in danger of shutting down...

  Continue »

Why the Certified Green seal on wine bottles is more important than ever

A sign seen all over the Lodi appellation, and increasingly in other wine regions outside the Lodi appellation: The Certified Green seal for vineyards certified by LODI RULES (a.k.a., CALIFORNIA RULES) for Sustainable Winegrowing.

Why is a wine bottle bearing the Certified Green seal⏤indicative of wines farmed according to LODI RULES (or its equivalent outside the Lodi appellation, CALIFORNIA RULES) for Sustainable Winegrowing⏤more important than ever?

I can think of two words: Generation Z...

  Continue »

Liberating Americans from the yoke of conventional wine preferences

Summer wine lovers in Lodi's Guantonios Wood Fired, a farm-to-table restaurant known for its selection of alternative (i.e., unconventional) style wines.

Early history of American wine appreciation

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Usually, of course, when we cite this well known quote, it is in reference to more sinister subjects. 

When it comes to wine, though, it also seems like we are constantly repeating the past, and only punishing ourselves for it. 

Take, for instance, our nasty habit of simplifying what makes wine interesting. As Americans, we've been doing that since the 1800s, ever since the country's earliest wine entrepreneurs, particularly in California, began planting every grape they could get their hands on, in every possible corner of the state. They did that, of course, because they had no idea what grapes grow best in the New World, nor exactly where to put them...

  Continue »

A California cork tree harvest, and why natural cork is the only choice for sustainable, regenerative and socially equitable closures

Just-harvested cork tree on UC Davis campus. Cork Supply USA.

It may be time to rethink your choice of bottle closures. This was the overriding message, this past May 2024, when for the first time in the entire United States, there was a harvesting of cork trees⏤on UC Davis campus. 

The cork tree harvest was actually a demonstration conducted by Cork Supply USA for the benefit of students in the school's renowned Viticulture and Enology department, first established in 1880... 

  Continue »

All about the Christmassy colors of summer grapes

Mokelumne River-Lodi appellation Zinfandel during in mid-July, just beginning veraison.

The objective of Vitis vinifera, or grapevines, from their very beginning⏤speculated as dating back over a million years ago, based upon evidence of fossilized leaves and seeds⏤has always been the same as that of humankind: To bear fruit and multiply.

In the Northern Hemisphere, this basic objective becomes visible during the months of July and August. It is called veraison, or véraison in the original French, for when the colors of black skinned grapes turn from green to red, violet, blue and blackish colors... 

  Continue »

Anaya Vineyards' Nebbiolo and varietal innovations bring new definition to Lodi's Clements Hills appellation

Nebbiolo picker in Anaya Vineyards' Potrero Vineyard, Clements Hills-Lodi AVA.

It is time to catch up with Anaya Vineyards, one of Lodi wine country's most interesting stories; especially since the latest release of their estate grown Nebbiolo⏤a grape native to Northern Italy's Piemonte region⏤which only adds to Lodi's growing reputation for bold, alternative, contemporary style, terroir focused wines.

If you've been a Lodi wine lover for more than a decade, you might recall that the original label for wines crafted by Anaya Vineyards owner/winemaker Gerardo Espinosa was Viñedos Aurora, established in 2009 and named after the Anaya family's first vineyard (planted in 1998) in the Clements Hills-Lodi Viticultural Area.

Accordingly, Viñedos Aurora established its reputation on the basis of deep, dark and tannin-laden vintages of Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon very much representative of the shallow, gravelly clay hillside slopes unique to Clements Hills. It is a terroir, in fact, so different from the deep, ultrafine, fluffy sandy loam and flat-as-a-pancake landscape typifying the original farmlands planted around the City of Lodi, that it served as the original impetus for the proposal to divide the Lodi appellation into seven different sub-appellations, back in 2005...

  Continue »