Harvest images of Church Block, an all-time great historic Lodi vineyard

Early morning harvest morning in Lodi's historic Church Block Vineyard.

At the break of dawn this past Monday, September 23, Markus Wine Co. owner/grower/winemaker Markus Niggli and his veteran crew of field hands picked the landmark Church Block Vineyard.

Church Block is located just south of the City of Lodi, and is just a postage stamp-sized block (1.5 acres) located just east of the old Borra Vineyards winery and estate, which shuttered in 2019, the year before the death of owner/grower and founder Steve Borra... 

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The annual Lodi Grape Festival continues to celebrate the region's number one commodity (grapes!)

The Ole Mettler Pavilion on the grounds of the Lodi Grape Festival during last weekend's 2024 Lodi Grape Festival.

In 1934 Lodi was in the mood to celebrate. Naturally, local farmers and city organizers felt that it should also be a celebration publicizing the region's number one commodity: Grapes.

Not that there was much else to celebrate. The entire country was still in the throes of the Great Depression, affecting Lodi as much as any community in America. The year before (in 1933) Lodi farmers fought tooth and nail against union organizers, threatening to disrupt vineyard operations. It did not end well... for the strikers and organizers (see our 2023 post, History of Lodi labor)...

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One of Lodi's oldest heritage vineyards is picked and packed for home winemakers

2024 Lodi Zinfandel harvest at Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard, first planted in the 1920s, being packed for shipping to home winemakers across the country by Lodi's M & R Company.

A legacy of longtime Lodi families

There is nothing like the sight of ancient vine Lodi Zinfandel being picked and packed, right in the vineyard, for fresh fruit shipping directly to stores catering to home winemakers clear across the country and to our neighbors in Canada.

If you recall, many of Lodi's longtime winegrowing families got their start doing exactly that during the 1920s, when wine production (except for sacramental wines) and liquor sales were prohibited by law, yet citizens were allowed to make up to 200 gallons of wine a year in their own homes... 

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Early report and favorite photographs of the start of the 2024 Lodi harvest

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Old vine Carignan harvest in Lodi' s Mokelumne River AVA, September 2, 2024.

For most of Lodi's smaller, handcraft wineries, the 2024 wine grape harvest began in mid-August. The pace of the picking of old vine blocks, which are generally lower yielding than younger trellised vineyards, picked up during the last week of August and first week of September.

A big question for much of the industry has been how much of an impact 2024's extraordinary heat waves, which began in June, will have on grape quality and yield. One initial impression shared by Markus Wine Co. owner/grower/winemaker Markus Niggli⏤who began picking his Nicolini Ranch Carignan (oldest vines planted in the 1930s) on September 2, and Rous Vineyard (Zinfandel planted in 1909) on September 5⏤was the following: The heat waves have had negligible impact... 

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Two Gen Z professionals pick Lodi wines younger wine followers would love to love

Two Gen Z Lodi wine professionals, Anna Delgado (left) and Elvira "Elvi" Fonz-Gutiérrez.

Co-written with Anna Delgado and Elvira Fonz-Gutiérrez

Just a few years ago the wine industry talk was all about Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996). What do Millennials want? What are Millennials thinking? Especially, what are Millennials buying?

Nowadays, or so it seems, it's more about Generation Z (born 1997-2012), the latest generation to reach adult beverage drinking age. However, never in my nearly 50 years in wine-related businesses have I ever seen a generation more castigated. The general feeling in the wine industry is that early to mid-twenty-somethings just aren't interested in wine. They'd rather drink craft beer, pop cannabis products, or gulp down flavored water, of all things.

Is fine wine that uninteresting to today's youngest adults? Yes and no. Two months ago we addressed this topic in a post entitled Do not talk about what young consumers think about wine unless you're under 30. The upshot: If you want to know what Gen Z consumers think or want, you should ask them. Don't make errant assumptions. They speak well enough for themselves, thank you...

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Thou shalt covet thy neighbor's grapes (handcraft brands flock to Lodi for distinctive fruit)

West Sacramento's Craig Haarmeyer of Haarmeyer Wine Cellars celebrating his Lodi Chenin blanc harvest.

In recent years, the roll call of winemakers  based outside the Lodi appellation who are producing wines from Lodi grown grapes has been getting bigger and bigger. 

This, if anything, is a far cry from just twenty or thirty years ago when many vintners openly ridiculed the very idea of making wines from Lodi grapes. Many winemakers, magnanimously, used to dismiss the region without comment⏤they simply didn't buy grapes from Lodi. 

One example of both a journalist and vintner who couldn't resist making comments can still be found in the 2007 book called New Classic Winemakers of California, in which Steve Heimoff asked Mark Aubert, the acclaimed Napa Valley consulting winemaker, if he could be "happy making wine in Lodi." Aubert laughs (according to Heimoff), saying...

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