skip to main content

Lodi Winegrape Commission

  • Home
  • Wineries
  • About
  • Visit
    • Visitor Center
  • Club
  • Events
  • Store
    • LODI RULES Sustainable Certification
    • White Wines
    • Rosé Wines
    • Red Wines
    • Sparkling/Dessert Wines
    • Old Vine Wines
    • Merchandise
  • Blog
TOP

Letters from Lodi

An insightful and objective look at viticulture and winemaking from the Lodi
Appellation and the growers and vintners behind these crafts. Told from the
perspective of multi-award winning wine journalist, Randy Caparoso.

Randy Caparoso
 
October 27, 2020 | Randy Caparoso

Is it time for a Lodi Ancient Vine Accord?

At 104 years of age, Zinfandel grown in Lodi's Soucie Vineyard fits most definitions of "ancient vine"

Let's talk about ancient vines. What's the difference between an ancient vine and an old vine? There are no official guidelines for any of those designations. The TTB, which controls the language of American wine labels, is pretty lax when it comes to this. Which is good, because in our country we generally like a little bit of freedom with our commercial products, as long as we're being responsible about it.

If anything, here in Lodi, most vintners and growers go by the Historic Vineyard Society's definition of a "historic vineyard," which is a minimum of 50 years old for at least a third of a vineyard (all old vineyards consist of a good percentage of younger vines, planted to replace the original vines as they die off). This seems like a reasonable definition of "old vine" as well...

  Continue »

Time Posted: Oct 27, 2020 at 2:00 PM
Permalink to Is it time for a Lodi Ancient Vine Accord? Permalink
Tweet
Pin It
Randy Caparoso
 
October 19, 2020 | Randy Caparoso

Explaining the Lodi growers' Save the Old campaign

Ancient vine Zinfandel in Lodi's Peirano Estate, first planted in the 1890s

"Don't it always seem to go," goes that favorite old song, "that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

A couple of weeks ago the Lodi Winegrape Commission launched its Save the Old campaign. Read all about its Mission on savetheold.com. It's all about stimulating consumer, wine trade and media interest in wines made from vineyards originally planted over 50 years ago, in the mid-1960s or earlier. This was period of time was when it was still not unusual, at least in Lodi, to plant grapes as free-standing, untrellised vines, many of them on their own natural rootstocks. In fact, the vast majority of Lodi's old vines are ungrafted, and there are more of these old vines in Lodi than anywhere else in California.

First, some background: The people behind this campaign are the Lodi growers themselves, who back in 1991 formed the Lodi Winegrape Commission to self-fund marketing, grower-education and viticultural research in order to improve the quality of their grapes and, basically, to sell more of them to the rapidly growing wine production industry... 

  Continue »

Time Posted: Oct 19, 2020 at 8:00 AM
Permalink to Explaining the Lodi growers' Save the Old campaign Permalink
Tweet
Pin It
Randy Caparoso
 
October 15, 2020 | Randy Caparoso

Is wine funny?

(courtesy of New Yorker)

Can wine appreciation be funny? You would think not, going by the seriousness of the overwhelming number of wine scribes scratching away on their online blogs or in all the lifestyle magazines or catalogue-like, numerical wine reviews.

But when you think about it, wine should be the funniest thing out there. Especially since wine is a social drink, and it has alcohol. It stimulates conversation, and makes people feel like they're a lot smarter or wittier than they actually are. Theoretically, rife for humor...

  Continue »

Time Posted: Oct 15, 2020 at 9:00 AM
Permalink to Is wine funny? Permalink
Tweet
Pin It
Randy Caparoso
 
October 13, 2020 | Randy Caparoso

The legendary Maynard Amerine's shibboleths are timeless lessons in wine appreciation

U.C. Davis' legendary Maynard Amerine (1911-1998)

In 1976 U.C. Davis Professor Maynard A. Amerine published WINES: Their Sensory Evaluation with Edward B. Roessler. Amerine was a plant physiologist who had served as the chairman of U.C. Davis's renowned Department of Viticulture and Enology during the 1950s and '60s—a seminal period in the California wine industry—and Roessler was a mathematician who chaired the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the same school.

While long forgotten — especially in today's setting, in which sports journalists, ex-lawyers, MBAs, and practically anyone can become widely followed wine critics, dishing out numerical scores and opinions on wines as if they were handed down from Mount Sinai — for a time, Amerine and Roessler's rigorous approach to wine evaluation had considerable impact on the wine industry... 

  Continue »

Time Posted: Oct 13, 2020 at 9:00 AM
Permalink to The legendary Maynard Amerine's shibboleths are timeless lessons in wine appreciation Permalink
Tweet
Pin It
Randy Caparoso
 
October 8, 2020 | Randy Caparoso

Lodi by the numbers, and where it stands among the rest of the world

Two heritage Lodi grapes from the 2020 harvest: Flame Tokay and Carignan

To get a true grip of the role Lodi plays in the world of wines, you need to see where the state of California stands in it. According to California Wine Institute's Discover California Wines website, California has a 60% share of the entire U.S. wine market by volume. This means about 3 out of every 5 bottles sold in the U.S. — including all imports — is grown and produced in California. California, which has (according to the Wine Institute) an estimated $114 billion economic impact on the entire country, also accounts for 95% of all American wines exported to other countries.

According to the most recent USDA statistics, the Lodi Viticultural Area crushes approximately 20.5% of all the wine grapes in California. This means just over 12% of all wine sold in the U.S. — again, including imports — is grown in Lodi. Not all the bottles may say "Lodi," since the region supplies most of the grapes going into value-priced bottles sold as "California" wine. Still, Lodi is... kind of a big deal...

  Continue »

Time Posted: Oct 8, 2020 at 10:00 AM
Permalink to Lodi by the numbers, and where it stands among the rest of the world Permalink
Tweet
Pin It
Randy Caparoso
 
October 2, 2020 | Randy Caparoso

Some twenty-first century wine tasting terms, part 2 (palate sensations)

Lodi Tempranillo tasting

Continued from: Some twenty-first century wine tasting terms, part 1 (nose)

The all-time classic on how-to-taste-wine is Michael Broadbent's Wine Tasting, orginally published in 1968 and perennially republished ever since. It started off, as Mr. Broadbent modestly put it, as a "slim pamplet," and didn't grow that much bigger over the years. But technique-wise, it's all anyone, consumers and professionals alike, would ever need to know about wine tasting..

  Continue »

Time Posted: Oct 2, 2020 at 12:30 PM
Permalink to Some twenty-first century wine tasting terms, part 2 (palate sensations) Permalink
Tweet
Pin It
Blog Search
Recent Posts
  • January 19, 2021
    French students break down Lodi winegrowing, marketing, and its Alta Mesa appellation
  • January 13, 2021
    Alternative style Lodi wines reflecting the wave of the future — part 2, new interpretations of heritage grapes
  • January 11, 2021
    Alternative style Lodi wines reflecting the wave of the future — part 1, an unfamiliar white and red
  • January 5, 2021
    Discerning wines of the immediate future through what we know about the past and what's going in Lodi
  • December 29, 2020
    Lodi 2020: The year in pictures
  • December 27, 2020
    The small steps of Lodi growers led to giant leaps for Lodi wine country
  • December 22, 2020
    Looking on the bright side of fading old vine plantings in Lodi
  • December 17, 2020
    Our list of nice Lodi reds, rosés and fortified dessert wines for Christmas gifting and sipping
  • December 15, 2020
    A Lodi white makes the world's Top 100 list, and other Lodi whites for Christmas shopping and sipping
  • December 9, 2020
    The 1980s and 1990s — start of Lodi wine country's modern era
Our Writers
  • Randy Caparoso (804)
Blog Archives
2021
  • January 2021 (4)
2020
  • December 2020 (7)
  • November 2020 (7)
  • October 2020 (6)
  • September 2020 (7)
  • August 2020 (7)
  • July 2020 (7)
  • June 2020 (8)
  • May 2020 (8)
  • April 2020 (8)
  • March 2020 (8)
  • February 2020 (6)
  • January 2020 (6)
2019
  • December 2019 (7)
  • November 2019 (6)
  • October 2019 (6)
  • September 2019 (5)
  • August 2019 (5)
  • July 2019 (7)
  • June 2019 (6)
  • May 2019 (6)
  • April 2019 (6)
  • March 2019 (6)
  • February 2019 (5)
  • January 2019 (7)
2018
  • December 2018 (7)
  • November 2018 (7)
  • October 2018 (9)
  • September 2018 (6)
  • August 2018 (7)
  • July 2018 (8)
  • June 2018 (7)
  • May 2018 (9)
  • April 2018 (8)
  • March 2018 (9)
  • February 2018 (8)
  • January 2018 (8)
2017
  • December 2017 (6)
  • November 2017 (8)
  • October 2017 (10)
  • September 2017 (5)
  • August 2017 (6)
  • July 2017 (7)
  • June 2017 (6)
  • May 2017 (5)
  • April 2017 (7)
  • March 2017 (6)
  • February 2017 (5)
  • January 2017 (7)
2016
  • December 2016 (7)
  • November 2016 (8)
  • October 2016 (7)
  • September 2016 (7)
  • August 2016 (5)
  • July 2016 (7)
  • June 2016 (7)
  • May 2016 (6)
  • April 2016 (6)
  • March 2016 (7)
  • February 2016 (6)
  • January 2016 (5)
2015
  • December 2015 (8)
  • November 2015 (6)
  • October 2015 (7)
  • September 2015 (5)
  • August 2015 (6)
  • July 2015 (7)
  • June 2015 (6)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (6)
  • March 2015 (6)
  • February 2015 (7)
  • January 2015 (5)
2014
  • December 2014 (8)
  • November 2014 (5)
  • October 2014 (7)
  • September 2014 (5)
  • August 2014 (3)
  • July 2014 (5)
  • June 2014 (6)
  • May 2014 (7)
  • April 2014 (7)
  • March 2014 (5)
  • February 2014 (4)
  • January 2014 (7)
2013
  • December 2013 (8)
  • November 2013 (6)
  • October 2013 (7)
  • September 2013 (5)
  • August 2013 (6)
  • July 2013 (4)
  • June 2013 (4)
  • May 2013 (4)
  • April 2013 (5)
  • March 2013 (2)
  • February 2013 (2)
  • January 2013 (4)
2012
  • December 2012 (7)
  • November 2012 (9)
  • October 2012 (9)
  • September 2012 (7)
  • August 2012 (9)
  • July 2012 (8)
  • June 2012 (8)
  • May 2012 (9)
  • April 2012 (8)
  • March 2012 (9)
  • February 2012 (7)
  • January 2012 (9)
2011
  • December 2011 (7)
  • November 2011 (8)
  • October 2011 (7)
  • September 2011 (7)
  • August 2011 (8)
  • July 2011 (8)
  • June 2011 (9)
  • May 2011 (7)
  • April 2011 (9)
  • March 2011 (8)
  • February 2011 (8)
  • January 2011 (7)
2010
  • December 2010 (8)
  • November 2010 (6)
  • October 2010 (2)
  • September 2010 (6)
  • August 2010 (5)
Additional Resources
  • Media & Trade
  • Lodi Winegrape Commission
  • Donation Requests
  • Returns & Cancellations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
Contact

Lodi Wine Visitor Center
2545 West Turner Road Lodi, CA 95242
209.365.0621
Open: Thursday - Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm

Lodi Winegrape Commission
2545 West Turner Road, Lodi, CA 95242
209.367.4727
Open: Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm

Have a question? Complete our contact form.

  • © Copyright 2021 Lodi Winegrape Commission
  • Winery Ecommerce by WineDirect