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.
Wine 101: tasting & talking
How to taste wine, without the gobbledygook… ‘Tis a far, far easier thing to do than what it’s been made out to be. Tasting wine is just like tasting food, except it involves a liquid in a glass, and getting accustomed to a process involving Seeing Swirling Smelling Sipping As Yogi Berra might have said, you can see a lot by looking, and it’s as important to first look at a wine as it is to first look at a dish before you eat it because our sense of smell and taste are most definitely connected to our visual sense…
Continue »
Aug 9, 2011 at 4:06 PM
Permalink
Mettler family’s runaway success
A family’s history of farming and excellence The decision to establish Mettler Family Vineyards as a brand and winery was, indeed, a “family decision,” says Adam Mettler. There is a lot of lineage as well as huge amount of talent associated with the name. Start with Adam Mettler, who is not only the family winemaker, but who also holds down a pretty respectable “day job” as GM/winemaker of Michael~David Winery, none less. Adam’s dad, Larry Mettler, heads up the family and their grape business (Arbor Vineyards), which farms over 800 acres of numero uno quality Lodi vineyards – 300 of..
Continue » Aug 5, 2011 at 4:11 PM
Permalink
Odisea’s delicious roots in Lodi
A case for a natural approach to Lodi winemaking… Odisea Wine Company was one producer that really stood out at the TAPAS (Tempranillo Advocates Producers & Amigos Society) Grand Tasting at San Francisco’s Fort Mason this past June (for an accounting from the Lodi perspective, see this report in Culinary Wine & Food Adventures). There was something about the Odisea wines – an immediacy, and almost unabashed nakedness – that distinguished it among other Spanish grape specialists in the room that day. There are now, for instance, a growing number of fine, zesty California whites made from the Albariño grape,..
Continue » Jul 28, 2011 at 4:17 PM
Permalink
Wine 101: color & taste sensations
How wines get their color The pigmentation of wines comes from the skins of grapes they’re made from. White wines are usually produced from light, green skinned grapes, and red wines from dark, black skinned grapes. The actual juice of most varieties of vinifera is colorless. Therefore, it is entirely possible to make a pink or even pale white colored wine from a black skinned grape simply by separating the skins from the juice immediately after picking, prior to fermentation. The finest, clear colored sparkling wines, for example, come from Champagne in France, most of which is made from the..
Continue » Jul 26, 2011 at 4:24 PM
Permalink
Lodi’s best whites & summer pasta
Lodi’s award winners at the 2011 California State Fair Three outstanding Lodi wines will be singled out in an awards ceremony at the California State Fair’s Taste & Celebrate the Best event, this coming July 29, 2011 at the California State Fair in Sacramento. The honors and recipients: Best of Lodi White: 2010 Abundance, Lodi Bountiful Blanc (Gold Medal) Best of Lodi Red: 2009 Macchia, Serious Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel (Double Gold Medal) Best Viognier: 2010 Loredona, Lodi Viognier (Gold Medal) The awards ceremony takes place at 3-5:30 PM on Golden 1 Stage, and the public will have the opportunity..
Continue » Jul 21, 2011 at 4:28 PM
Permalink
Knowing, enjoying wine 101
De plan, de plan… Over the next few weeks we plan to devote one blogpost per week covering some basic aspects of wine, from how vineyards effect quality and style to, simply, how to taste wine and enhance its enjoyment. Yes, we’re talking “basics,” but we promise: we’re not going to dumb it down for you. We figure that if you’re reading this, you’re probably a curious wine lover, and you want something of substance along with some A, B, Cs. Why not? To begin with… What makes wine wine? If left to its own devices, any batch of grapes..
Continue » Jul 19, 2011 at 4:33 PM
Permalink
Lodi shines at Zin Rib-O-Rama
Spelling out what makes Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel special… Last weekend on July 9, Lodi was the American Viticultural Area featured by Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (a.k.a. ZAP) at its first ever annual Rib-O-Rama, taking place at Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda, along the foggy banks of the San Francisco Bay. Rock Wall is a fairly new Zinfandel specialist, owned and operated by Kent Rosenblum (perhaps best known, and revered, as the founder of Rosenblum Cellars, which he sold in 2008) and his daughter Shauna Rosenblum (Rock Wall’s winemaker). Along with Rock Wall, there was a handful of other..
Continue » Jul 16, 2011 at 4:37 PM
Permalink
Bastille Day at Wine & Roses!
An authentic French style celebration at Lodi’s Wine & Roses Ah, the outdoor communal tables attended by long white aproned servers, steaming bowls of saucissse de Toulouse (pork sausages) and ratatouille passed under rays of a fading summer sun sifting through verdant Van Gogh greenery, with the tinkling of glasses filled with kir, Lillet blanc or even the dizzying, mysterious Absinthe in harmony with laughter of friends and gay accordéon de musique… No, this is not Midnight in Paris… this will be a first-time (for Lodi!) celebration authentique of Bastille Day, taking place in the outdoor cobbled courtyard of Wine..
Continue » Jul 11, 2011 at 4:43 PM
Permalink
Latest by Fields & Grands Amis
Fields Family joins Downtown Lodi’s growing, vibrant culinary scene A couple of weeks ago Fields Family Winery quietly opened their brand new tasting room in Downtown Lodi at 20 N. School St.; right across the street from the Cellardoor (the urban home of the Michael~David, Jessie’s Grove, Van Ruiten Family and Bokisch Vineyards wineries), and also looking at Cindy Della Monica’s Cheese Central, an oasis of luscious artisanal milk ferments which always seems to be mobbed these days. Fields Family also joins Jeremy and Choral Trettevik’s Jeremy Wine Company, Gregg and Colleen Lewis’ The Dancing Fox (also an artisanal..
Continue » Jul 8, 2011 at 4:48 PM
Permalink
Sip’n at historic McFarland Ranch
Enjoy great wine, music and friends at Galt’s historic landmark The Lodi AVA is as much about the history of its families — many still working the farms and ranches established since the late 1850s — as the incredible strides evident in the quality of its wine grapes and increasingly acclaimed wines, now enjoyed all over the world. This is why preservation of Lodi’s past is as important to the region as the bold, innovative steps being taken to assure its future prosperity. Tucked between miles of vineyards farmed by Vino Farms, Peltier Station‘s Rod Schatz, Amrik Dahliwal and others,..
Continue » Jul 5, 2011 at 4:53 PM
Permalink