Dress your ritziest to win while enjoying Lodi's 2017 Wine & Chocolate Weekend

Can anything be as much fun, or anyone look as smashing, as, say, a Lady Mary, Edith or Rose during their glorious flapper era? Why not you?

Which is why, for Lodi’s 20th Annual Wine & Chocolate Weekend – February 11 & 12, 2017 (11 AM-4 PM) – our suggested theme, for you and our wineries, is “putting on the Ritz,” in the Roaring ‘20s spirit of free-flowing fashion. We invite you to get out, dress up to the nines and go ALL out, which will make your experience of Lodi’s lusciously fresh, fruit forward wines, matched with plenty of chocolaty delicacies (and not just sweets!) at each stop, all the more memorable!

You won’t, mind you, need to know the secret speakeasy knock as you travel between the 50-plus Lodi region wineries opening their doors to Valentine spirited wine and food lovers all during this weekend. You can bet that the wineries will be decked out – some of them with floors cleared for live music and dancing...

Jan 18, 2017 at 12:00 PM Permalink

Tasting U.C. Davis and ZAP's new heritage Zinfandel clones

Lodi Zinfandel on ancient vine (planted in 1904) in Harney Lane's Lizzy James Vineyard

Since ZAP’s (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers’) big, yearly ZinEx (Zinfandel Experience) is just around the corner – taking place in San Francisco February 23-25, 2017 – it’s as good a time as any to discuss one of the reasons why it exists.

ZAP was founded as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 1991; at a time when Zinfandel as a red wine category was on the wane. During the 1980s California wineries had been dropping the varietal from their lines left and right, and a larger chunk of what existed in the fields were going into soft, fruity, pink colored White Zinfandel. If red wine drinkers weren’t looking for Cabernet Sauvignon, they were asking for (gasp) Merlot (Pinot Noir hadn't quite clicked with mainstream consumers at that time)...

Jan 16, 2017 at 3:00 AM Permalink

McCay Cellars releases first Rous Vineyard plus newly "discovered" Zinfandel

Craig Rous harvests his 2014 Rous Vineyard Zinfandel

It’s big news when a handcraft, artisanal style Zinfandel specialist produces, for the first time, a wine from Rous Vineyard, owned and farmed by Craig Rous. If there were, say, just four or five Zinfandel vineyards in the Lodi Viticultural Area that might be considered grand crus – the “best of the best” (albeit unofficially), based upon a conclusive history of excellence – Rous Vineyard would be one of them. The 10-acre Rous Vineyard was planted in 1909 on St. George rootstock; on the east side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River Viticultural Area, where piles of sandy loam are the deepest and sandiest in the appellation....

Jan 12, 2017 at 1:30 PM Permalink

Our favorite Lodi wine country images of 2016

March spectacle in Bokisch Ranches' Terra Alta Vineyard (Lodi's Clements Hills AVA)

The earliest use of the exact phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” first appeared in an 1918 newspaper advertisement in the San Antonio Light (now the San Antonio Express-News), which read: One of the Nation's Greatest Editors Says... One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

Jan 2, 2017 at 6:00 AM Permalink

Our geekiest (i.e. funnest!) Lodi blog posts of 2016

Wine o'clock in Lodi's Bokisch Vineyards

Face it, it's fun to be geeky about wine. Sure, wine is basically an adult beverage; but many of us are also hooked on wine because its intrinsic complexity – cool, heady stuff like varieties of wine grapes, the influence of climate and soil, the intricacies, art and science of winemaking, etc. – makes the appreciation of it all the more compelling.

Which is why, since we started our lodiwine.com blog site in 2010, we have endeavored to make it as informative as just plain LoCA, or "crazy" fun. To know, know Lodi wine is to love, love, love it... 

Dec 29, 2016 at 6:00 AM Permalink

Lodi's diversity of wines is perfect for New Year's party dishes

Planning a New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day get-together with family or close friends?

With holiday cheer still lingering in the wintry air, a warm kitchen beckons, firing up the senses. We’re in the mood to roll up our sleeves and do some cooking, but at the same time we want our party dishes to be as simple or do-ahead-able enough as possible in order to focus most of our attention on what really matters: spending time in good company, preferably with equally friendly wines.

With a leisurely spin through the internet, we have come across a number of fun, entertaining, delicious reading dishes inspiring a number of great ideas pertaining to wines – specifically Lodi grown wines, of course...

Dec 26, 2016 at 5:00 AM Permalink

2016 was another major award winning year for Lodi

Oak Farm Vineyards, producer of multiple award winning Lodi grown wines in 2016 (photo courtesy of John Curley Photography)

While Lodi grown wines are more popular than ever, the region’s growers and vintners have certainly not stopped to rest on their laurels. They are well aware that consumers have a choice of many wonderful wines from elsewhere in California and all around the world.

Their goal, of course, is not just achieving a competitive or industry leading quality level, but also to continue to define what makes Lodi grapes and wines unique... special. What is it about the region that cannot be duplicated in any other part of the world? What makes Lodi wines different, and more desirable, on a sensory level? The more we tell this story, the more we increase the value of Lodi grown grapes, and the growing prestige and demand for Lodi grown wines produced by wineries within and outside the region.

You need not look far, though, to find proof of Lodi’s increasingly competitive, pro-active edge: the many accolades and awards garnered by growers and producers just over the past calendar year...

Dec 20, 2016 at 12:00 PM Permalink

Ultimate Christmas case: the 12 most "Lodi" wines of 2016

Ancient Lodi Zinfandel

For Christmas, what do you give a Lodi wine lover who has tried most everything?

Our suggestion: a case of 12 Lodi grown wines, each showing what Lodi does best. And what Lodi does does great – generally from grapes more conducive to warm, steady Mediterranean climates and exceptionally deep sandy soils – it does as well or better than just about any other American wine region. That is to say, wines that are gentle, fresh, filling yet friendly, with a purity of fruit expression from beginning to end. If that's your cuppa, Lodi is for you!

Dec 16, 2016 at 6:00 AM Permalink

Viticultural consultant Stan Grant talks about Lodi growers' "quiet revolution"

Stan Grant of Progressive Viticulture

Lodi has become synonymous with generous, expressive wines; many readily available at exceptional, value-range prices, and more and more of them crafted by smaller specialty producers in classic artisanal styles. None of this came out of nowhere. It represents a culmination of labors, organization and advances generated primarily in Lodi's vineyards, which now add up to easily the largest acreage of premium wine grapes in the U.S.

Vineyard consultant Stan Grant has played a small part in this growth; enough to be able to articulate it, at least from a viticultural perspective. We met with him last week (early December 2016) in Den Hartog International Farms – a vineyard owned and farmed by Pieter Den Hartog, located in the north-west corner of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA...

Dec 12, 2016 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Aaron Shinn foresees a bright future for Lodi winegrowing

Lodi vineyard manager Aaron Shinn

One of the most highly regarded, and more forward thinking, of the Lodi Viticultural Area’s winegrowers is Aaron Shinn: Vineyard Manager for Round Valley Ranches, one of the region’s largest vineyard management companies; and owner of his own management firm, Shinn Farms.

Like any vineyard manager, Mr. Shinn’s talents are measured by results. For instance, Chad Joseph, the vaunted winemaker of note at Oak Farm Vineyards as well as Harney Lane Winery, described Shinn’s work as “energy, passion and knowledge.” Joseph elaborates by saying, “A lot of growers have the knowledge, but very few have the energy and passion it takes to attend to all the little details necessary to grow grapes with the potential to produce world class wine...

Dec 7, 2016 at 1:00 PM Permalink