Lodi's Michael David Winery named Winery of the Year at 2016 Unified Symposium

Michael David Winery co-owners Michael and David Phillips (image courtesy of John Curley Photography)

And the hits just keep on coming...

There was a surprise announcement this past Wednesday, January 27 at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento: Lodi’s Michael David Winery was named 2016 Winery of the Year.

Jan 28, 2016 at 8:26 PM Permalink

Lodi's 2016 Wine & Chocolate Weekend is upon us!

Wine and chocolate lovers at Oak Farm Vineyards tasting room

OMG, the 19th Annual Lodi Wine & Chocolate Weekend is less than a month away: taking place Saturday/Sunday, February 13 + 14, 2016!

If you haven’t partaken of this sweet and savory experience before, here’s the scoop: this is easily the most popular passport-style event put on by Lodi’s wineries each year; for a number of good reasons, including... 

Jan 20, 2016 at 5:00 AM Permalink

Lodi's 2016 Gold-or-higher winners at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competiton

Key components of the multi-award winning Michael David Winery team: Vineyard Manager Kevin Phillips and Winemaker Adam Mettler (image courtesy of The Sommelier Files by Christopher Sawyer)

Continuing a recent trend at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition – the largest judging of American wines in the world – the Lodi wine region held its own in several categories.

Jan 18, 2016 at 3:38 PM Permalink

Interview - Michael David's David Phillips talks about what's been good for Lodi

David Phillips (far left) entertaining visiting restaurant sommeliers at Michael David Winery this past September (image courtesy of John Curley Photography)

David Phillips – who co-owns Michael David Winery, as President, along with his older brother Michael (CEO) – is feeling good about the prospects of not only the family business, but also the Lodi winegrowing region and community in general.

Jan 11, 2016 at 2:30 PM Permalink

Predicting what we'll be predictably drinking in 2016

At the crack of a September 2015 dawn, visiting sommeliers helping to pick Zinfandel from 73-year-old vines in Mohr-Fry Ranch (image courtesy of John Curley Photography)

It’s early January 2016, and we’ve already been assaulted by... the usual yearly onslaught of wine media “predictions” for the New Year.

Jan 6, 2016 at 2:00 PM Permalink

In 2016, time for new directions with Lodi's stunning range of unique varietals

Ramshackle water tower rising up from Lodi's sandy river shores

Tired of the same ol’ same ol’? Join the club!

The beautiful thing about Lodi is that this is one American Viticultural Area –with over 100,000 acres fine wine grapes, the most widely planted in the U.S. – that doesn’t limit itself to standard commercial varieties.

There are well over 50 classic wine grapes commercially grown here, and at least another 50 grapes cultivated on a limited or experimental basis. Lodi doesn’t grow everything, but there sure is a heckuva lot: from Albariño, Aglianico and Alicante Bouschet to Zinfandel and Zweigelt, and a bewildering number in between (Charbono and Dornfelder, Cinsaut and Silvaner, Piquepoul and Pinotage, Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot, Mourvèdre and Moscatos, Torrontés and Teroldego, Viognier, Vermentino, Verdelho, Verdejo, and oh-so-much-more).

Dec 30, 2015 at 2:30 PM Permalink

A year of blogs on Lodi's winegrowing history

Lodi Grape Festival Court, circa 1940s

Unlike Hollywood stars, viticultural and winemaking regions are never overnight sensations. For European regions, great wines and success stories are the accumulation of centuries, if not millenniums, of practical knowledge, hard won through trial and error. New World wine regions have had the advantage of learning from the Old, and so their histories are more compressed.

Over the past year on this blog site we’ve devoted a considerable amount of words and images to the history of the Lodi Viticultural Area precisely because of the region’s seemingly overnight success. As recently summarized in How Lodi saved the wine world in 2015, Lodi has been recognized by various groups as special enough to garner titles like “Wine Region of the Year,” “Vineyard of the Year,” “Grower of the Year,” “Winery of the Year,” and “Sustainable Winegrower of the Year.”

Dec 28, 2015 at 6:00 AM Permalink

Lodi Decembers in living color

December in Lodi: ancient Zinfandel, distant barns and gold on plum-gray sunsets

When gloomy gray Decembers are roused to Christmas mirth,

The dullest life remembers there once was joy on earth,

And draws from youth’s recesses

Some memory it possesses,

And, gazing through the lens of time, exaggerates its worth,

When gloomy gray December is roused to Christmas mirth...

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Christmas Fancies)

For Christmas mirth in Lodi, all we need do, even during the grayest and dampest of days, is look outside our windows. When you live in Lodi wine country - with over 100,000 acres of wine grapes planted, easily the most widely planted wine region in North America - sometimes it's easy to overlook Nature's annual show of joy and colors. 

Dec 23, 2015 at 6:00 AM Permalink Comments (1)

How Lodi saved the wine world in 2015

Markus Bokisch teaching sommeliers about vine morphology in his Vista Luna Vineyard

This past November 2015 Lodi’s Markus Bokisch of Bokisch Ranches was named one of the 20 Most Admired Grapegrowers in North America by the respected industry publication, Vineyard & Winery Management.

Dec 21, 2015 at 6:00 AM Permalink Comments (1)

Toasted Toad's Lodi wines are as adventurous as its winemakers

Toasted Toad's daughter/father team Laura and Jeff Werter in their Downtown Lodi winery

Last week, speaking in his Downtown Lodi winery and tasting room, Toasted Toad Cellars Owner/Assistant Winemaker Jeff Werter told us, “It’s been 4 years, 1 month and 5 days since we opened, and we’ve loved every minute of it.”

Dec 16, 2015 at 7:00 AM Permalink