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.
Rare hat trick: Lodi garners awards for Vineyard, Grower & Winery of the Year
Lodi hat trick
Over the past year the Lodi Viticultural Area has achieved something of a hat trick; garnering no less than three prestigious California wine industry awards for...
Continue »Stama Winery unveils new tasting room and exciting plans for Lodi’s future
Very quietly, over the recent ZinFest weekend, Stama Winery unveiled a spanking new, if low key, tasting room – open 7 days a week, from 11 AM – centrally located at the site of their new winery facility on Davis Road, just south of Turner Road on Lodi's west side.
Continue »Photos of Lodi Wine Nation at another fun, tranquil ZinFest
Blame it all on their roots, they showed up in boots, and all kinds of hats and wine-country-chic apparel, including threads studded with corks from their favorite bottlings of Lodi wine!
Continue »Beautiful thing – the refreshing purity of Onesta Wines
The Lodi AVA grown wines of Onesta Wines winemaker/owner Jillian Johnson DeLeon are distinguished by two closely related things...
Continue »Lodi wines for tasting, purchase and by-the-glass at ZinFest Festival
2015 ZinFest Festival
Are you ready for Lodi’s 2015 ZinFest Festival, happening this coming Saturday, May 16?
Continue »The 2012 ZinFest Commemorative Zinfandel is an essence of Lodi
ZinFest 2015: Lodi's Premiere Wine Tasting Event
Each year the Lodi ZinFest produces about a 1,000 bottles of a Commemorative Lodi grown Zinfandel under a colorful Belle Époque inspired art label by our official ZinFest artist, Vince McIndoe, always featuring the same mysterious "red headed girl."
Continue »Historic Vineyard Society tasting of Lodi’s rarest wines headlines 2015 ZinFest Wine School
Everybody loves a luscious Zinfandel, Lodi's signature wine, but Lodi ZinFest has always been about a lot more than Zinfandel. It's been about all the fascinating wines – from light and refreshing white and pink wines, to a joyful variety of savory reds – grown in this, the most widely planted American Viticultural Area in the U.S.
Continue »Lodi Zinfandel gets some “pizazz” from a Sonoma producer
What happens when a critically acclaimed Sonoma County based Zinfandel producer gets her hands on some Lodi grown fruit?
You get a wine like the newly minted 2012 Carol Shelton Piazza Vineyard Pizazz Zin Lodi Zinfandel ($19): a plump, verging on opulent, almost lascivious style of the varietal; teeming with cherry-bombish fruit coated in nostril tingling cocoa dust and almost piña colada-like sensations.
Continue »Klinker Brick aligns with two bold women-growers
Special red wines grown by Lodi's Jean Rauser and Antoinette Celle
Klinker Brick Winery owner Steve Felten has recently aligned his farming operations with two of Lodi's more enterprising women-growers: Jean Rauser, the owner of Rauser Vineyard in the Victor area, east of the town of Lodi; and Antoinette Celle, owner of Celle Vineyard located at the southernmost edge of the Lodi Viticultural Area, near Linden.
Continue »2015 Lodi ZinFest – more fun than a barrel of floating winemakers!
Where does the time go? Don’t look now, but the 2015 Lodi ZinFest Wine Festival is just 30 days away — happening this coming Saturday, May 16 (12-5 PM)!
Simply put, Lodi wine doesn’t get any funner than this yearly affair, taking place in the gorgeously lush “island” setting of Lodi Lake Park, amidst giant ancient weeping willows bowing beside blue refreshing waters of the Mokelumne River. Also as in previous years, over 40 of Lodi’s finest artisanal wineries will be pouring over 200 different Lodi grown wines — and not just Zinfandel!
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