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.

Rous Vineyard’s immaculate perfection, with help from St. George
Craig Rous with his 103 year old zin vines
One of Lodi’s most highly regarded Zinfandel growths over the past dozen or so years has been the 10 acre vineyard owned and meticulously farmed by Craig Rous. Rous Vineyard is located in the heart of the “eastside” of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA – a level pocket of some 30 feet of porous sandy loam soil, built up by millenniums of overflow from this major waterway, pushing down from the Sierra Nevadas – and Mr. Rous himself holds the position of Director of Operations & Planning of the Kautz family’s Bear Creek Winery...
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The chefs’ slate at 2012 ZinFest Cooking School
It’s all about foods we love to eat with Lodi’s lush, juicy wines under the 2012 ZinFest Cooking School tent this coming May 19 in Lodi Lake Park.
The Cooking School will start off at 1 PM with Chef Fabrice Dubuc of Wine & Roses Hotel, Restaurant & Spa – which has been rated among the Top 10 Most Romantic Inns by American Historic Inns – who will be demonstrating the pissaladiere of his native Southern France...
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Ironstone’s astounding Petite Sirah from little known Sloughhouse appellation
Ironstone's Sloughhouse AVA Petite Sirah vineyard
Of the seven sub-appellations – officially called American Viticultural Areas (i.e. AVAs) – within the greater Lodi AVA, the Sloughhouse AVA (officially recognized in 2006) is among the least known, despite its incredible potential...
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Experience terroir, the cutting-edge, chocolates & cheese at ZinFest Wine School
ZinFest wine lovers enjoying their day in Lodi Lake Park
There will be some fascinating 30 minute seminars offered at the 2012 Lodi ZinFest, taking place underneath the Wine School tent. You can...
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Celebrate Lodi spring with 2011s & 50 salads at Wine & Roses
This Sunday, April 29, 2012, Wine & Roses – Lodi’s premier hotel, restaurant and spa destination – will host its first annual Spring of The Vine. Or as Wine & Roses’ French born Chef Didier Gerbi puts it, Le Printemps des Vins...
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Exotic wines, lush Delta & words from the Grape Goddess at 2012 ZinFest
Why have more and more wine lovers been flocking to Lodi’s ZinFest Wine Festival, a yearly celebration taking place this year on Saturday, May 19, 2012 (12-5 PM)? More than 6,000 attended last year’s festival, yet amazingly…
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How Lodi caused Odisea’s “Temporary Insanity”
Odisea's Adam Webb with Jean Rauser, in her 103 year old Lodi Carigane vineyard
I fought against the bottle
But I had to do it drunk…
- Leonard Cohen (That Don’t Make It Junk)
The 2009 Odisea California Temporary Insanity ($30) is a perfect example of how some of California’s most original, and quixotic, wine producers get hooked on Lodi; and why winemakers consider this American Viticultural Area increasingly where it’s at when it comes to winegrowing derring-do...
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LangeTwins’ SLEWS project: waking up to smell the mugwort
Mature oaks beside LangeTwins' old Zinfandel plantings along Mokelumne River
LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards has been among the Lodi AVA’s leaders in Lodi Rules certified sustainable winegrowing. During the past eight years they have also devoted some 10 acres north of their winery on E. Jahant Rd., plus another 10 acres on their Sandpoint property along the Mokelumne River, to habitat restoration projects in association with SLEWS – Center for Land-Based Learning‘s Student and Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship program –which engages local high school students in the winery’s conservation efforts...
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Fields Family’s latest midnight smokin’ wines
Fields Family Wines' Ryan Sherman
But to live outside the law, you must be honest…
- Bob Dylan (Absolutely Sweet Marie)
Lodi’s Fields Family Wines has released what might be considered the region’s first Super Tuscan style wine: the 2010 Fields Family Lodi Il Ladro ($25).
Why il ladro – Italian for “the thief”? The story goes back some six, seven years ago, when co-proprietor/winemaker Russ Fields was just getting into winemaking as an avid amateur. As part of his self-training, Fields used to “liberate” tiny bits of fruit that had gone unpicked (hence, tragically wasted) in neighboring vineyards in somewhat surreptitious fashion. There have been worse things – like ex-presidents’ partying, or ones who lust or never inhale...
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At bucolic Heritage Oak: the birdmen of Lodi
David Yee, talking about the secret life of the Western Bluebird
The vineyards belonging to Heritage Oak Winery are tucked atop a particularly bucolic bend of Mokelumne River, just east of the town of Lodi. Out of Heritage Oak’s 186 acres, 105 is devoted to wine grapes, and the rest to fauna and flora: a beautiful convergence of riparian woodlands and vines, teeming with life — circumstances developed by design as much as by natural extension...
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