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.
Kidder Family rising star wines
Remember the name Kidder Family Winery, because this is one of Lodi‘s rising star producers. It’s not a simple matter of newness; nor even sheer talent, which winemaker/proprietor Aaron Kidder has aplenty. If anything, it’s a matter of Mr. Kidder having a strong sense of emerging contemporary tastes — particularly in respect to wines that impress you by their balance rather than hammering intensity, clarity of fruit rather than oakiness, and crisp edged, food-friendly textures — and the good sense and cojones to focus precisely on that. If you’re a bit tired of clunky, super-sized wines seemingly made more to..
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Aug 29, 2011 at 3:51 PM
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Tempranillo Day & Vin d’Elegance
August 31: Lodi celebrates International Tempranillo Day Seven Lodi based members of TAPAS (Tempranillo Advocates Producers & Amigos Society) are teaming up with four of Downtown Lodi’s finest restaurants to put on an exciting progressive dinner celebrating the first ever International Tempranillo Day on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 (5:15 PM): 7 fantastic Tempranillos matched with 7 platos pequeños (small plates). The stellar Lodi wineries showing off their Tempranillos will include Alta Mesa, Bokisch, Harney Lane, Jeremy, Riaza, Ripken and St. Amant. Have you ever tasted good Tempranillo? If so, you experienced a soulful, sumptuous, mouth-filling red wine, as soft and..
Continue » Aug 26, 2011 at 3:29 PM
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Wine-food matching made easy
A commonsense approach to wine and food matching We’ve mentioned some commonsense wine and food matches; like the fact that zesty, dry white wines like Sauvignon Blanc are as natural with white fish as a squeeze of fresh lemon. Or the fact that it makes sense to serve a full bodied, full tannin red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon with full, fatty red meats such as beef and lamb. It doesn’t take a Master Sommelier to understand these things. If you know that ketchup tastes good on a hamburger, and that hot fudge tastes great over vanilla ice cream, then you..
Continue » Aug 23, 2011 at 3:39 PM
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Right glasses & temperatures matter
Wine glasses make a difference Aside from choosing what wine to drink, there is probably no choice as key to your enjoyment of wine as your selection of wine glass. Everyone knows that wine glasses properly come with a stem, are crystal clear for visual pleasure, and are curved inward to allow the nose to better enjoy the aromas collecting just below the rim. But size and shape also matter. Generally speaking, white wines taste best in 12 to 14 oz. glasses in the graceful shape of a tulip. But for red wines, you can use the same 12 oz…
Continue » Aug 16, 2011 at 3:56 PM
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Lodi’s Treasure Island WineFest
Lodi’s 3rd Annual Treasure Island WineFest Lodi Wine Country returns to San Francisco Bay this coming Saturday, October 8, 2011 (1 to 5 PM) at the Treasure Island WineFest! Over 45 of Lodi’s finest producers will be pouring over 200 Lodi AVA grown wines, including many of the 133 winners at this past 2011 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition (2 Best of Class, 2 Double Golds, 19 Golds, 60 Silvers, and 50 Bronzes). Visit the Treasure Island Web site for a list of these participating wineries. Of course, wait-there’s-more! Lodi’s Treasure Island WineFest occurs during the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Week,..
Continue » Aug 11, 2011 at 4:02 PM
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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