Appreciating California Zinfandels for what they are and where they're grown, not for what you're told they're supposed to be

Winter scene: Lizzy James Vineyard, a certified Historic Vineyard Society block on the east side of Lodi's Mokelumne River AVA.

To truly grasp Lodi grown Zinfandels—or Zinfandels from anywhere else, for that matter—it helps to understand how they compare with Zinfandels from other California wine regions.

The problem is, you cannot trust everything you read or are told about Zinfandels. While geneally well meaning, many journalists simply repeat what they themselves are told about the varietal, rather than thinking for themselves, so they end up repeating erroneous information and ideas...

Feb 3, 2025 at 7:00 AM Permalink

The Japanese American experience in Lodi and California documented by Dorothea Lange

1942 photo by acclaimed photographer Dorothea Lange: Old vine Lodi vineyard and home forcibly taken from Japanese American family.

The single most famous photograph in the annals of Americana is undoubtedly that of the "Migrant Mother," taken in 1936 by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). Not so famous are the few photos taken by Lange of Japanese American faces and farms in Lodi, for a brief time in 1942...

Jan 28, 2025 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Lodi's 2025 Wine & Chocolate Weekend is the opportunity for adventurous wine lovers to experience the region's sumptuous wines in leisurely settings

During a recent Lodi Wine & Chocolate Weekend, Klinker Bricker owner Steve Felten—almost unbelievably, a fifth generation grape grower (his family farming in Lodi since the 1890s)—personally serving wines and chocolates to an enthusiastic wine lover.

A sensory celebration

Look out, it's that time of year again! The 2025 Lodi Wine & Chocolate Weekend takes place Saturday/Sunday, February 15-16...

Jan 25, 2025 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Why Lodi blends are different and more terroir focused than blends grown anywhere else in the country

Sandlands owner/winemaker Tegan Passalacqua pruning 110-year old own-rooted Zinfandel in his Kirschenmann Vineyard.

It is almost funny that blended wines⏤wines made from multiple grapes⏤are so popular these days. For years and years the wine industry has been trying to convince consumers that the finest wines, at least those grown in America, are made from primarily one grape. These are called varietal wines. To be bottled as a varietal wine, according to federal law, a wine must be made from at least 75% of the grape listed on the label (allowing for up to 25% blending of other grapes).

The most popular varietal wines in the U.S. are Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Other popular varietals include Pinot Noir, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc (often bottled as Fumé Blanc), Pinot Grigio (a.k.a., Pinot Gris), and of course here in Lodi, Zinfandel.

Consumers, however, have not been satisfied with just varietal wines. Over the past 10, 15 years blended wines have become one of the country's most popular market categories. Blends are often sold, simply, as "Red Wine" or "White Wine," although most of the popular bottlings are sold under imaginative proprietary names... 

Jan 21, 2025 at 7:00 AM Permalink

12 fantastic Lodi buys that take you from the realm of the senses into heights of the intellect

Visiting wine journalists on the grape sorting line at Lodi's Bokisch Vineyards.

"Wine, women and song... why reinvent the wheel?" That's the writing on a wall I once saw in Las Vegas' Caesars Palace. While there was undoubtedly wine and singing aplenty in the historical Caesar's era, a little reading shows that the expression first became popular in Germany, during the early 1800s. Aren't you glad you know that?

It is also good to know that through good times and bad, since before the days of the Romans, we have always had wine. It was, I think, Robert Mondavi who pointed out that the civilizing attributes of wine have been known since, well, the beginning of civilization. 

Mr. Mondavi was a pioneer of the modern day California wine renaissance. There were numerous others, of course, and their collective impact was so huge that we can now say, here at the start of 2025, that American wines are far, far better than ever before... 

Jan 16, 2025 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Dispelling myths about wines and foods

Guests enjoying multiple wines during dinner at Lodi's Towne House Restaurant. Jill Means Design.

Let's start off 2025 talking about something a lot of wine geeks seem to have little use for. Wine in the context of food.

Every ten or twenty years, or so it seems, the anti-food factions seem to pop up in the winosphere. Old-timers can even remember back in the 1980s when the famed wine critic Robert Parker used to rail against the very idea of "food wines." That is, lighter, more subtle wines that, theoretically, were made to have higher percentage chance of complimenting a wider range of foods. To Parker, those wines were just poor excuses for weak or uninteresting wines. C'est la vie.

To a certain extent, of course, to be oblivious to wine and food pairing "conventions," as one wine educator recently put it, is to live in your own state of bliss. It's a free country. There is nothing wrong with the “drink-whatever-you-like” approach when it comes to what you put on the table. The way I see it, it's not much different than eating in general: Whenever you’re hungry, just open up a favorite canned food or stop by the nearest fast food joint on the way home...

Jan 13, 2025 at 6:00 AM Permalink

Is the wine industry effectively communicating with Gen Z consumers? (Part 2 of Sobering thoughts at the start of 2025)

Visiting wine influencers preserving the moment in Lodi's Abba Vineyard.

Part 2 of Sobering thoughts at the start of 2025⏤The state of the American wine industry

Since overall wine consumption began showing a statistical decline in 2022, all eyes have been on the youngest segment of demographic cohorts, identified as Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012.

The general feeling, based on market research, is that the latest generation of consumers, who first came of legal drinking age in 2018, have not been holding up their end.

For Boomers, still identified as the largest volume consumers of wine, the idea of consumers in their early to mid-20s not being entirely enthusiastic about wine comes as no surprise. Even the youngest Boomers, now in their early 60s, can well remember what they used to drink in their early 20s: Either no wine at all, or tutti-fruity commercial products such as Blue Nun, Lancers and Riunite. If they drank "California" at all, it was jug wines such as E. & J. Gallo Hearty Burgundy or Chablis Blanc...

Jan 7, 2025 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Sobering thoughts at the start of 2025⏤The state of the American wine industry

Young wine lovers during a recent Lodi Wine & Chocolate Weekend celebration.

The business of Lodi is grapes. In fact, the region's climate and soils are so ideal for the cultivation of grapevines, Lodi has become the largest winegrowing region in America. 

To what extent? According to most recent USDA reports, the Lodi AVA (i.e., Crush District 11) crushes approximately 20.5% of all wine grapes grown in California. To put things in perspective, Napa Valley produces just 4% of California wine (per Capstone California).

There are, of course, wine industries in other states. Still, since 81% of all domestically produced wine is grown in California (re Wine Institute), approximately 17.1% of all American wine is grown in Lodi...

Jan 1, 2025 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Favorite Lodi wine country photos of the year (August through December)

Golden maned old vine Flame Tokay in Lodi's early morning December fog.

As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them

The days when the veil lifted
And the soul could see delight
When a quiver caressed the heart
In the sheer exuberance of being here

Surprises that came awake
In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectations seem to have quenched...

Dec 30, 2024 at 6:00 AM Permalink

Lodi sparkling wines⏤dryer than most French Champagne⏤crafted from both classic grapes and Mediterranean or exotic varieties

Clements Hills-Lodi Sparkling Picpoul Blanc. Lorenza Wine.

Hooray, we're getting close to a New Year! 

This calls, of course, for a good champagne. It's that time of year when we want to hear that pop and fizz, and feel the icy taste of tart, bubbly, foamy wine to mark the end of a year and start of a brand new one... especially after 2024 (not the best of years for many of us).

So let's talk sparkers. Champagne style wines are, indeed, grown and produced in Lodi, despite the fact that the original Champagne region in France, located some 100 miles north of Paris, is associated with a climate that is much colder than Lodi's... 

Dec 23, 2024 at 6:00 AM Permalink