How Barry Gnekow utilizes technology to do his winemaking magic, and in the process is redefining terroir

Consulting winemaker Barry Gnekow monitoring progress of grapes undergoing the pre-fermentation thermovinification process called flash-détente, at the top of the must heater at Lodi Vintners

Desperate times call for flash-détente

Before our meeting last week to discuss the latest winemaking technology utilized at Lodi's Lodi Vintners — where brands such as Klinker Brick, Concrete Wine and Rippey Family are produced — Barry Gnekow sent a note saying, "Don't expect romantic scenes of rolling hills of vineyards with family dogs and progeny strolling around tasting out of barrels."

I hadn't. Especially since Mr. Gnekow's labors as a consulting winemaker has long remained one of the California wine industry's biggest secrets: His is the technical mind behind the humongous success of wineries like Lodi's Michael David and Klinker Brick, and even before that, for brands such as J. Lohr and Hahn Estate...

Mar 9, 2021 at 11:00 AM Permalink

The use of varietal as a term, its history and passing practicality

Smiling Zinfandel grape grown in Lodi's Lot 13 Vineyard, planted in 1915, prior to Prohibition

What's In a (Varietal) Name?

The term varietal, as the long departed wine scribe Robert Lawrence Balzer wrote way back in 1948 in his book California's Best Wines, is actually "an early California idea." Balzer defined it, simply, as the way of "naming wines after the grape species used in their making," as opposed to the use of "generic titles... such as Claret, Burgundy, Sauternes, Hock, Moselle, etc." that were much more prevalent in Balzer's early days (Balzer authored 11 wine books and syndicated wine columns published in newspapers like Los Angeles Times all the way up to the early 1980s)...

Mar 5, 2021 at 8:00 AM Permalink

All about terroir

Late winter pruning of old vine Zinfandel in Clements Hills-Lodi's Stampede Vineyard (image courtesy of Gabrielle Lurie Photography)

A lot of things have been said and written about the wine term, terroir. Not all of it good. 

Just a few years ago a U.C. Davis Professor of Viticulture published a book called Terroir and Other Myths of Winegrowing (University of California Press). In the book the professor stated outright that terroir is a crock essentially because “minerals derived from rocks may represent a relatively small part of the soil’s impact on plants,” and “mineral nutrients have no established contribution to flavor” in wines. Because of that, he concludes, terroir is nothing more than a “shibboleth that establishes an in-group in a world unto itself... This isn’t wine appreciation… it is more like wine snobbery.”

These conceptions of the term, however, are actually gross misinterpretations of what the French actually mean when they use it. The plainest definitions of terroir are probably the best because the word is far less convoluted than assumed. In a Food & Wine magazine interview published in January 2018, the famous Berkeley-based wine importer Kermit Lynch may have given the best explanation...

Feb 25, 2021 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Why consumers never needed experts to tell them what they like (like Elvis and Zinfandel)

What does Zinfandel and Elvis have in common (read on!)

Why are some wines far more popular than others?

The other day on a social media post I saw this question posed on my shared thread: Why isn't Port very popular in the U.S.?

First, this is the current Wikipedia definition of Port: "Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine [i.e., bolstered by the addition of brandy, raising alcohol levels to 19%-20%] produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served as a dessert wine, although it also comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties."

Back to the social media question: The obvious answer for why Port is not very popular with consumers, at for least the vast majority of consumers, is that most people just don't like drinking wines that are... 

Feb 22, 2021 at 12:00 PM Permalink

A Lodi based sheep company begins work on sustainable vineyard farming

Rambouillet (unshorn) and Dorper (dark patched) sheep grazing among 75-year-old Zinfandel vines in Lodi's Schulenburg Vineyard, under the watchful eye of F Ewe Sheep Company owner Frankie Arburua III

"This holiday [Presidents' Day] weekend has been super-busy!" proclaimed Frankie Arburua III, the sole proprietor of Lodi's F Ewe Sheep Company. Arburua is far from the first sheep rancher in Lodi, but he is the first that has also been established for this additional, specific purpose: to supply a natural, and sustainable, way of farming vineyards — something that the Lodi Viticultural Area has in far greater number in sheer acreage than any other wine region in California, or the entire U.S for that matter...

Feb 16, 2021 at 2:00 PM Permalink

Silicon Valley Bank's 2021 State of the U.S. Wine Industry report focuses on immediate and unimaginable challenges

Michael Klouda Wines owner/winemaker Mike Klouda walking among ancient and trellised vines during harvest on the east side of Lodi's Mokelumne River AVA

In Silicon Valley Bank's yearly State of the U.S. Wine Industry report released last month (January 2021), the focus was on, naturally, the "unimaginable challenges" of 2020.

Silicon Valley Bank has served as one of the major lenders to the grape and wine industry over the past quarter-century (its website cites over $4 billion in loans), and its yearly report is meticulously assembled each year by Rob McMillan, Executive Vice President and Founder of the SVB Wine Division.

Writes McMillan, "2020 will go down as the year in which we answered the heretofore rhetorical question, what else can go wrong?" At the same time, says McMillan, "we can also admire the year for the way the wine industry — known for its glacial adaptation to change — took on the obstacles of a worldwide pandemic head-on and found new approaches to sell... 

Feb 11, 2021 at 1:30 PM Permalink

The dangers of COVID-19 to serious wine lovers

Lodi winemakers Markus Niggli (left) and Layne Montgomery, tasting wine back in the "good ol' days" before masks were required for social gatherings

In one of the most recent issues of The New York Times Magazine (January 31, 2021), there is a fascinating article entitled "The Forgotten Sense."

The story addresses one of the most alarming symptoms of those afflicted by COVID-19: the sudden loss of smell.

Loss of smell, of course, is as common as, well, the common cold. When your nose gets stuffy or inflamed, you often lose your sense of smell for a few hours or days. This is more or less a momentary nuisance...

Feb 9, 2021 at 2:00 PM Permalink

In 2021, what's a wine brand to do to stay ahead?

Bokisch's Terra Alta Vineyard (Clements Hills-Lodi) in February light

"What's a wine brand to do?" is the question posed by Australia's CommsClass in a recent post entitled Top Wine Marketing Trends In 2021." CommsClass is a Melbourne-based marketing blog specializing in wine, food, tourism and hospitality.

As in the U.S., the Australian wine industry has recently turned to brand, marketing, digital and social media marketing to make up for sales lost over the past year due to the global pandemic. Also like in the U.S., in Australia this has meant that many old-time winery and vineyard owners who once barely found the need to open up a laptop and do email, let alone open social media apps or host webinars, have had to learn whole new ways of communicating. Like toddlers, stumbling out of the block as they learn to walk...

Feb 4, 2021 at 12:00 PM Permalink

ZAP offers free Zinfandel livestream tastings and how Lodi Zinfandels compare to Zinfandels from other regions

Lodi Zinfandel lovers

ZAP's Legendary Vineyards/Winemaker Tastings (offered free!)

This weekend, January 30-31, 2021, ZAP's annual ZinEX tastings will be a "Social Distancing [or 'Zinstancing'] Experience."

ZAP is Zinfandel Advocates & Producers, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that has successfully promoted the knowledge and appreciation of Zinfandel — specifically, red Zinfandel — since 1991, when it was founded by a small group of California Zinfandel specialists. ZAP's Zinfandel Experience usually takes place at the end of each January or sometimes in the beginning of February in San Francisco, and has always been one of the world's best organized programs focusing on a single wine type.

Naturally, Lodi, where over 40% of California's Zinfandels are grown, has always played a major part in this yearly celebration... 

Jan 27, 2021 at 9:00 AM Permalink

How Lodi wineries have adjusted to pandemic challenges and changes in how they do business

Does Acquiesce Winery's "Awaken" logo presage brighter days soon to come in Lodi wine country?

The good news as of today is that stay-at-home restrictions in California are being lifted re CNN report), albeit within the state's color-coded tier system. Again. 

Coronavirus infections may be leveling off, but let's not kid ourselves. As we speak, hospitals are still overrun, and death tolls in California alone are still over 500 a day, more than a quarter of the entire country's. There have been over 419,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. over the past year, and vaccinations are being distributed at a very, very slow pace...

Jan 25, 2021 at 12:00 PM Permalink