Mikami's Lodi grown wines combine restraint, intensity and over 100 years of winegrowing experience

This past week in Lodi's Mikami Vineyards: multi-sized Zinfandel berries in midst of July veraison (i.e. changing of colors)

When is the last time you’ve had a darned good rosé made from Zinfandel? Not a typically tutti-fruity White Zinfandel, mind you. But rather, a bone-dry, full and fleshy, reddish pink rosé that is just as deep and meaty as it is bouncy and opulent with watermelon/black cherry/blueberryish fruit, tinged with a sprinkle of cinnamon/spice.

Chances are, you haven’t had a wine like this because, for some reason, Zinfandel specialists (even in Lodi) seem to be extremely reluctant to make seriously dry pink wines from Zinfandel, even though the grape is perfectly capable of that.

And chances are, you haven’t yet experienced the 2017 Mikami Vineyards Lodi Rosé ($29), grown and farmed by the same family with roots embedded deep in Lodi soil for well over 100 years...

Jul 19, 2018 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Harry Hakala's Mobile Wine Line has been a Lodi institution

Harry Hakala turned his mother's idea into a thriving business.

A stroke of genius led to a thriving business.

Harry Hakala has operated a mobile wine bottling company since 1978 after his mother, Eva Drummond, came up with the idea.

“She said in Germany, they actually bring the wine to the different places that own bottling equipment,” Hakala said. “She said, ‘Wouldn’t it be easier to bring the bottling equipment to the wine?’”

Thus, Mobile Wine Line in Lodi was born.

Jul 17, 2018 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Pop-up restaurant dinners come to Lodi wine country!

Pop-up dinner at R&G Family Farms' Bing cherry orchard

“Welcome to our family’s first ‘Evening In the Orchard!’” exclaimed Drew Rotner, co-owner of R&G Family Farms, to a table of 24 Lodi wine and food lovers set in the shade of 29-year-old Bing cherry trees.

For the event, the Rotner and Gotelli families collaborated with three extraordinarily talented chefs with Lodi backgrounds, now working as independent contractors in the modern day tradition known as “pop-up restaurants.” Pop-ups are more like restaurants with no walls: Chefs put together gourmet meals, usually very adventurous multi-course affairs, and invite “friends” to sit down and enjoy. For a set fee, of course. It can take place in the rented space of a warehouse, an old Victorian, a penthouse or professional catering kitchen; or maybe in someone’s backyard, the middle of a desert or top of a remote, forested hill. Or in this case, this past Saturday (July 7, 2018), the pop-up happened in the middle of a Lodi Bing cherry orchard planted in 1989 by Gotelli family...

Jul 9, 2018 at 11:00 AM Permalink

Paskett’s summer releases reflect abiding respect for regional history and sense of place

Herb Paskett; modern day pioneering grower of Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon (photo by Goff Photography)

Since opening their tasting room doors just this past Thanksgiving weekend (2017), Paskett Vineyards & Winery’s reputation as an artisanal estate has grown steadily.

This past June 30, 2018, about 45 friends, family and winery club members came together to taste Paskett’s latest summer releases, under the shade of stately trees that (once upon a time) were part of the historic Langford Colony – a 320-acre showcase ranch farmed by Benjamin F. Langford, known as the “Father of the California State Senate,” where he served between 1879 and 1900...

Jul 5, 2018 at 3:00 PM Permalink

Premiumization of Lodi grapes and wines addressed at 2018 Lodi Vineyard & Wine Economics Symposium

The historic Bechthold Vineyard; Lodi's oldest continuously farmed planting (Cinsaut planted in 1886)

“Lodi needs to actively fight against commoditization and move more decisively towards premiumization,” said Jeff Bitter, the recently appointed President of Allied Grape Growers; yesterday afternoon at the 2018 Lodi Vineyard & Wine Economics Symposium, taking place at Wine & Roses Hotel in front of an audience consisting primarily of Lodi wine grape growers and producers...

Jun 29, 2018 at 12:00 PM Permalink

Do women drink wine differently from men? (Lodi gold medals at International Women’s Wine Competition)

LangeTwins Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc in mid-June 2018

Last week, the International Women’s Wine Competition announced the results of their 2018 (and 11th Annual) judging, which took place June 19-20 in Sonoma County, California. More than 1,190 wines were reportedly entered in this judging; and out of that, 171 gold medals were awarded, along with 56 “Best of Class” winners.

Among the Lodi grown wines produced by Lodi based wineries garnering golds:

• 2017 Acquiesce, Lodi Picpoul Blanc ($28)
• 2017 Acquiesce, Lodi Grenache Rosé ($25)
• 2015 Mettler Family, Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon ($25)
• 2017 Sand Point, Lodi Sauvignon Blanc ($12) 

In addition to a gold, Sand Point's Sauvignon blanc – grown and produced by Lodi’s LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards – was also distinguished by a Best of Class award...

Jun 27, 2018 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Bokisch's Lodi grown wines making a huge splash in Hawaii

Exotic fermented honeydew with nasturtiums served at Club Kukui'ula with Bokisch's Garnacha Blanca

The Lodi grown wines of Bokisch Vineyards – predominantly made from grapes that originated in Spain – have been sold in the Hawaiian Islands for over ten years. But in a way, it is mostly within the past two years that they have really begun to make a huge splash.

Why? We suspect for the same reasons why Bokisch Vineyards wines have been selling out faster and faster right here in Lodi: Because more and more consumers are gravitating to lighter, crisper, fresh fruit (and less oak) focused styles of white wines and dry rosés; and are also going more for red wines that are unabashedly fragrant and spice scented, with less emphasis on tannin, excess alcohol and (as in whites and rosés) oak...

Jun 21, 2018 at 7:00 AM Permalink

The Zen of barbecue: Michael David’s Petite Sirahs and two ways of baby back ribs

Lodi's Mike McCay (winemaker/owner, McCay Cellars) smoking his dry rubbed baby back ribs

The summer of 2018 is upon us (starting June 21st!), and you can almost hear the squeaky sound of grills being wheeled out into backyard patios in preparation for that season of all seasons for the outdoorsy, culinary minded: Barbecue!

Barbecue is like Zen, in that (to borrow an analogy from zen-buddhism.net) when trying to describe the taste of barbecue to someone who has never tasted it, you can try to explain the aromas and sensations of it, or you can compare and correlate it with similar foods. However, barbecue is barbecue... when you live it, you know it!

And what we know is that barbecue is not the same kind of food you prepare indoors, in your kitchen. Barbecue means foods with smoky or even charred and caramelized flavors. Maybe it’s the caveman in all of us, but for some reason that taste sensation gets the mind, and palate, salivating. And like cavemen, we frequently need a good beverage; perhaps beer or iced tea, but preferably a good, zingy wine of a certain type...

Jun 14, 2018 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Lodi is taking on the world

Lodi was represented at the first "Lodi in London" tasting earlier this year by (left to right): Joe Lange (LangeTwins Family Vineyards and Winery), Kate St. Hilaire (Ironstone), Farrah Felten-Jolley (Klinker Brick), David Phillips (Michael David), Stuart Spencer (St. Amant) and Sierra Zeiter (Oak Farm) 

Lodi vintners are taking to the road never like before, spreading the word about the quality and variety of winegrapes and wines originating from the Lodi American Viticultural Area.

Jun 12, 2018 at 8:00 AM Permalink

America’s first Mencía and sharpened tastes of Lodi terroir at PRIE Winery

2017 Mencía in Lodi's Silvaspoons Vineyards

In 2017 Silvaspoons Vineyards’ Ron Silva harvested his first crop of Mencía at his Alta Mesa-Lodi ranch. As far as we know, this is the U.S.’s first commercial planting of the grape.

Mencía – native of the northwest regions of Spain, close to Portugal – is a late-to-the-party black skinned grape, enjoying relatively modest yet intense adoration among connoisseurs of Spanish red wines only within the past 15 years...

Jun 8, 2018 at 7:00 AM Permalink