Autumn is the season for Lodi Zinfandel and its favorite food matches

Fall colors in 100-year-old Lodi Zinfandel block

“Chilly tonight,” starts off a poem by Lisa Shields – “sweater weather, and I pull out the flannel sheets...”

Now that the skies are darkening by 6:00, and the mercury is dipping below 50° at night, it’s also that time of year for cozy red wines, pungent with berryish fruit tinged with aromas suggesting pumpkin pie spice and everything nice, or not.

Lodi Zinfandel, anyone?

Lodi’s lush, round, often earthy styles of Zinfandel not only taste like autumn, they also seem to slip into more food contexts that virtually any other wine there is. We know, because we’ve made the taste comparisons – on the table, where it counts...

Oct 19, 2017 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Is Barbera California's most underappreciated classic varietal?

Barbera clusters in 45-year-old Leventini Vineyard, originally planted for E. & J. Gallo

Barbera is one of those red wine grapes that have been around longer than anyone can remember. Nor can anyone remember why. Like one of those guys you can always depend upon to show up at your parties. Doesn’t say much, but he’s always... there.

Good example: In one of the old, classic books on California wine – Robert Gorman’s Gorman on California Premium Wine (Ten Speed Press, 1976) – the author devotes over 270 pages on the enormous excitement generated by the best and latest California wines of the time. Despite the fact that, in the mid-1970s, there were close to 20,000 acres of the grape planted in the state, Gorman allots a total of only 27 words, in two sentences, to the subject of Barbera:

The varietal Barbera has many devotees among connoisseurs of California wine. The wines are usually tart, fruity, full flavored and useful for accompanying hearty, Italian style food...

Oct 11, 2017 at 7:00 AM Permalink

What Lodi can do to slow down the loss of old vine plantings

Another one bites Lodi's sandy dust; dead ancient vine Zinfandel (planted in 1900s) in Noma Ranch

It’s a good time to enjoy good ol’ old vine Zinfandel. There’s a little bit of chill in the air, leaves are turning color, and the mind drifts off into memories of brown spices, baking pies, stews on the stove, bread in the oven, ugly sweaters.

But enjoy those wines while you can; because – as we mentioned in a previous post, Last rites for Lodi’s old vine growths – decently priced old vine Zinfandel grown in Lodi (the home of more old vine plantings than anywhere else in California) is disappearing as we speak...

Oct 6, 2017 at 5:00 PM Permalink

Lodi Winegrape Commission's Dr. Stephanie Bolton talks about her first year in Lodi

Lodi Winegrape Commission's Dr. Stephanie Bolton

This past August 15, 2017 marked Dr. Stephanie Bolton's first full year as Lodi Winegrape Commission’s Grower Communications & Sustainable Winegrowing Director.

Yes, that job description is a mouthful; and in fact, Dr. Bolton has already achieved boatloads of accomplishments to match during her first year. This, perhaps, comes as no surprise, as Dr. Bolton came to the Lodi Viticultural Area with impeccable credentials; including a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of Georgia (focused primarily on studies of Vitis vinifera vineyards), a Master’s in Food Science from the University of Georgia, and a Bachelor’s in Chemistry from Wake Forest University...

Sep 27, 2017 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Tamara Maren's vineyard opens Lodi to a diverse range of home winemakers

This past September 15, Tamara Maren with her Lodi Zinfandel picked by home winemakers from Los Angeles

In a little 8.5-acre vineyard home tucked into the west side of the Mokelumne River AVA, Lodi’s Tamara Maren is running a slightly different type of grape growing business.

It’s something more along the lines of the ecotourism concept, where visitors get to chance to enjoy an alternative experience of “Lodi.” In this case, the chance to pick grapes in Maren’s vineyard; make wine, break bread and raise a glass (or many) in amongst the vines and trees on her property...

Sep 21, 2017 at 3:30 PM Permalink

Last Rites for Lodi's old vine growths

Typical fall scene in Lodi wine country: another old vine vineyard bites the dust

The Phillips Family Issues Dire Warnings

Imagine a Lodi without old vine Zinfandel. It’s not an impossibility.

This issue always comes up in years when yields are down, as they were in 2017, 15%, 25%, or even more than 50%. This time around it comes in the middle of an economic clusterfudge: Sales of $10-and-under varietal Zinfandel continue to drop, winery supplies of fermented juice are backed up to the hilt, and White Zinfandel is no longer setting the wine world on fire (hasn’t for a while)...

Sep 15, 2017 at 5:30 PM Permalink

Lodi growers and winemakers speak frankly about 2017 harvest thus far

Lodi's 2017 Cemetery Vineyard Zinfandel pick in late August

“Biblical” can be great, or not so great, and 2017 has been that kind of vintage.

But as of this writing – the week of September 11-15 – Lodi Viticultural Area growers and winemakers have been looking at the 2017 crop through their usual rose-colored shades, or glass-half-full mentality; even in a challenging (to put it mildly) season, which started off with winter deluges and has since been topped off by a record-breaking succession of late August/early September 100-degree days.

While issues like rot or raisining can be sorted out in the wineries, these problems factor into yields; with most growers and wineries reporting varying percentages of lower than normal crops, depending upon the variety. But as usual, the best winemakers and vineyards will still produce the best wines; maybe even "better" than normal (then again, what is "normal" these days?)...

Sep 13, 2017 at 3:15 PM Permalink

Acquiesce harvests first crop of Clairette Blanche and Bourboulenc

Clairette Blanche harvest in Lodi's Acquiesce estate

Hate to say it, but Acquiesce Winery has had big problems since the day they first opened their doors in 2011: They sell out of every one of their bottlings within months, if not weeks – such is the overwhelming response to their pure, airy, 100% unoaked style of white wines (plus one rosé). This, of course, has been forcing them to close their doors for a few months each year.

The only solution? Make more wine. But for Acquiesce’s Sue Tipton – who will only produce wines grown 100% on her own property, located at the northern edge of Lodi’s Mokelumne River appellation, at E. Peltier and Tretheway Roads – this means planting more grapes...

Sep 6, 2017 at 4:33 PM Permalink

2017 Cemetery Zinfandel harvest (agony of Nature, ecstasy of meticulous viticulture)

Cemetery Vineyard owner/grower Aaron Shinn samples his 2017 Zinfandel harvest

It’s always been said that in the most challenging vintages for any wine region – rain, snow, hail, drought, floods, hot seasons, cold seasons, rampant diseases or pests, anything that Mother Nature may throw at you – it’s the best growers, in the most favorable sites, that end up standing out far above the crowd.

Whatever the case may be, there’s nothing that Aaron Shinn – G.M. of Lodi’s Round Valley Ranches as well as owner of Shinn Farms – likes better than a challenge. And so far, 2017 has been as challenging a vintage as any.

At the break of dawn past Wednesday, August 23, Mr. Shinn walked and talked us through long, arduous road leading up to this particular moment of truth: the harvesting of 2017 Zinfandel from his own Cemetery Vineyard; located on the east side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River Viticultural Area, right across a country road from the Cherokee Memorial Park & Funeral Home...

Aug 28, 2017 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Silvaspoons Vineyards’ latest Iberian innovation (Mencía!) and Verdelho harvest

2017 Silvaspoons Vineyards Verdelho harvest

Promising 2017 Verdelho Harvest

6:30 AM, this past Tuesday, August 22 in Lodi’s Alta Mesa appellation: Ron Silva’s harvest crew had already filled three half-ton macro-bins of just-picked Silvaspoons Vineyards Verdelho – green tinted golden, oval shaped orbs of tropical fruit sensations, zapped with palate slaking, lemon-lime acidity. You could practically taste the type of light, dry refreshingly high-toned white wines these grapes will soon become...

Aug 22, 2017 at 9:00 PM Permalink