Lodi Native vintners to introduce their unique Zinfandels at ZinFest Wine School

At the Lodi ZinFest Wine Festival taking place in the pristine riparian setting of Lodi Lake Park on Saturday, May 17, 2014, Lodi wine lovers will have the opportunity to taste and discover for themselves what the fuss is all about concerning the Lodi Native™ Zinfandels, which made their debut at the end of March.

All seven of the vignerons behind the Lodi Native project will present their wines under the ZinFest Wine School tent. The particulars…

Apr 17, 2014 at 2:34 PM Permalink

Eight years of ZinFest poster’s red haired muse

The first, contemplative appearance of ZinFest artist Vince McIndoe’s red haired muse, in 2007

Lodi ZinFest is celebrating its 10^th year in 2014. The beautiful, mysterious "red headed girl" depicted in each year's ZinFest poster is making only her eighth appearance; but now, what would any ZinFest be without her?

Apr 14, 2014 at 2:50 PM Permalink

Acquiesce Vineyards’ Sue Tipton grows more comfortable with her puristic style

Acquiesce Vineyards’ Sue Tipton

This past March 2014 Acquiesce Vineyards opened its tasting room doors once again, after being closed for over four months. Why the down time? For one, it's because their wines – all white wines, except for one rosé, made from estate grown Rhône Valley (i.e. Southern French) grapes – have been selling out within a few months of being released. They're that good.

Apr 10, 2014 at 10:21 AM Permalink

Wine writers appreciate Lodi grown Zinfandel in unprecedented fashion

Macchia’s Tim Holdener and grower Leland Noma in Lodi Native vineyard, Noma Ranch

The Lodi Native project is making an impact on how the region is perceived from the outside

This past week, two widely read and respected wine bloggers – Elaine Brown of Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews, and Fred Swan of norcalwine.com – shared thoughts on the unique qualities of Lodi AVA grown Zinfandel in a detailed fashion that can only be described as unprecedented. At least for wine professionals living and working outside the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Apr 4, 2014 at 10:34 AM Permalink

ZinFest Wine School will explore Lodi’s wonderful diversity of wines

Lodi ZinFest 2014

The Lodi ZinFest Wine Festival has never been just about Zinfandel. It’s always been about the huge variety of wines grown and produced in the Lodi AVA.

At this year’s ZinFest, taking place Saturday, May 17, 2014 (12-5 PM) in Lodi Lake Park, two of California’s leading wine educators and professional wine judges will lead ZinFest Wine School tastings, addressing the amazing array of alternative style wines now being produced by Lodi’s artisanal wineries. Re:

Apr 2, 2014 at 11:23 AM Permalink

Lodi “Outsiders” joining “Natives” at 2014 ZinFest Wine School

Turley Wine Cellars’ Tegan Passalacqua (standing in his Kirschenmann Vineyard, located on Lodi’s east side) will be on the “Lodi Outsiders” panel as part of 2014′s Lodi ZinFest Wine School

Don't look now, but the annual Lodi ZinFest Wine Festival is nigh upon us; this year, taking place on Saturday, May 17, 2014 (12-5 PM) at the bucolic Lodi Lake Park.

Mar 18, 2014 at 11:34 AM Permalink

Borra Vineyards releases very interesting feminine whites

2013 Mokelumne Glen Vineyard Kerner cluster, going into Borra’s Artist Series white

You might have heard that some crazy, unlikely, yet very in-ter-resting (to quote Arte Johnson) things have been happening in Lodi these past few years.

A lot of this activity has been emanating from one winery: Borra Vineyards, where owner/grower Steve Borra Sr. and winemaker Markus Niggli have been making waves.

Mar 12, 2014 at 11:53 AM Permalink

Odisea releases first Lodi grown Verdejo

Lodi’s first Verdejo

Odisea Wine Company – a small, artisanal winery based in Napa – has produced Lodi's first Verdejo: a 2013 bottled under their Flor de Viña sub-label. The Verdejo grapes were grown in the cobbley clay loam slopes of Bokisch Ranches' Clay Station Vineyard, in Lodi's Borden Ranch AVA. The planting went into the ground in 2011, and these young vines yielded just 2 tons per acre (Bokisch Vineyards also produced a little Verdejo, just recently bottled).

Mar 9, 2014 at 12:20 PM Permalink

Winter of 2014′s certain Slant of light

Winter pruning of own-rooted, head trained 53-year old Zinfandel vines on the west side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA

There’s a certain Slant of light, Emily Dickinson famously wrote, describing “Winter.” Don’t we know it, whether or not we can put it into our own words.

Mar 7, 2014 at 2:10 PM Permalink

m2′s sleek new winery, producing Lodi wines as unique as ever

m2′s dramatically high ceilinged new tasting room

The new m2 Wines winery and tasting room, located at 2900 E. Peltier Rd. (just north of the town of Lodi), is a low slung, rectangular, 6,000 square-feet affair; looking like a gigantic lego brick with a square hole near the middle, plopped down on an open field of flowering mustard (a surrounding vineyard is planned as phase 2), yet every bit as congruous against the Lodi landscape as an Andrew Wyeth house/barn in Maine.

Mar 3, 2014 at 2:37 PM Permalink