Acclaimed Mikami Zinfandel is culmination of 100 years of undaunted Lodi farming

One of the finest Zinfandels made in California today is one that even the most devoted Zinfandel lovers never heard of:  made by Mikami Vineyards, sourced from a 15-acre vineyard owned by Jason Mikami, located on the west side of Lodi’s historic Mokelumne River AVA. Mr. Mikami grew up on the family farm in the seventies and eighties, but branched out on his own as an adult – establishing a successful career in the tech industry (particularly in Interactive television and cloud computing).  He now lives in the Bay Area, but maintains the same Sargent Rd. vineyard property originally purchased by his parents, Jim and Aiko Mikami, in 1963.

The vineyard, however, is a legacy that will always remain in the family; and the Mikami Vineyards Zinfandel (produced since 2009), according to Mikami, is something that he is conscious of doing “in honor my father and grandfather… something that would make them proud...”

Jan 31, 2013 at 10:08 AM Permalink

Culinary orgy of Lodi wines & chocolate dishes in San Francisco’s Naked Kitchen

Lodi Wine Country’s Wine & Chocolate Weekend (our 16^th Annual!) is nigh upon us, this coming February 9 & 10, 2013! To get the our juices flowing, this past January 9 Camron King, Executive Director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, invited eight influential members of the Northern California media to an intimate dinner in San Francisco’s Naked Kitchen – an underground eatery of sorts, housed in a classic Valencia St. Victorian, where chefs and artists gather for periodic exchanges of nourishing ideas.

For this particular occasion, Mr. King asked Joshua Oakley – one of the Bay Area’s more talented underground chefs (having no permanent brick-and-mortar home, Chef Oakley’s Tango & Stache cooking company simply pops up, like a culinary Robin Hood, or the proverbial Underdog) – to execute this challenge:  a dinner around Naked Kitchen’s dining room table (which seats only 12 comfortably) consisting of five courses, all made with chocolate as a core ingredient, each course matched to a Lodi grown wine (or two)...

Jan 16, 2013 at 9:39 AM Permalink

Turley’s Passalacqua to pay tribute to classic Lodi Zinfandels at 2013 ZAP Festival

This past December, Tegan Passalacqua – the winemaker/vineyard manager of the prestigious Turley Wine Cellars (a Napa Valley based Zinfandel specialist, also sourcing several wines from Lodi) – took an afternoon to talk and walk through the Lodi vineyards he will be highlighting in a special tasting taking place in San Francisco this coming February 1, 2013, as part of the ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) yearly celebration of the Zinfandel grape.

Mr. Passalacqua is also one of the founding minds behind the Historic Vineyard Society, which endeavors to chronicle and encourage the preservation of heritage plantingss (defined by HVS as any vineyard planted prior to 1960) throughout the state of California.  As part of ZAP’s February 1 FLIGHTS/Forums of Flavor (taking place at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill), HVS will be presenting four Zinfandels from historic vineyards in Lodi, and another four each from Napa Valley, Sonoma County and Mendocino County...

Jan 9, 2013 at 9:30 AM Permalink

Hux’s Roussanne & Mourvèdre recall the pioneering spirit of Rhone Rangers

The adventurous spirit of California’s Rhône Rangers, an unofficial movement that began to spark just over 30 years ago, still lives on here and there, seemingly everywhere you look:  particularly at Hux Vineyards, one of Lodi’s little-wineries-that-could.

The 3.5-acre Hux Vineyards, established just south of the town of Lodi by Dave and Barbara Huecksteadt some 15 years ago, consists of only a couple rows each of a surprising variety of grapes, primarily of Mediterranean origin:  Roussanne and Grenache Blanc among the white wine grapes; and among the reds, Mourvèdre, Souzão, Tempranillo, Teroldego, a little bit of Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, and the extremely rare, virtually unheard-of Marzemino (see past blogpost, Many wines other than Zinfandel at 2012 ZinFest)...

Jan 2, 2013 at 9:23 AM Permalink

Markus Bokisch looks back at 2012

Markus Bokisch tastes 2012 Verdelho harvest in his Vista Luna Vineyard

Here at the end of 2012, it makes sense to catch up with Markus Bokisch, whose Bokisch Ranches have become one of the most important vineyard management companies in the Lodi American Viticultural Area (a.k.a. AVA).

Bokisch Ranches is not the largest grower in Lodi – that would be companies like LangeTwins Family, John Kautz Farms, Vino Farms, the Dosio family’s Pacific Agri Lands, and a few others – but they are significant because of their upward growth despite increasing economic barriers (2,200 bearing acres of wine grapes, with another 900 acres in development), and because they sell to such a large number of specialty wineries throughout the state, who also tend to garner the most press...

Dec 27, 2012 at 4:22 PM Permalink

The perfect holiday refresher: Sorelle Vin Brulé

The Sorelle estate, on the site of the historic Dodge House

In recent weeks, lucky visitors to Sorelle Winery have been treated to a special drink:  a classic mulled (or “spiced”) wine that Mike Scott and his family – owners and growers of this outstanding Lodi AVA winery, specializing in Italian varietals – have been calling Sorelle Vin Brulé...

Dec 18, 2012 at 5:37 PM Permalink

An ultimate Christmas gift: Lodi’s 12 most interesting wines of 2012

For Christmas, what do you give a Lodi wine lover who’s tried everything?  A full case (12 bottles) of Lodi’s 12 finest wines, of course.

Herein lies the dilemma:  the Lodi wine industry has recently reached the point where it is simply an impossibility to pick Lodi’s “12 finest wines.”  There’s just too darned many of them!

Dec 11, 2012 at 5:48 PM Permalink

Visit Estate Crush for wines as plump as Christmas

Estate Crush partners Alison and Bob Colarossi, and (middle) Nick Sikeotis toast the opening of Lodi's newest tasting room

Have a hankering to taste some super hand crafted Lodi grown wines this weekend?  Estate Crush — Lodi’s 16,000 square foot custom crush facility — will quietly open its tasting room this weekend (Dec. 10-11, 12-5 PM) at the corner of Lockeford and Sacramento (the north end of Downtown Lodi)...

Dec 9, 2012 at 8:41 PM Permalink

Does price (and letting wines “breathe”) matter?

Does price affect the “quality” of wine?  Yes, indeed it do.

At least according to results of a study that was released back in 2008, conducted by Antonio Rangel, Associate Professor of Economics at the California Institute of Technology (as reported by the Stanford Business Web site).  In this study, Rangel asked volunteers to blind-taste 5 different bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, and then rate their preferences. Rangel ran this taste test 15 times with 15 different groups, and the wines were always presented in random order...

Dec 7, 2012 at 6:01 PM Permalink

Lodi’s winemakers analyze 12 of their top 2010 Zinfandels

Lodi winemakers blind tasting 2010 vintage Zinfandels

What happens when you take 11 of Lodi’s best winemaker/growers, and sit them down at one table to blind-taste their own Zinfandels?

In early November we did exactly that, in the Cellar Room of Lodi’s posh Wine & Roses Hotel & Spa.  Our focus was on Zinfandels from the 2010 vintage:  a year that has been characterized by more than a few winegrowers as very “North Coast” – meaning, a year of significantly cooler than normal weather throughout the growing season (only one day hitting 100° F. – fewer than what Napa Valley experienced in 2010)...

Dec 4, 2012 at 6:13 PM Permalink