The new Macchia Primitivo — the milder, smoother identical twin of Zinfandel

Maley Vineyards Primitivo in 2013: note long clusters and uniform sized berries

Macchia Wines, which produces more single-vineyard Zinfandels than any other winery in Lodi, has just released their first-ever bottling of Primitivo: the 2012 Macchia Lodi Primitivo ($24) – a full bodied yet smooth, mildly tart edged red wine that has something of an "Italian" feel in its bright, upbeat, drink-me-with-food qualities. But like a good Zinfandel, this Primitivo is teeming with sun kissed berryish fruit; tinged with sweet peppercorn spice, and subtle touches of cedarwood-ish oak.

Oct 17, 2013 at 5:12 PM Permalink

2013 Zinfandel harvest nearing end, with a little bit of drama

Piles of discarded Zinfandel clusters next to 97-year old Kirschenmann vines

Lodi grows a greater variety of grapes than any other wine region in California, but Zinfandel is still the specialty – the pièce de resistance. Tegan Passalacqua, the grower/winemaker of Turley Wine Cellars, manages his company’s Zinfandel plantings in Lodi, Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Paso Robles, as well as Contra Costa and Amador County. So it's safe to say that he's seen a lot, and has a very broad perspective.

Oct 14, 2013 at 5:50 PM Permalink

Lodi’s latest Cabernet Sauvignon releases

Gerardo Espinosa of Vinedos Aurora (2013 harvest)

Zinfandel, as everyone knows, has always been Lodi's big schtick; which is why it's easy to forget that this American Viticultural Area is easily California's largest grower of grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Lodi, in fact, crushes more Cabernet Sauvignon than Napa and Sonoma combined.

Oct 8, 2013 at 5:57 PM Permalink

The latest releases of offbeat Zinfandel brands and varietals

Heritage Oak Winery owner/winemaker Tom Hoffman

Except for three strategically placed grape leaves, the depiction of the "hot babe" pin-up on the inaugural bottling of the 2012 Zin-Phomaniac Lodi Zinfandel (about $18) leaves little to the imagination. And the back label makes no bones either: The scantily clad bottle tempts you… remove the cork carefully, slowly, your desire building with every twist…

Oct 3, 2013 at 6:07 PM Permalink

Lodi’s Mediterranean identity reflected by huge diversity of grapes

Alicante Bouschet, September 2013: Lodi still cultivates blocks of this unusual wine grape, whose heyday was the first half of the last century

Harvest is a great time of year for photographing wine grapes, which become the most identifiable by their colors, shapes and overall morphology during that fleeting window just before they are picked...

Sep 25, 2013 at 10:20 AM Permalink

What an influential wine blogger thinks of Lodi wines

Elaine “Hawk Wakawaka” Brown, iPhone in hand, gets up close and personal with Silvaspoons Vineyards Torrontes grapes grown by Ron Silva (right) in Lodi’s Alta Mesa AVA

Elaine Brown, a.k.a. Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews, is a wine blogger, journalist, photographer and inveterate illustrator with a moderate yet rapidly growing, significant following. How significant? Somehow her observations, as she travels up and down the West Coast wine regions and (occasionally) the Old Country, always seem to pop up in places like Eric Asimov's New York Times wine articles, or in Jon Bonné's San Francisco Chronicle pieces. Brown, in other words, is influencing the influencers… messin' with the messers...

Sep 19, 2013 at 10:40 AM Permalink

Abba Vineyard turns sunlight into Syrah perfection

Stunning Lodi Wine Country sight: Abba Vineyard Syrah hanging from meticulous Smart-Henry trellis, like brilliant Christmas bulbs on a tree.

Last week Friday (September 13, 2013) Michael McCay of Lodi's vaunted McCay Cellars picked his Grenache from Abba Vineyard – owned by second-generation Lodi farmer Louis Abba Jr., and farmed by his son Phil Abba. Mr. McCay's excitement is palpable – not only because his supply has increased, but also because 2013 looks to be "our best Grenache yet… the fruit was perfect, just popping with flavor coming right off the vine..."

Sep 18, 2013 at 10:52 AM Permalink Comments (1)

Maley harvest harnesses latest technology to produce “pure” Lodi Zinfandel

Through musical vines: Todd Maley sorting Zinfandel in his family’s Weget Vineyard

The Lodi AVA‘s leading winegrowers are no longer shooting just for “varietal” identity in their wines. They are even more focused on producing wines that taste of “Lodi” because, in the end, this is what will set the region apart — not wines that taste like they could come from any other wine region...

Sep 11, 2013 at 11:39 AM Permalink

Lodi’s alternative wine grapes, headed towards photo finish

Majestic 107-year old Carignan vine in Jean Rauser’s east-side Mokelumne River-Lodi vineyard: recalling another era (in the 1970s), when Carignan was the most widely planted wine grape in all of California.

According to the 2012 Grape Acreage Report put out by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, approximately 10.2% of the total acreage of fruit bearing wine grape vines in California can be classified as "other" — including many of the “alternative” style varietals more common to Lodi than in other American wine regions, such as Albariño and Aglianico, Cinsaut and Souzão, Vermentino and Verdelho, Graciano and Teroldego, Marzemino and Montepulciano, Symphony and Schönburger, Touriga and Torrontés, Pinotage and Piquepoul, and many others of, frankly, commercially obscure identity, from Albalonga to Zweigelt...

Sep 5, 2013 at 12:17 PM Permalink Comments (1)

Just picked: one of Lodi’s top Zinfandel vineyards and last of Bechthold Cinsaut

“I was on fire when I woke up this morning,” says Jillian Johnson, the owner/winemaker of Onesta Wines.  On Friday, August 30, Ms. Johnson was the last of the slate of stellar winemakers to pick Cinsaut grapes from Bechthold Vineyard, the Lodi AVA‘s oldest vineyard (originally planted by Joseph Spenker in 1886).  “I’m always stoked the day I pick Bechthold,” says Johnson.  “Year in and year out, this vineyard performs no matter what, giving us beautiful, balanced fruit.  It was a great day when Mother Nature first gave us Bechthold.”  Johnson, in fact, has been working with Bechthold  longer than any of the winemakers currently sourcing from this venerated growth (since 2004, when she was the winemaker for Bonny Doon Vineyard)

Aug 30, 2013 at 11:25 AM Permalink