Why Lodi produces delicate, fragrant styles of red wine contradicting everything you may have heard about warm climate regions

Harvest morning in Zinfandel block over 100 years old on east side of Lodi's Mokelumne River appellation.

When a rose is but a rose

In our previous post we addressed the matter of Putting to bed the myth that light and crisply balanced whites can't be grown in warm climates.

This time around, let's talk about red wines in warm climate regions. Particularly Zinfandel.

For the longest time it has been thought that the biggest, ripest, heaviest and fruitiest Zinfandels come from the warmest regions of California, such as Lodi. Therefore, in cooler climate regions, such as Sonoma County or Napa Valley, it is assumed that most Zinfandels are among the lightest and most subtle in their varietal fruit profiles.

Problem is, as anyone who has ever compared Zinfandels grown in regions such as Lodi, Sonoma County or Napa Valley knows, this assumption is not necessarily true. In fact, it is usually wrong...

Jun 7, 2024 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Putting to bed the myth that light and crisply balanced whites can't be grown in warm climates

Clements Hills-Lodi harvesting of Assyrtiko, a Mediterranean grape of Greek origin known for retaining a refreshingly high acidity grown in even the hottest, dryest climate.

Albariño, Assyrtiko, Bacchus, Bourboulenc, Chenin blanc, Clairette blanche, Grenache blanc, Fiano, Kerner, Macabeo, Parellada, Piquepoul, Riesling, Vermentino, Xarel-lo and more...

The other day I was telling an old friend/colleague about a fantastic 20-year-old bottle of white wine grown in Lodi I recently enjoyed. How it tasted fresh as a daisy and, a little surprising, was made from Chardonnay⏤a grape not exactly considered the pièce de résistance of Lodi, a region better known as the "Zinfandel capital of the world."

He stopped me and said, "Wait a second... there is white wine in Lodi?" He wasn't being facetious.

Needless to say, I told my friend that Lodi is like any other commercial wine region, and any region that grows grapes for wineries that put the kazillion bottles of wine on grocery store shelves across the country has to grow white wine grapes, and lots of them...

Jun 4, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Stonum Vineyards is a little Lodi handcraft winery that could

Stonum Vineyards' tasting room and trelliised Zinfandel fronted by an organic vegetable and flower garden (the latter, also cultivated as a beneficial insectory).

Teeny-tiny Stonum Vineyards, located on Alpine Rd. on what locals call the "east side" of Lodi, is growing up. 

But lest you think this means they've joined the ranks of big or even medium-sized producers, think again. The winery's production has recently topped off at about 1,000 cases a year⏤minuscule even by the standards of other small Lodi wineries. According to owner/grower/winemaker Kathy Stonum, that's as far as they go. 

"We want to remain hands-on," says Ms. Stonum. "We'd like to keep all the work in the family, not have to hire people from outside..."

May 29, 2024 at 11:00 AM Permalink

Winemakers and journalists taste and talk about aged Lodi wines, up to 27 years old

Zinfandel from Turley's 2010 Dogtown Vineyard harvest, going into a bottling tasted and discussed this past week, nearly 14 years later.

Last week (May 14, 2024) a most unusual Lodi tasting (even for us!) was conducted, per the request of four visiting journalists representing Wine Enthusiast magazine: Tonya Pitts (Contributor, Wine Reviewer), Anna Christina Cabrales (Tasting Director), Sara Ventiera (Senior Digital Editor) and Anthony Eyzaguirre (West Coast Advertising Account Manager).

We tasted 14 Lodi-grown wines from vintages going back as far as 1997 (coming up on 27 years old).

The visiting editors were curious about two things: 1) do Lodi wines age well?, and 2) if so, how?

May 24, 2024 at 7:00 AM Permalink

Wines reflecting Vino Farms' push towards organic, biodynamic farming and grapes conducive to Lodi's natural environment

Vino Farms' The Bench Vineyard; biodynamically farmed Vermentino alongside the Mokelumne River in Lodi's Clements Hills AVA.

Since 2018, Vino Farms has been farming a good chunk of its 4,500 or so acres in the Lodi appellation in multiple fashions falling under the broader umbrella that can be described as sustainable.

This past week, when presenting his family's showcase sustainable vineyard⏤a Clements Hills-Lodi AVA property called Grand Vin Lands⏤Vino Farms VP/Partner Craig Ledbetter told a group of visiting journalists from Wine Enthusiast Magazine... 

May 20, 2024 at 7:00 AM Permalink

LangeTwins Family's newly released Redtail Vineyard is based upon an exciting, potentially groundbreaking grape called Ancellotta

Ancellotta, a native Italian grape grown in LangeTwins Family's Redtail Vineyard, Jahant-Lodi AVA.

LangeTwins Family Winery and Vineyards has done it again. This industry leading family winery and winegrower has just released a red wine joining their Single Vineyard portfolio of sustainably farmed, estate grown wines. It is a sensational blend of Nero d'Avola (33%), Zinfandel (33%), and a grape called Ancellotta (34%).

Zinfandel, everyone knows. Nero d'Avola is a Southern Italian grape finding increasing favor among a growing number of vintners up and down the state, and many American consumers are already fans of Nero d'Avola bottlings imported from Sicily.

But Ancellotta? This is a black-skinned grape that is practically unknown, even among professionals working in the trade (including the most studious sommeliers), media and production industries. Even if you happen to be a wine geek who has read about the grape in texts or books, in all likelihood you still have no idea of how it looks or the way it grows in a vineyard, much less what kind of wine it produces...

May 17, 2024 at 6:00 AM Permalink

The latest wines sourced from Mokelumne Glen Vineyards fulfill a heroic story of an exotic grape obsession

Among the multiple clones of Riesling cultivated in Lodi's Mokelumne Glen Vineyards.

The heroic tale

Let's talk about the continuing saga—and it really is a story of heroic proportions—of the Lodi appellation's Mokelumne Glen Vineyards.

First, a summary of the story up until today: It started when a serious grape bug took an extra-big bite out of Bob Koth, a Lodi educator and grape farmer, in the early 1990s when he and his wife Mary Lou Koth visited Germany where their daughter Ann-Marie was studying on a Fulbright scholarship. After tasting a number of outstanding German wines, they found a new obsession.

Soon after returning home to Lodi, the Koths removed the blocks of Flame Tokay and Zinfandel cultivated on their property, tucked into an oxbow-corner of the Mokelumne River, on the east side of the appellation of that same name. Within a few years, the old plantings were replaced by what grew to be no less than over 50 different cultivars of German as well as Austrian origin...

May 13, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Monte Rio's Patrick Cappiello gets things off his chest while producing an astounding range of Lodi grown wines

Monte Rio Cellars owner/winemaker Patrick Cappiello. Leigh-Ann Beverley.

This past mid-December I was walking along a beach in Hawaii, toes squishing along in wet silky sand, when the phone in my board shorts rang. It was Patrick Cappiello, owner/winemaker of Monte Rio Cellars, a Sonoma County-based brand that has been making quite a name for itself for naturalistic style wine—most of it sourced from either super-old vines or regeneratively or biodynamic farmed grapes here in Lodi.

Monte Rio, Cappiello called to say, was reaching an impasse. The brand was satisfactorily established in key markets, and the wines better and more mulitfaceted than ever. But for whatever reason—primarily, no doubt, because of an overall market malaise—sales had recently stagnated. Monte Rio seemed to be fulfilling an old industry adage, that is is a lot easier to make great wine than it is to sell it...

May 8, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Nero d'Avola is a poster child for today's taste for zestier, lighter weight yet deeply flavorful reds

Nero d'Avola in LangeTwins Family's Redtail Vineyard in the Jahant AVA of Lodi.

One of California winemaker Randall Grahm’s favorite ways of referring to the under-appreciated wine grapes of the world is "ugly ducklings." Or, if you prefer a more esoteric word, "heterodoxical." That is, unorthodox or contrarian to the point of making a point.  

The point of Nero d'Avola is that it is one of those grapes that challenges the presumed orthodoxy of today's hierarchy of varietals considered to be the "greatest" in the world: starting with Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay—the “king” and “queen” of wine grapes—as well as Pinot noir, Merlot and Sauvignon blanc, among the rest of the current aristocracy...

May 1, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink

Albariño—the state of one of Lodi's most important varietal whites

Silvaspoons Vineyards owner/grower Ron Silva with his Alvarinho, a Portuguese clonal variant of Albariño.

Why Albariño is such a natural in Lodi

Albariño—a grape variety native to Spain's Rías Baixas region, also grown in the neighboring Vinho Verde region of Portugal—is by no means the most important white wine cultivar in California. Not when there is over 126 times more Chardonnay cultivated in the state.

Yet among the wineries based in California's Lodi appellation, Albariño has emerged as one of the most important of white wine varieties. There are more producers of Albariño in Lodi than there are brands of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio (a.k.a., Pinot Gris). 

Lodi, in fact, grows and produces more than a third of all the Albariño in California (see the USDA's most recent statistics below). So just in this sense, this varietal has become the appellation's signature white wine.

Apr 25, 2024 at 8:00 AM Permalink