Beautiful thing – the refreshing purity of Onesta Wines

Jillian Johnson DeLeon at Lodi cellardoor, where her Onesta Wines can be tasted and purchased

The Lodi AVA grown wines of Onesta Wines winemaker/owner Jillian Johnson DeLeon are distinguished by two closely related things...

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Lodi wines for tasting, purchase and by-the-glass at ZinFest Festival

2015 ZinFest Scene

2015 ZinFest Festival

Are you ready for Lodi’s 2015 ZinFest Festival, happening this coming Saturday, May 16?

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The 2012 ZinFest Commemorative Zinfandel is an essence of Lodi

2012 ZinFest Commemorative Zinfandel

ZinFest 2015: Lodi's Premiere Wine Tasting Event

Each year the Lodi ZinFest produces about a 1,000 bottles of a Commemorative Lodi grown Zinfandel under a colorful Belle Époque inspired art label by our official ZinFest artist, Vince McIndoe, always featuring the same mysterious "red headed girl."

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Historic Vineyard Society tasting of Lodi’s rarest wines headlines 2015 ZinFest Wine School

ZinFest Wine School

Everybody loves a luscious Zinfandel, Lodi's signature wine, but Lodi ZinFest has always been about a lot more than Zinfandel. It's been about all the fascinating wines – from light and refreshing white and pink wines, to a joyful variety of savory reds – grown in this, the most widely planted American Viticultural Area in the U.S.

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Lodi Zinfandel gets some “pizazz” from a Sonoma producer

2012 Carol Shelton Piazza Vineyard Pizazz Zin Lodi Zinfandel

What happens when a critically acclaimed Sonoma County based Zinfandel producer gets her hands on some Lodi grown fruit?

You get a wine like the newly minted 2012 Carol Shelton Piazza Vineyard Pizazz Zin Lodi Zinfandel ($19): a plump, verging on opulent, almost lascivious style of the varietal; teeming with cherry-bombish fruit coated in nostril tingling cocoa dust and almost piña colada-like sensations.

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Klinker Brick aligns with two bold women-growers

Lodi grower Jean Rauser among her 109-year old Carignan plants

Special red wines grown by Lodi's Jean Rauser and Antoinette Celle

Klinker Brick Winery owner Steve Felten has recently aligned his farming operations with two of Lodi's more enterprising women-growers: Jean Rauser, the owner of Rauser Vineyard in the Victor area, east of the town of Lodi; and Antoinette Celle, owner of Celle Vineyard located at the southernmost edge of the Lodi Viticultural Area, near Linden.

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2015 Lodi ZinFest – more fun than a barrel of floating winemakers!

2015 ZinFest poster

Where does the time go? Don’t look now, but the 2015 Lodi ZinFest Wine Festival is just 30 days away — happening this coming Saturday, May 16 (12-5 PM)!

Simply put, Lodi wine doesn’t get any funner than this yearly affair, taking place in the gorgeously lush “island” setting of Lodi Lake Park, amidst giant ancient weeping willows bowing beside blue refreshing waters of the Mokelumne River. Also as in previous years, over 40 of Lodi’s finest artisanal wineries will be pouring over 200 different Lodi grown wines — and not just Zinfandel!

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White Zinfandel is back, and better (when seriously dry) than ever!

McCay Cellar Lodi Appellation White Zinfandel

The crying of Lot 13

Don't look now, but White Zinfandel may be back, and better than ever!

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The Mokelumne River Viticultural Area (part 3) – Grapes, ungrafted vines, rags to riches

February pruning of 100-year old, own-rooted Kirschenmann Vineyard Zinfandel

Continued from: The Mokelumne River Viticultural Area (part 1 and part 2)

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The Mokelumne River Viticultural Area (part 2) – winemakers talk dirty

Trench dug in the Mokelumne River AVA’s historic Bechthold Vineyard; showing the depth of fine sandy loam soil