Letters from Lodi
An insightful and objective look at viticulture and winemaking from the Lodi
Appellation and the growers and vintners behind these crafts. Told from the
perspective of multi-award winning wine journalist, Randy Caparoso.
Watts ups the ante with pure Chardonnays, a classic Zinfandel & adventurous Montepulciano
Quietly, pretty much under the radar, Watts Winery & Vineyards has been growing before our eyes. From 1999 to 2011, Watts was one of many winemaking tenets in Vino Piazza, near the little Lodi CDP of Lockeford. At the Watts family’s “new” tasting room/winery on Locust Tree Rd., just south of Victor/Hwy. 12, Watts’ French-born and schooled winemaker, Franck Lambert, proudly showed off his new baby, sure to attract the oohs and ahs: the 2012 Watts Upstream Lodi Chardonnay ($18).
What’s so special about Watts’ Upstream Chardonnay? Lots. It is, to begin with, a more floral scented, sleek and moderately weighted style of Chardonnay – if you’re looking for a ponderous, buttery popcorn/candied apple/pineapple-fruit bomb style of Chardonnay, don’t expect to find it here. Instead, the Upstream delivers a white flower/violet-like fragrance, nuances of citrus, lemon and minerals, enhanced in the nose and texture by smidgens of fresh cream derived from just partial barrel fermentation. But the overall feel is on a crisp, clean purity, enhanced by mostly stainless steel fermentation.
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Apr 19, 2013 at 12:17 PM
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Borra’s amazing Spring releases: the moonshine is the sunshine
It is so ironic: that many contemporary American winemakers, who by resorting to Old World methodologies, are now considered to be the most daring winemakers of today. The new style is the old style; or as The Youngbloods once sang, the moonshine is the sunshine, shining twenty minutes later…
Do you have a “contemporary” taste in wine? If so, you might be stunned by the latest releases from Borra Vineyards. This may come as a surprise, since Borra is also the oldest bonded winery (in business since 1975!) in Lodi. But if you have been under the impression that they make stick-in-the-mud, old school wines, then let us set the record straight: Borra now produces the most “contemporary” style wines grown in Lodi today, period. Let’s discuss…
Continue » Apr 16, 2013 at 12:13 PM
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Lodi vintners capture elusive joys of Tempranillo
Are there wines capable of as much inexpressible intensity as those made from the black skinned Tempranillo grape? Even wine geeks have difficulty putting a finger on exactly what makes a great Tempranillo appealing: all you know is that it feels great, it tastes great, but more often than not, is very hard to describe.
For instance, the 2010 Bokisch Vineyards Lodi Tempranillo ($21) – which represents this winery’s tenth (and probably their best!) vintage working with this native Spanish grape – is a delicious medium bodied red (meaning, not to heavy, not too light), exuding perfumes of baked berry pies of somewhat indeterminate fill (cherry, blueberry, blackberry?) along with distinct yet fleeting suggestions of red meat (like very rare roast beef). Oak barrel notes (in the Bokisch, a blend of French and American wood, about 65% new) adds light touches of cigarbox and cocoa-like warmth; and the wine feel round and fleshy in the mouth, with a springy meatiness to the texture...
Continue » Apr 10, 2013 at 12:09 PM
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Acquiesce Vineyards makes the case for Lodi as the ideal place for WHITE wines
Acquiesce’s Sue Tipton with Picpoul blanc grapes grown in her Acquiesce estate vineyard
Sometimes it’s detrimental – because nobody knows you – but sometimes it pays to be the “one and only” doing something. Talking about the Grand Tasting at the 16 Annual Rhone Rangers Celebration that took place this past March 23rd in San Francisco, Acquiesce Vineyards owner/winemaker Sue Tipton told us, “We had crowds crashing our table when word got out that we were the only ones in the room pouring a Picpoul Blanc. They were loving it, and so were we...”
Continue » Apr 2, 2013 at 12:03 PM
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Critics take notice of Zinfandel’s “coming of age”
Up until only recently, according to wine journalist Rod Byers CWE, Zinfandel has been presented as “the Oakland Raiders of wine… loud, proud, unruly, and unapologetic.”
But at this past January’s ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) Grand Tasting, Byers noticed an increased “sophistication” in the Zinfandels. In a report entitled Zinfandel grape comes of age, published this past March 6 in The Union, the Grass Valley (Western Nevada County) daily newspaper, Byers wrote: “None (of the Zinfandels at this year’s ZAP) seemed overly alcoholic, sweet, or rough. Only one could have been considered moderately tannic. The wines were fruity, balanced, and even elegant...”
Continue » Mar 21, 2013 at 11:41 AM
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New York sommelier comes to Lodi (and Michael David’s latest Cinsault & Inkblots)
A sommelier, according to standard dictionaries, is the person in a restaurant in charge of buying, storing and serving wines. You can say “wine steward,” which sounds pedestrian. And so people prefer to say sum-uhl-YAY; which, as you might surmise from the hoity-toitiness, is originally a French concept. The word itself is derived from the Old French word for pack animal driver – probably an alteration of sommerier (from somier or “pack animal”), and prior to that, the Medieval Latin saugmarius, from Late Latin sagma (“packsaddle”) – since somehow, sommeliers in France evolved from officials in charge of transporting supplies to dudes with the keys to restaurant wine cellars.
Sommeliers, in other words, are a breed apart. Since only high-end restaurants tend to have sommeliers, quite often they live in glorified worlds of their own, even though they are basically wine lovers, like any wine lover, who happen to get paid for cultivating their predilection. But inevitably, the way they think about wine can be different from the way even other wine professionals (like winemakers, retailers or journalists) think...
Continue » Mar 5, 2013 at 11:27 AM
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Neyers Vista Luna Zinfandel perfectly suits contemporary tastes
When certain vintners speak, many others are listening. Bruce Neyers, who has owned the acclaimed Napa Valley based Neyers Vineyards (tucked into Conn Valley, in the eastern mountains surrounding the shimmering Lake Hennessey) since 1992, has recently been spreading the word to his legions of wine savvy followers, in every state from Hawai`i to New York: there is Zinfandel unlike any other being grown in Lodi’s eastern hills.
The 2011 Neyers Vista Luna Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel ($24) is, by all definitions of the varietal, a beaut. That is to say, not a beast. Its medium-full body has a very refined, silky feel, with spice nuanced raspberry/rhubarb pie flavors punctuated and woven together by lively, lip smacking acidity, without being sharp. There is some mild, sinewy tannin (think Angelina Jolie’s, not Brad Pitt’s, biceps) flowing through the center, and just smidgens of sweet oak lingering way in the backdrop. A Zinfandel for contemporary tastes for restraint, yet not without complexity – almost the opposite of what many people think about Lodi Zinfandel today...
Continue » Feb 28, 2013 at 10:51 AM
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Lodi icon leaves legacy of uncompromised quality & character
Hundreds of related family, friends and colleagues gathered at Vinewood Community Church and Harney Lane Winery today to remember and celebrate the life of George Mettler (born March 14, 1943), who passed away this past February 15, 2013 (please see our September 2013 post, the patriarch of Harney Lane).
In many ways, the Harney Lane Lodi Patriarch’s Promise ($40) – a varietal blend sourced from grapes grown on the winery property, from four vintages (2007 through 2010) – is a direct reflection of the man, for whom home, love, laughter, family (and just below that, farming and fly fishing) loomed largest. On a sensory level, the Patriarch’s is deep, dense yet perfectly smooth; with flavors of berried trail-mix spiced with cinnamon, cracked pepper and earth toned suggestions of fennel root and mushrooms, plucked from rich, organic loam...
Continue » Feb 21, 2013 at 10:47 AM
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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...”
Continue » Jan 31, 2013 at 10:08 AM
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Culinary orgy of Lodi wines & chocolate dishes in San Francisco’s Naked Kitchen
Lodi Wine Country’s Wine & Chocolate Weekend (our 16th 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)...
Continue » Jan 16, 2013 at 9:39 AM
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