Van Ruiten’s new winemaker has an uncommon “touch”

Van Ruiten winemaker Matt Ridge

There is a new winemaker at Van Ruiten Family Winery; which, since founded by John Van Ruiten Sr. in 2000, has emerged as one of the Lodi American Viticultural Area’s most consistent, and beloved, producers of wines that are now sold in over 40 states across the country.

Aug 9, 2012 at 7:58 PM Permalink

Lodi puts on most arduous wine seminar in the world at Steamboat Wine Festival

Winter, spring, summer or fall, a visit to Steamboat Springs – a 6,732+ ft. elevation ski resort/community in the Rockies of Colorado – is a breathtaking affair.  Especially if you happened to participate in the Mud, Sweat and Cheers event that was part of the yearly Steamboat Wine Festival, which took place this past August 2-5...

Aug 7, 2012 at 8:03 PM Permalink

Signs of eminent greatness in the 2010 Maley Zinfandel

Zinfandel cluster in Maley’s Weget Vineyard Zinfandel, undergoing veraison (color change) last week

Sometimes a wine just makes itself.  Or practically…

In the case of a good red Zinfandel, you still have to pick the grapes and get it into a fermentation vat, and watch it a little to make sure things don’t go south as it starts to bubble up and turn those sugars into alcohol, while all the goodies found in the skins turn into a taste resembling, say, quivering spoonfuls of raspberry preserve with sprinkles of cinnamon toast, nostril tingling pepper, and just-roasted coffee grounds…

Aug 3, 2012 at 8:08 PM Permalink

Finicky Graciano grape achieves mini-cult status in Lodi’s Clements Hills

Graciano grapes in Bokisch's Terra Alta Vineyard

It was during one of their first trips to Spain when Rick and Erin Taylor first tasted a wine made from the Graciano grape, right from a barrel in a little bodega (winery).  “We were blown away,” says Mr. Taylor.  “It was unlike anything else we’d ever tasted.”

Later, when the Taylors discovered that Markus and Liz Bokisch were growing Graciano here in Lodi, where the Taylors were also living, “we knew we had to make that wine...”

Jul 30, 2012 at 8:15 PM Permalink

Michael David easy-skankin’ at their annual REGGAE & RHONE concert

Reggae master, Mystic Bowie

Oh lord, stuck in Lodi has never been so irie, mon… Michael David Winery continues with their 10th annual REGGAE & RHONE concert (Saturday, August 18, 6 PM), which will include an unbelievable Rhone style wine tasting under the winery’s gigantic weeping willow tree, a full-on Caribbean style barbecue dinner (by Stockton’s Breadfruit Tree), and the authentically Jamaican, so-jah-say, dem-belly-full, lively-up-yourself (and don’t say no!) sounds of Mystic Bowie and his band...

Jul 25, 2012 at 8:20 PM Permalink

Pasos Tannat can crank up summer grills

Lodi grown Tannat grapes

Tannat is not a wine grape to be trifled with.  Its black-purplish color can be intimidating, and its thick, tannin laden texture a mountainous affair.  If none of that bothers you in a red wine, then you can, to paraphrase Jimi Hendrix, chop it down with the edge of your hand.  Maybe pick up all the pieces and make an island, like a kid playing with food on the plate...

Jul 19, 2012 at 8:30 PM Permalink

ZAP’s upcoming Grille O’Rama speaks to Zinfandel’s barbecued soul

Lodi winemaker Michael McCay's specialty slow cooked oil drum smoked baby backs

ZAP – the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers organization that has done more to popularize the joys of California Zinfandel than anything in the world, apart from the wines themselves – knows where its bread is buttered.

Zinfandel has become an everyday go-to beverage around the world (they’re even rocking with it in places as far-off as Shanghai and Stockholm, Berlin and Bombay…) not just because the grape produces a truly fine and delicious red wine, but also because at its very essence is the bare naked fact:  Zinfandel makes an incredible barbecue wine...

Jul 17, 2012 at 8:36 PM Permalink

Sorelle’s Sangiovese defies all odds

The old Dodge House on Sorelle's estate, fronted by Sangiovese

There’s always one in the bunch.  A newly loosed winegrower, seemingly oblivious to industry trends; making a decision to plant, as his centerpiece, a grape with a solid track record of market disappointment:  California grown Sangiovese...

Jul 12, 2012 at 8:45 PM Permalink

Lodi at its crazy best: Borra’s exciting, new Intuition White

The crazy thing about Lodi these days is that the surprises never seem to cease.  Instead, we have vignerons who insist on constantly breaking the mold, while shattering commonly perceived misconceptions in the process.

This month Borra Vineyards – which holds the distinction of being the oldest of Lodi’s small, family owned wineries (originally bonded in 1975) – will be coming out with a brand new sub-label of sorts, to be called Intuition, which will pleasantly surprise, if not shock, even the most knowledgeable of Lodi wine lovers...

Jul 10, 2012 at 8:51 PM Permalink

Round-up of Lodi’s finest dry rosés

Summer sipping in Lodi...

Summer is heating up with a vengeance; and this year the wines that seem to be on everyone’s lips are dry rosés.  And a good rosé, to paraphrase the bard, by any other name may smell as sweet, but are certainly not all the same.

To begin with, rosé wines come in many shades of color, from transparent orange/bricks to extremely bright coral or flamingo-like colors.  Yet all are classified as rosé wines because they are made from black skinned grapes that normally produce red wines:  most commonly, grapes like Grenache, Tempranillo, Carignane, Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel (although those pink wines that first became so popular in the eighties – sold as White Zinfandel – were also commonly called “blush” wines)...

Jul 5, 2012 at 8:56 PM Permalink