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.
Lodi launches LoCA campaign
Lodi, CA (October 19, 2011) – If you see the word LoCA in an advertisement or billboard over the next few months, don’t worry — Lodi’s growers and wineries have not gone crazy. They’re simply telling the world how thrilled they are about the wines they produce, and how much they love sharing a taste of their life in Lodi — such an ideal place for grapes and people. LoCA is code for Lodi, California, and the growers and wineries in the Lodi American Viticultural Area want consumers to know exactly where that passion comes from: a tradition of farming..
Continue »Lodi harvest in October 2011
We often forget that wine is basically an agricultural product, which is why any winegrower will tell you: Mother Nature always has the last word. Even so, sometimes it has nothing to do with weather… Last week, as he was out in the fields analyzing Cabernet Sauvignon grapes being grown for the Mettler Family label, Adam Mettler noticed a few rows with grape bunches completely stripped of berries. “We are constantly battling Mother Nature in some blocks,” says Mettler, “but in this case, the culprit wasn’t rain or temperature… these rows were eaten by turkeys!” Otherwise, the story of the..
Continue »Harmony’s Pipe Dreams zin rolls in
When you take a tub of grapes and ferment it with the yeast that has grown naturally on their own skins, you are incorporating the vineyard’s indigenous microbiology. If those grapes happen to be Zinfandel grown in Lodi, the resulting red wine will not necessarily compare to other wines made from Lodi grown Zinfandel – you may like others better. Yet it is more likely to taste like the best possible wine made from that vineyard because you’ve allowed the grapes’ own yeast to play a part in the wine’s fermentation, and ultimately its flavor. The family at Lodi’s Harmony..
Continue »Treasure Island winefest memories
Kodakchrome clear blue skies, perfect wine sipping temperatures, and precisely parallel white vapors trailing soaring Blue Angels like a hexagram of the heavens, the strings of Snap Jackson’s guitar, high, low, hither and yon across the San Francisco Bay: these were but some of the highlights of Lodi’s 2011 Treasure Island WineFest this past Sunday, October 8. So were the savory or achingly tender cheeses of artisans like Fescalini, Sonoma and Nicasio Valley — oh, what happy cows can render — and sweet nothings by love gangstas like Truffle Gateau and Desperately Seeking Chocolate, not to mention the virginal California..
Continue »The Wine in 2 Water benefit concert
October 15, 2011: The WINE IN 2 WATER Concert, Art & Wine Tasting at Jessie’s Grove Dancing Fox winegrower/proprietor and restaurateur Gregg Lewis has combined efforts with a counterpart, Greg Burns of the historic Jessie’s Grove Winery, to produce WINE IN 2 WATER: a charity concert, wine tasting and art demonstration benefitting the Bear Creek Water Project and Living Water International. The Bear Creek Water Project is a foundation endeavoring to save the lives of children (one dies every 15 seconds from preventable, water-related diseases) through raising money by recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans to cover the cost of..
Continue »Lodi’s “perfect storm” in 2011
“Forecast calls for rain, but local grape growers aren’t panicking,” reads the headline in today’s Lodi News-Sentinel. In fact, vintners are thinking the opposite: their outlook on the 2011 Lodi harvest thus far is positively positive — as if the skies were still crystal blue and absolutely cloudless. It all comes down to grapes: the varieties that are most susceptible to bunch rot – Zinfandel, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (yes, Lodi grows a significant quantity of Pinot Noir, too) – are pretty much all picked as of today. As much as an inch of rain is expected to fall during..
Continue »27 reasons to be at Treasure Island fest
Lodi Wine Country returns to San Francisco Bay this coming Saturday, October 8, 2011 (1 to 5 PM) at the Treasure Island WineFest, where over 45 of Lodi’s finest producers will be pouring over 200 Lodi AVA grown wines. Advanced purchase tickets are now on sale at tiwinefest.com for $55 (tickets at the door are $65, and just $25 for designated drivers). Here’s your chance to experience the best of Lodi in the spectacular setting of Treasure Island off the picturesque Bay Bridge — one great reason for you need to be there… and here are 27 more: An Abundance..
Continue »Lodi’s ingenioso Vermentino & Moscato
There has always been something of a Don Quixote in Jim Moore, winemaker/proprietor of Uvaggio, the winery formerly known by its full name, L’Uvaggio di Giacomo (“Jim’s grapes”). How else can you explain his impassioned, solitary crusade to turn the country on to Vermentino, an obscure (at least in the U.S.) grape grown in Northern Italy, the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, and France’s Provence (where the grape is known as Rolle)? In Jim Moore’s world, every self-respecting American white wine lover should be drinking Vermentino, which he calls the “thinking man’s Pinot Grigio.” Ironically, in Moore’s previous life –..
Continue »Vicarmont keeps the Merlot faith
Still plenty of respect for Merlot among Lodi winegrowers… Bart: If fairytales have taught us anything, first wives are the best and second wives are terrible. Homer: Just the opposite of real life… – The Simpsons How soon we forget the finest things. Not too long ago, Merlot was the go-to wine for the majority of America’s red wine drinkers – what Chardonnay was to Bridget Jones, white Russians to the Big Lebowski. Then this varietal suffered the indignity of being disparaged in the movie Sideways (2004); and soon after, became decidedly unhip. Yet good grapes are good grapes, and..
Continue »Lodi’s 2011 zin roars in
Up until last week, Tim Holdener (winemaker/proprietor of Macchia Wines) tells us, there were some fears that “yields might be down as much as 50%.” But now that he has gotten in his fastest ripening vineyards this past week – including the dry farmed Leland Noma’s and “Oblivious” next door, yielding as little as half-a-ton per acre, as well as Dave Devine’s drip-irrigated vineyard in the Clements Hills AVA – Holdener has adjusted his expectation to “about 20% less.” Adds Holdener, “we expected a less than average year, when we saw all the shot berries that resulted from the spring..
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