Macchia winemaker/owner Tim Holdener with 2016 Zinfandel barrel samples

It’s October 3, 2016, and Lodi winegrowers are talking about wrapping up the vintage within the next two weeks, as soon as it is humanly possible to bring in the rest of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Carignan, Barbera and other later-ripening black skinned grapes lingering in the fields.

Chalk it up to the recent spate of mild winters pushing bud break and flowering earlier in the season, or to weather events tantamount to global warming, whatever your political beliefs may be. Earlier vintages have been happening up and down the entire West Coast, not just in Lodi.

A more pertinent question might be, how does this bode for quality? If you ask Tim Holdener, the winemaker/owner of Lodi’s Macchia Wines, things are looking “fantastic,” particularly for Zinfandel, Lodi's pièce de résistance.

While sitting down to share barrel samples of his 2016 Zinfandels two Saturdays ago (September 24, 2016), Mr. Holdener extolled: “It’s not just quality, but the quantity of 2016s that are excellent – above average. We didn’t expect to bring in as much tonnage because we saw that there was a little shatter (i.e. coulure, or unfertilized berries in grape clusters) out in the fields, but everything seemed to fill out, and better yet, we seem to have all the flavors we normally have, but at lower sugars.”

Asked to explain the relationship between sugars and flavors in Zinfandel grapes, Holdener explained: “If this was a normal year, we would be bringing in grapes that are sugar-ripe, but not phenologically ripe – without the brown seeds, the turned stems, and ripe flavors.”

Standard practice in commercial Zinfandel production includes adding water to fermenting musts to lower potential alcohol, and adjusting acidity to make up for what might be lacking naturally in high-sugar Zinfandel grapes. “This year we are getting the opposite,” says Holdener – “riper grapes with less sugar, which is ideal for the winemaker because it makes it easier to make a balanced wine without having to resort to the usual bag of tricks.”

Fermenting macro bins in Macchia winery

When asked what was different about the weather in 2016, Holdener speculated: “I was surprised to learn that this year we had more 100-degree days than normal, but the vines had a good head-start; so there was plenty of hang-time, with lots of canopy to help grapes develop their flavors. Plus, the weather cooled off earlier in the month (September), and there were no rain events causing problems like rot or mold. Whatever the reasons, we have been picking grapes in almost perfect, clean shape. Brix (i.e. sugar readings) in the fields have been reading 22° to 23°, but taste more like grapes we get at 25° or 26°, with better acidity. If there ever was a year when Zinfandel is able to ‘make themselves,’ without much winemaker interference, 2016 is probably it.”

For the past 16 vintages, Macchia Wines has been producing a good half-dozen different single-vineyard Zinfandels under their black label marked by a vivid splash of tie-dye colors, marking their “spot” as a leading progenitor of Lodi wine country’s modern day quality push.

It is thanks to Zinfandel specialists like Holdener that, today, there is far more interest in Lodi’s special vineyards – once buried in the industrial sized tanks of giant, bulk wine producers – than ever before.

Zinfandel barrel samples at Macchia winery

Sure, there is also a Macchia “house” style: dependably opaque, deeply colored Zinfandels bursting with sweet, palpitating, primary fruit aromas; big and full in the mouth, and at the same time, velvety in texture and viscosity. Part and parcel of the Macchia signature has always been Holdener’s personal choice of hybrid oak barrels; assembled from a combination of French and American staves, combining the pungent sweetness of American oak with the more subtle, toasty veneer of the French. This is precisely why Macchia wine lovers are legion.

Nonetheless, terroir related characteristics attributable to individual vineyards can also be gleaned through Macchia fashioned Zinfandels. Since 2012, Mr. Holdener’s involvement as one of the original participants in the Lodi Native project – where heritage vineyards are handled as naturally and minimally as possibly, beginning with native yeast fermentation and ending with use of strictly older, neutral tasting barrels before unfiltered bottling – has only enhanced the Macchia approach, which has always put a spotlight on sensory qualities unique to vineyards as much as a winemaker’s touch.

Some of Holdener’s comments (in italics) on barrel samples of his 2016 Zinfandels, sampled in order of picking dates:

2016 Rous Vineyard – Every year Rous is the first or, at the latest, second vineyard picked. A lot of this is because this vineyard (planted in 1909 on St. George rootstock, off Victor Rd. on the east side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA) is managed by a winemaker, Craig Rous, who does meticulous canopy management to offset his vineyard’s healthy, vigorous growth, and to make sure the clusters get lots of sunlight. This year we picked Rous on August 15. The numbers were ideal – lower sugars, higher acids than just about all my other vineyards – and even now at this early stage, you can taste the floral, violet-like fruit qualities and the luxurious mid-palate flavors that make this unmistakably “Rous.” This will be one of my more “perfect” wines in 2016, and I didn’t have to do a thing to achieve it.

Rous Vineyard owner/grower Craig Rous with his 117-year old Zinfandel vines

2016 Cemetery Vineyard – We picked this 100-year-old vineyard just two, three days after the Roud in mid-August. Because of its ideal sugar/acid balance, we fermented this vineyard (located near Lodi Cemetery on the east side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA) two ways – with natural yeast for the Lodi Native program in half-ton macro bins, and inoculated in 1200-gallon open-top steel tanks. With the inoculated portion, we added enzymes and oak dust, which explains the wine’s deep, dark color and slight residual sugar – quite often, our larger tanks of inoculated wines take off quickly and then putter out, and so fermentation of last bits of sugar ends up taking longer than the native yeast wines. The Lodi Native portion is completely finished, probably because it was done in a 100-gallon bin – the color is lighter and more reddish, but the perfume, like cranberry and cherry, is much more pronounced at this time than the inoculated portion. The native yeast Cemetery also tastes like it has sharper, zestier acidity because of the dryness and the wine’s moderate weight of alcohol.

2016 Oblivious – I call this vineyard, located between Rous and the Cemetery Vineyard (east side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA), Oblivious because the owner purchased the land under these ancient vines as an investment, not because he cares one single bit about the grapes. So I manage the farming myself, and he’s happy with the check I send him once a year. The vineyard is dry farmed, and has lots of dead spots – out of 10 acres, we may get 6 tons. The yield may be miniscule, but the quality is what any winemaker would consider a treasure. We picked the 2016 on August 21, you can already taste lots of pretty red fruit with blueberry notes, and lots of good, natural acid, because of the tiny berry size.

Tim Holdener in Dave Devine's De Luca Vineyard (Clements Hills AVA)

2016 De Luca Vineyard – These vines, picked at the end of August, were planted in the 1980s by Dave Devine on slopes towards the end of Peltier Rd. (in the lower elevations of Lodi’s Clements Hills AVA, alongside the Mokelumne River). These are all head-trained vines, probably the most perfectly manicured in all of Lodi. The clonal selection, however, is one of U.C. Davis’ higher yielding varieties, so this 2016 is typical of what we usually get – very generous, ripe fruit, blackberries and red berries, and a big, round taste, a little light in the finish. Subsequently, this has been a good component in our Mischievous (multi-vineyard) blend – not quite the complete style of Zinfandel that we usually like to see in our single-vineyard program.

2016 Wegat Vineyard (Maley Bros.) – This year we picked our Maley (a classic far-west side Mokelumne River AVA growth, located on Ray Rd. between Turner and Woodbridge) at the beginning of September; almost 10 days after Todd Maley (owner/grower) picked for himself. I like to go for a rich, full “Voluptuous” feel you get from slightly riper grapes, but you notice that the 2016 still has the natural acidity that balances out the lush, soft, middle taste. Whether picked earlier or later, the wine always ends up with that fragrant, floral perfume and silky texture, which makes this vineyard one of the most distinctive in Lodi. Of course, this vineyard has always been part of the Lodi Native program from the beginning (since 2012). I inoculated my 2016, but it still meets all the expectations associated with this vineyard. It’s nice to know that there are certain spots in Lodi where, no matter what, you can always make a wine with its own sense of place.

Map showing Lodi appellations and location of Lodi Native growths

2016 Mohr-Fry Ranches – Each year we bottle this vineyard, planted in 1942 (south/central side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA), as “Generous.” We picked this during the first week of September; but again, typical of 2016, grapes came in at lower sugars and higher acids than normal, but you can still taste the deep, dark, almost chocolaty, raspberry fruit and full, broad, earthy feel that these vines always deliver. The Fry family knows what they’re doing – it’s no coincidence that they were picked as the 2016 Grower of the Year (by the California Association of Winegrape Growers). As winemakers, it’s good to be able to depend upon the impeccable quality we get from them each year.

2016 Clements Hills Vineyard #1 – This is one of our newer vineyard selections, located further east, deeper in the Clements Hills AVA; dry farmed, goblet-trained old vines, planted closer to the banks of the Mokelumne River, where there is less clay and a little more sand. We’re starting to learn not to expect big wines from Clements Hills plantings; but more balanced wines, with good structure despite soft, round qualities. The fruit in this 2016 is fragrant, ripe, lots of red berries.

2016 Schmiedt Ranch – Another one of our mid-September picks. Sugars soaked up at 26° Brix; a little riper than we expected, and so we inoculated and made adjustments with a little water and acid. The 2016 tastes exactly like where it comes from (east side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA, right alongside McCay’s Lot 13 and Turley’s Kirschenmann Vineyard, all planted between 1915 and 1918), with its pretty cherry/red berry fragrance and zesty, almost delicate, fine feel.

2016 Watts Vineyard – McCay calls wines from these 75-year-old vines TruLux. Fact is, I’ve been working with this vineyard (located on west side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA, just south of Kettleman Lane) longer than Mr. McCay, although he deserves a lot of credit for what he does with it. We picked in mid-September and inoculated it. When produced in my style, I like the way it ends up with that sumptuous, round, svelte feel – always, a real presence in the mouth – with a slight earthiness and shy yet floral fruit nose. Top to bottom, this vineyard doesn’t usually lack for anything, and in 2016 it is no different.

2016 Clements Hills Vineyard #2 – This is another century-old, head trained planting located along Hwy. 88, off Disch Rd. (between the little towns of Lockeford and Clements, in the Clements Hills AVA). It used to go to Cosentino, back in the day, and it makes a beautiful wine – fragrant, perfumey, almost violet-like, with delicate cherry-berry perfumes, and zesty natural acidity.

Macchia Wine Club members enjoying the good life

In 2016, tiny, palm sized Barbera clusters in Lodi's 44-year-old Noma Vineyard

In 1972, according to St. Amant Winery owner/winemaker Stuart Spencer, “E. & J. Gallo approached several Lodi growers and asked them to plant Barbera.” The understanding was that these grapes were needed as key components for the winery’s most famous red wine, called Hearty Burgundy.

When E. & J. Gallo introduced its proprietary Hearty Burgundy in 1964, it quickly became America’s best selling “jug” red. In a landmark November 1972 Time Magazine cover story on the growing popularity of American wine, Los Angeles Times wine critic, Robert Lawrence Balzer was quoted to say, "Gallo Hearty Burgundy is the best wine value in the country today”... period.

Despite the eventual movement of consumer preferences away from generic wines and more towards varietals, to this day E. & J. Gallo still produces 1.5-liter bottlings of Hearty Burgundy. The question often asked over the past 50-plus years is, what exactly is in Hearty Burgundy?

The answer, of course, is a closely guarded trade secret. The general consensus among the industry, however, is that it has always been based upon a formula consisting primarily of Zinfandel (reputably the late Julio Gallo’s favorite varietal), Carignan (California’s most widely planted grape between the 1950s and 1980s), and Petite Sirah.

Even though the black skinned grape of the actual Burgundy region of France has always been Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir has never been mentioned as a Hearty Burgundy ingredient. Instead, other varieties such as Barbera, Tempranillo, Syrah, Grenache, Sangiovese, Teroldego, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot have been coyly suggested by employees past and present as possible components utilized over the years to maintain the remarkable consistency of Hearty Burgundy.

St. Amant owner/winemaker Stuart Spencer with 44-year-old Leventini Vineyard Barbera vines

Another fact that is also not always acknowledged is that, during the 1960s and 1970s, E. & J. Gallo was the largest purchaser of wine grapes grown in Sonoma County and Napa Valley. Robert Biale – from a family of longtime growers, now better known for their single-vineyard North Coast Zinfandel bottlings – still recalls, “Not too long ago, Gallo took over 50% of the grapes grown in Napa Valley... our family depended upon our grape contracts with Gallo.”

Grapes going into early bottlings of Hearty Burgundy were usually combinations of North Coast and San Joaquin Valley grapes; although in most recent decades, the formula has undoubtedly skewed more towards the latter – with Lodi playing a major role as grape supplier.

Which brings us back to our story of Barbera in Lodi: Three of the vineyards planted to the grape in 1972 at the instigation of E. & J. Gallo still exist; although one of them – the Borra family's Carrú Vineyard planting on Armstrong Rd., south of the City of Lodi – is scheduled to be uprooted and eventually replanted by the end of this year. The other two vineyards – Leventini Vineyard (located just north of Peltier Rd. on Lodi's east side) and Noma Vineyard (on Garnero Rd., just south of Harney Lane) – will continue to forge on, despite the advanced age of these single-wired, trellised plantings.

Macchia's Tim Holdener with grower Leland Noma

When trellised vines get old, their health and productivity recede precipitously. After over 40 years, both the Borra and Noma Barbera plantings – growing in the deep, porous sandy loam soil of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA – have been averaging about a half-ton per acre; its fruit clusters no larger than the palms of your hand (less than a third of the variety’s normal size). Those are the wages of age. Perhaps because of its location in the Jahant AVA, consisting of yellowish-red sandy clay loam, Leventini Vineyard has also been yielding palm-sized clusters, although in quantities adding up to closer to 2 tons per acre.

“There is no real commercial reason for these plantings to exist,” says Spencer, “other than the fact that they still produce extraordinary wines.” Although Borra Vineyards winemaker Markus Niggli says, “Our old vine Barbera block is past its expiration date – it makes no sense to keep it, the vines are just to tired to go on.”

Lodi, as it were, has played a major (if under-appreciated) role in the history of the Barbera grape in California. According to U.C. Davis’ Nancy Sweet, early research (during the 1930s and 1940s) indicated that “Barbera was excessively acidic” when grown in all but the warmest pockets of the North and Central Coasts,” whereas in warmer areas “in the foothills of Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley... observation showed that Barbera needs some heat to do well.”

Harvesting Barbera in Borra family's' 44-year-old Carrú Vineyard

Barbera has come to be recognized as a particularly ideal grape for the nearby Sierra Foothills AVA ever since it was pioneered by Cary Gott’s first Amador County planting in 1971 (producing the groundbreaking Monteviña Barbera bottlings). In the similar Mediterranean climate of Lodi, this Northern Italian grape has also been shown to produce an ideal balance of the grape’s characteristic sharp acidity - dependably higher than any other black skinned Vitis vinifera - full body/alcohol, and moderate tannin.

In fact, the U.C. Davis Foundation Plant Services Barbera 01 – the state’s most widely planted clone of the grape – originated from Lodi plantings cultivated by L.K Marshall. According to Sweet, “Marshall’s vineyard in Lodi had 30-40 different varieties... it is known that Barbera was being grown in the Lodi area in the 1930s.”

During a visit of six snooth.com writers last week, we conducted a tasting of Lodi grown Barbera; most of the bottlings coming from these three tired, old plantings. One thing we found about these wines: tiny clusters can produce the most intense, brightly fruited styles of Barbera, smartly balanced against the varietal’s typically zesty acidity and round yet sturdy tannin.

Lodi Barbera specialists: Jim Moore (Uvaggio), Stuart Spencer (St. Amant), Dan Panella (Oak Farm), Tim Holdener (Macchia), and Jeremy Trettevik (Jeremy Wine Co.)

Some notes, in the order in which the wines were tasted:

2012 Uvaggio, Leventini Vineyard Lodi Barbera ($18) – Uvaggio owner/winemaker Jim Moore has been crafting Barbera since 1993; in the beginning, as the winemaker/manager of the now-defunct La Famiglia label by Robert Mondavi (for whom Moore worked for 19 years). Moore’s approach to Barbera is adamantly understated for culinary purposes; telling us, “I think of Barbera first and foremost as a wine for food, and I also happen to believe it is the most food-versatile wine in the world.” As such, the Uvaggio Barbera is restrained in weight – medium-bodied, suitably edgy with acid, and very low-key in tannin and oak influence – but voluminous in varietal fruit qualities, its flowery, red cherry, violet-like perfumes tingling the nose. A wine that screams for pizzas or pastas in herby tomato sauces.

2014 St. Amant, Leventini Vineyard Lodi Barbera ($18) – St. Amant’s 17th vintage of this wine, remaining a standard bearer of the Lodi style: positively plump in black and red berry fruit (black cherry/cranberry) fruit aromas; the varietal’s high acidity tasting almost sweetly entwined with the high toned fruit profile, sprucing up a full, fleshy feel, filled out by pliant tannin and smidgens of American oak. This vintage, already sold out at the winery.

Tiny Barbera clusters in 44-year-old Leventini Vineyard

2015 St. Amant, Leventini Vineyard Lodi Barbera ($18) – The winery’s latest bottling (scheduled for early 2017 release) is even more successful, and quintessentially “Lodi,” than the previous vintage: lavish nose of baking blackberry/raspberry pie, complete with kitchen spices and good, natural acid zip. The varietal edginess is still a little sharp, but the upbeat, fresh, teeming varietal fruit qualities are stunningly pure and extravagant.

2013 Borra Vineyards, Home Ranch Carrú Vineyard Lodi Barbera ($25) – The distinctive, terroir driven character of the Borra family’s 1972 planting is the pungently earthy (like compost and eucalyptus) notes beneath bright strawberry/cherry fragrances; medium-full bodied, yet not rough or weighty; with the grape’s fresh plum-like tartness winding up the red fruit qualities on the palate. A longtime favorite food match? A slow cooked stew of gamey lamb and carrots served over ribbons of pappardelle pasta, or simple grilled grass-fed loins of beef.

2013 Borra Vineyards, Lodi Heritage Field Blend ($25) – This wine utilizes the family’s same old vine Barbera (70%) in a co-fermentation of ancient vine (planted in the early 1940s) Carignan (10%), Petite Sirah (10%), and Alicante Bouschet (10%). The result is a dramatic nose of blacker fruits (blackberry, elderberry) mixed with black cherry aromas; a good dose of the compost-like earthiness emblematic of the estate; and a deeper, more layered and vibrant feel than the pure Barbera bottling on the palate, yet still dominated by the lip smacking acid edginess of the grape.

Gangly spurs and tiny clusters reflecting advanced age of Barbera in Noma Vineyard

2014 Oak Farm Vineyards, Lodi Barbera ($25) – In this tasting, a sleeker, sculpted, come-hithery perfumed, fruit-driven style of Barbera crafted from considerably younger vineyard sources – Ron Silva’s Silvaspoons Vineyards in Lodi’s Alta Mesa AVA, and Jonathan Wetmore’s Round Valley Ranches in Lodi's Jahant AVA. The red berry perfumes and bright, upbeat, fullsome flavors are sweetened by a veneer of vanillin French oak (25% new); kept buoyant and balanced by the natural acidity of the grape.

2013 Sorelle, Belleza Fra Lodi Barbera ($25) – Also from a fairly young vineyard (planted in 2008) located at the southernmost edge of the Lodi appellation, skirting the north side of the Calaveras River. And in this youthful bottling, exuberant varietal fruit comes across as slightly candied black cherry boxed in caramelized oak notes; medium-full bodied, zesty, yet rounded, almost soft in the middle.

2014 Jeremy, Lodi Barbera ($24) – Sourced from Noma Vineyard, one of the Lodi vineyards originally planted in 1972 for E. & J. Gallo; and stylized with a blending of 10% Petite Sirah (says Jeremy owner/winemaker Gary Trettevik, “I am all for vineyard and varietal expression, but I also like the extra dimension that Petite Sirah brings to the wine”). The nose is brightly perfumed with red cherry and toasty oak; and on the palate, a silky texture is interjected by an acid edginess and full yet restrained grip of rounded tannin.

2014 Heritage Oak, Noma Vineyard Lodi Barbera ($28) – Heritage Oak owner/winemaker Tom Hoffman tells a story that typifies longstanding relationships in the Lodi wine community: “I wasn’t planning on making a Barbera in 2014, but then Leland Noma drove up with 2 tons of fruit and asked if I could take it. I told him I couldn’t, I was all bought out for the year. But Leland said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about paying for it... just take it and see what you can do... if it works out, great – but if it doesn’t, all the same to me.’” As it turns out, the 2014 Heritage Oak is a fabulously sleek, polished, tight-grained, even keeled Barbera – very much in Hoffman’s crafty style, as much as the emphatically tart edged, red berry perfumed character of the grape. At the same time, the wine has a plush, rounded feel, with subtle oak spices adding complexity to the wafting varietal fragrance.

2014 Macchia, Delicious Lodi Barbera ($21) – Macchia owner/winemaker Tim Holdener takes the lion’s share of Leland Noma’s 1972 planting each year, and applies his own winemaking touches to fashion Lodi’s deepest, darkest, most aggressive style of Barbera (and one of the most bodacious in the state). The 2014 has a big feel – fleshy sensations punctuated by prickling, tingly acidity – filled out by voluptuous fruit and toasty oak sensations. Admits Holdener, “I pick Barbera a little riper than most wineries, but I’ve always felt that you can do this with Leland’s grapes because, no matter what, it always comes in with screaming acid... and besides, I always say you can add a little water to lighten the wines from super-intense grapes, but you can never add flavor.”

2015 Macchia, Delicious Lodi Barbera ($21) – Macchia’s upcoming release is even deeper and darker than the 2014; the lavish, floral red berry/cherry fruit notes mingling with roasted coffee scents; big, sharply creased, yet velvety textures softening the impact of sinewy, full-bodied, grippy sensations on the palate. Winner-winner-braised-pork-in-tomato-dinner!

snooth.com bloggers with Lodi winemakers following Barbera tasting in Macchia winery

Van Ruiten Family winemaker John Giannini at home in his lab

In November of last year (2015), Van Ruiten Family Vineyards – significant as one of the Lodi Viticultural Area’s largest, most established multi-generational and family-owned grower/wineries – took the bold step of bringing in John Giannini as their winemaker. This was a real coup for Lodi, as Mr. Giannini had previously distinguished himself as the oenology instructor at California State University Fresno (a post he held for over 10 years), as well as winemaker for the Fresno State Winery.

These past two months Mr. Giannini has been experiencing his first-ever harvest in Lodi. We caught up with him in his lab last week Tuesday (October 4, 2017), as he was measuring the titratable acidity of fermenting wines.

John Giannini with 2016 Van Ruiten Family Chardonnay harvest (photo courtesy of Jon Bjork)

Our conversation:

LoCA: So what are some of the new things going on here at Van Ruiten?

JG: You’re standing in one of them. Up until now, believe it or not, Van Ruiten did not have its own lab. All the wines used to be sent out for analysis. Now we can get our results immediately – check on acids, sugars, etc. as the wines are fermenting, and afterwards. We can make the proper adjustments, or know exactly when to do things or not do things at all, all through the process.

LoCA: It’s good to take the guess-work out of winemaking – as a scientist, does this put you more into your comfort zone?

JG: Very much so. It’s been very rewarding, having the family (the Van Ruitens) completely onboard, willing to make the changes necessary. Such a nice family, too. Bill (Rogan, Van Ruiten Family Vineyards President/GM) has been completely receptive to my recommendations on how to make us more efficient and improve quality. We now have a crossflow filter, for instance. There is a new sorting table, and a few other important tools.

Van Ruiten Family winemaker John Giannini

LoCA: It’s still surprising that Van Ruiten has been making do all these years without those things. In what ways does this make an impact?

JG: Two weeks ago we had a heat spike, and experienced some raisining in the fruit – in the Malbec, the Cabernet Sauvignon, especially Zinfandel. Fortunately, we were able to eliminate most of raisined fruit coming into the winery, thanks to the new sorting table. This means reduced sugars, lower alcohols, and better balanced wines.

LoCA: What have been some of your general impressions of the region so far, going through your first Lodi harvest?

JG: It’s funny, before I got here I had no inkling of just how vast the Lodi wine region really is. You have to be here to get a sense of it. There are much larger regions geographically, but here it’s wall-to-wall vineyards. Then there’s the sheer number of different grape varieties to work with; that’s possible to grow, and grow well. I am already thinking, maybe this December/January, of sitting down and discussing with the family about moving more towards varieties like Barbera and Tempranillo.

Steam cleaning of macro bins (used for picking grapes and fermentations) at Van Ruiten Family winery

LoCA: What do you like about Barbera and Tempranillo in particular?

JG: In Lodi, Barbera holds on to its acid, and you can make an intense wine without a lot of alcohol or excess tannin – a balance that makes it especially good as a food-wine. I like Tempranillo because you can get deep color and good flavors from that grape here. I recently enjoyed a Bokisch Tempranillo in a local restaurant, and it was very, very nice. Tempranillo is definitely on my to-do list.

LoCA: How soon can you get started?

JG: We actually bought a little extra fruit from outside sources this year – including about 5 tons each of Barbera and Tempranillo, to make a few small lots. Next year I’d like to see if we can begin budding over some of the Van Ruiten properties with a few other grapes. In two years we can be working with our own fruit, and eventually expand the range of wines offered in our tasting room, especially for our club members.

We also have a new Marketing Manager – a fellow named Dave Moore – who is bringing lots of great ideas to table on how to make the brand even more exciting. We don’t want to be just a well-noted winery – the goal is to become a sought-after brand.

Van Ruiten Family's John Giannini with fermenting macro bins

LoCA: Towards that end, does the 2016 harvest look like it might put you in a better position to reach that goal?

JG: Quality of the 2016 grapes has generally been good, and yields are also good. I’m very pleased. Things started off at a nice, even pace in August and September, but the last two weeks have been crazy, everything pouring in at once. We’re close to the end – probably by next week (through October 15) we’ll have all the grapes in.

It helps to have a great team here at the winery. We’ve established great rapport, which will bode well as in the future as we begin to get everyone cross-trained. I want everybody here to be able to do everything, including lab work. The crew is really onboard, feeling good about things; especially as I point things out explaining not just what needs to be done, but also why. I think that makes a big difference in the long run.

LoCA: Have you begun to be more involved with the viticulture?

JG: This year, not so much as I’d like to in the future. But like I said, the family has already been very receptive. For instance, we went out to one of our Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards where, in last year’s wine, I found a little green character – pyrazines – in the wine, mostly due to canopy management. I suggested that they open up the canopy on the east side of the vineyard rows, which runs in a north/south direction, and in 2016 the fruit has already come in with significantly fewer pyrazine compounds. Less of that “green-ness” in the taste, and richer fruit expression. It’s little things like this that will make a difference, the more work I can do with the family in the vineyard.

Van Ruiten Family Vineyards winemaker John Giannini

LoCA: What are some of stylistic changes that you may be shooting for in the wines?

JG: Ideally we’ll want to get grapes to achieve optimal flavors and a little better balance earlier in the season to avoid waiting until grapes reach excess sugars before attaining that. The idea is not to shoot for 16%, 17% alcohol wines. I don’t even think that’s good for Zinfandel. 

An important grape for us is Cabernet Sauvignon. We brought in 43 tons of it this year because we bottle this varietal in three tiers. But as I’ve said before, our goal is to produce Lodi styles of Cabernet Sauvignon – we’re not trying to make “Napa” here. So we won’t be blending in grapes like Petite Sirah to achieve the color and tannin they get in Napa Valley. If the Lodi style of Cabernet Sauvignon – and also Zinfandel, for that matter – is a little more restrained than what you find in other regions, then that’s what we want. I guess you can describe the style I envision as one of “constraint,” with little or no manipulation, and a little more of a reserved elegance – something you can especially enjoy with food

Van Ruiten Family Vineyards winery

LoCA: I take it that you are moving away from the standard California practive of blending Petite Sirah in Zinfandel to beef it up?

JG: Why should we? Hey, I’m all for blending to make a wine better, but we won’t do it if that’s not the style we’re looking for. We might, however, blend in a little Zinfandel to tone down a varietal Petite Sirah; to bring it into better balance, without changing the essential character of Petite Sirah. What I don’t want to do is change a restrained, elegant style of Zinfandel by introducing Petite Sirah into it. To me, that’s not enhancing Zinfandel – it’s changing the true character of the wine, and taking away from the qualities expressing where it’s grown.

LoCA: So what you are looking for is very much a statements about the region, not just varietal character?

JG: Precisely. When I came to Lodi I tried not to have any preconceptions about the region. I was surprised and very pleased with what I found. The last thing you want is to have preconceptions determine what you do with the wines. All I know is that I can already see that there is a certain purity, a unique beauty, in wines like Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon here in Lodi. I think the future of Van Ruiten is being better known for wines that preserve that purity, on top of taking advantage of the great variety of wines that can do very well here.

Ancient Van Ruiten Family Vineyards Zinfandel vines in the fall

Silvaspoons Vineyards owner/grower Ron Silva

The following blog - accidentally dropped from our backlog two years ago when the lodiwine.com site was overhauled - was originally posted in August 2010. We're resurrecting it because of the key role Silvaspoons Vineyards plays in the Lodi wine industry's modern day history; producing wines garnering perhaps more golds and best-of-class medals in prestige competitions than any other vineyard in Lodi.

Ron Silva’s Silvaspoons Vineyards grapes in Alta Mesa are not to be taken lighty

When tasting the 2009 Alta Mesa Silvaspoons Vineyards Lodi Verdelho in a San Francisco seminar last month (July 2010), Andrea Immer Robinson (a Master Sommelier and author of multiple wine books) could not stop talking about the “silky dryness” and “perky tartness” of this uniquely scented (think lime, lemon verbena and white peach skin), lithe and bracing white wine. Robinson also noted flavors of “marzipan and almonds in the finish as you exhale,” adding that “it makes me crave a Barcelona style spinach salad, laden with pine nuts and raisins.”

Silvaspoons Vineyards Verdelho

Wow – who wouldn’t want some of that? But what is Verdelho, and why are we talking about it? In her Guide to Wine Grapes, Jancis Robinson MW writes that Verdelho is “most closely associated with the fortified wines of Madeira,” although it has done “notably well in hotter regions of Western Australia.” She’ll have to revise that book, of course, to mention winegrower Ron Silva’s magnificently successful obsession with it in Lodi.

“I was inspired to plant Verdelho,” says the diminutive Mr. Silva, also the proprietor of the boutique sized Alta Mesa Cellars (now defunct), “after visiting Ilha do Pico (the “island of Pico”) in the Portuguese Azores in 1997. I was in Pico to see where my grandfather was born, and came across a sign that said ‘Zone of the Verdelho.’ There I found plantings of an indigenous clone of the Verdelho grape, planted in fields surrounded by a rat’s maze of black volcanic walls, built everywhere on the island to protect the vines, and fig trees, from the winds whipping from the Atlantic.”

Volcanic rock walled Verdelho plantings on the Island of Pico

At that time Silva was just beginning to expand his vineyard in Lodi’s Alta Mesa AVA, located just east of Hwy. 99 between Galt and Elk Grove, a good ten miles north of urban Lodi. “It was quite a chore,” says Silva, “because there’s only about 27 inches of loose, gravelly topsoil in Alta Mesa, and after that you hit about 9 inches of hard packed sandstone. But beneath that was some beautiful, blonde colored loamy soil that hadn’t seen the light of day in over a million years, along with lots of extremely pure groundwater. So we had to rip through the sandstone layer 7 feet down to get to it. But just look at the vines and you can see why it was worth the trouble – they’re growing beautifully, and have produced some outrageously good fruit!”

Altogether Silva’s Silvaspoons Vineyards (named by his wife Kathy, because just about everything Ron seems to do turns into good fortune) totals 300 acres; 12 of these acres devoted to Verdelho, plus 20 other grapes such as Zinfandel and Petite Sirah (Michael David Winery is a big buyer of these crops), the rarely seen Torrontés (closely associated with Chile, but producing absolutely luscious, spicy, musk scented grapes in Silvaspoons), Tannat and Cabernet Franc, and a full complement of the famous black skinned grapes from Portugal’s Douro River (where Port originated) which Silva likes to sell in “secret blends” of field mixes to his winery clients: varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Cão, Tinta Roriz (a.k.a. Tempranillo), Alvarelhão, Souzão, and Trincadeira (a.k.a. Tinta Amarela).

Silvaspoons Vineyards Touriga Nacional

While Zinfandel and Petite Sirah pay the bills, it’s the Portuguese grapes that are nearest to Ron and Kathy’s hearts because of their mutual heritage. “My grandfather came to California in the first wave of Portuguese emigrants just after 1910,” says Ron. “Although my dad grew up in Hayward, he didn’t learn how to speak English until he got to grammar school. Kat’s family immigrated to Maui, which is where she was born, and we met in San Leandro, where they moved once their sugar cane contracts in Hawai`i were up.

“When you stand in Silvaspoons, in the middle of Alta Mesa, you can see what attracted us here 36 years ago, which are same reasons why many of the Portuguese came to Galt before us to do what we did – primarily to raise dairy cattle.” Silva, incidentally, still keeps about 300 head which, fortuitously, has also furnished excellent compost in their Lodi Rules certified sustainable farming  Continues Silva, “Alta Mesa is virtually identical to Alentejo, east of Lisbon – the same gravelly soil and Mediterranean weather, the same dry summers and cold winters, and cool breezes at the end of each day, ours coming off the Delta rather than the Atlantic.”

Ron Silva with 2010 Torrontés

Walking through Silvaspoons, we come to the rows of Verdelho; the small, loose clusters of oval shaped berries a glistening greenish gold in the afternoon sun – plump, ripe, ready to pick. Silva tastes some of the grapes, noting the browning seeds (an indicator for harvesting), and says, “We're picking tomorrow at sunrise... the grapes are delicious even with just moderate amounts of sugar, about 22º Brix, because of their great natural acid – that’s what makes Verdelho so special… these grapes will make a white wine that is light in alcohol, extremely flavorful, and totally refreshing.” Not to mention utterly unique and special.

A few minutes later we are sitting on the shaded concrete crush pad alongside Silva’s winery, as elfin and unostentatious as the man himself, gazing westward from where an afternoon breeze has begun to soothe our skin. Ron has opened a bottle of his 2008 Alta Mesa Lodi Tannat, slated for October 2010 release. The Tannat is a Southern French grape notorious for its black color and relentless tannins: still another Alta Mesa innovation.  

Silva’s Tannat is suitably dark, impenetrable; and the nose, jam packed with sweet, luscious blueberry/boysenberryish fruit, with undertones of thick, beefy consommé. On the palate, the wine is full, tight as a banker’s fist, the rambunctious flavors flying as sharp as Chinese daggers; the tannins ample, yet not as fierce as the variety’s rep would have it. Thoughts turning carnivorous, we hungered for smoky barbecued beef short ribs, or else extremely rare prime rib slathered in raw, tingling horseradish.

“Are you ready for one of my ‘secret recipes?’” Silva asked. Of course, and out comes his 2004 Alta Mesa Dois Primos; a Vintage Port style wine made in collaboration with his cousin (hence the name, Portuguese for “two cousins”). Only two barrels made, never commercially released, strictly for home consumption and moments exactly like this. Swirled in the glass, the Port’s nose is teeming with jammy, sweet black fruits steeped in spirits, with faint whiffs of sun dried tomato. In the mouth, the wine is sweet and poised atop muscular tannin, tipping the scale towards a buoyant, balanced middle feel; a super-high glycerol texture further amplifying the sensations of girth, thick yet fluid fleshiness, and downright juicy flavors.

Okay, we ask – which of your Portuguese grapes went into this? “If I told you,” says Silva, “it would no longer be much of a ‘secret,’ wouldn’t it?”  With that, he sat back, cradling his deeply pigmented wine; stained lips forming into a visibly contented smile, beneath his wild, wintry grey beard.

2016 Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhão harvest under overcast October skies

At 7:00 this morning (Thursday, October 13, 2016), the rising sun’s light barely visible through gray overcast skies, Ron Silva spoke about the frantic picking of the last of his Silvaspoons Vineyards grapes before a projected rain storm.

“Rain is expected as early as tonight,” says Silva. “We have had two crews out in our Mingo Rd. vineyard since 3:00 AM, hand-picking in the dark with headlamps and overhead lights. We plan to work the rest of the morning to get in as much as we possibly can.”

Silvaspoons Vineyards owner/grower Ron Silva

While Silvaspoons Vineyards is a major supplier of popular grapes such as Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, this Alta Mesa-Lodi AVA ranch is perhaps better known as a source of somewhat rare Portuguese grapes – including Verdelho, Alvarinho (a.k.a. Albariño), Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Cão, Tinta Roriz (a.k.a. Tempranillo), Souzão, Alvarelhão, and Trincadeira (a.k.a. Tinta Amarela) – as well as lesser known yet high-demand varieties such as Tannat, Cabernet Franc and Torrontés.

2016 Alvarelhão harvest in Silvaspoons Vineyards

Says Silva, “Everything is in except Souzão, Alvarelhão, some of the Tempranillo and Tannat. We picked most of the late ripening grapes like the Tourigas last week and earlier in the month.”

The Alvarelhão, Souzão and Tempranillo out in the fields this morning were slightly shriveled, sweet with sugar, and phenologically ripe with brown stems and seeds. The notoriously thick skinned Tannat grapes were just slightly dimpled. “We do not usually pick the Port grapes until mid- to late-October,” says Silva, “but this is an early year, they were ready to pick at the beginning of the month.

Slightly shriveled 2016 Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhão

“The 2016 harvest started fast, but slowed down over the past month. Then the wineries went 'hurry-up,' everything ripening at once. Their tanks were full, they couldn't take the grapes even if they wanted them. Since what I have left are Port grapes, these they tend to put off taking. But now that the rain’s coming in, we no longer have a choice – we’ve got to get them picked.”

While the crews were harvesting the last of the Souzão and Tempranillo, Silva hopped on to his giant Cat backhoe to finish turning his piles of compost – 10-ft. high mounds of fermented hay and manure from neighboring livestock, dairy and horse ranches, sitting on about an acre of land between planted vines.

The open-sided barn in the MIngo Rd. ranch of Silvaspoons Vineyards in Lodi's Alta Mesa AVA

“The rain is going to delay us, but each year the first thing I do following the harvest is lay this beautiful compost over the entire vineyard,” said Mr. Silva. Silvaspoons Vineyards, in fact, is farmed according to Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing.

“Everyone is happy with the quality of the 2016 grapes,” says Silva, “and the quantity, except in the case of the Tempranillo, has also been good. I think we’re ready for our Hawaii vacation!”

More photographs of Silvaspoons Vineyards' frantic early morning pick just prior to the 2016 mid-October rains:

2016 Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhão  harvest

2016 Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhão in macro bins

Peek under quadrilateral trellis of Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhão

Just-picked 2016 Alvarelhão in Silvaspoons Vineyards

2016 Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhäo clusters

Tractor hauling Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhão harvest

Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhâo picker

Forest of Silvaspoons Vineyards Tinta Roriz (a.k.a. Tempranillo) vines

2016 Silvaspoons Vineyards Tannat clusters

2016 Tinta Roriz harvest in Silvaspoons Vineyards

Tractor running through rows of Silvaspoons Vineyards Tempranillo

2016 Tinta Roriz (a.k.a. Tempranillo) in Silvaspoons Vineyards

Silvaspoons Vineyards' Ron Silva in his Cat backhoe

Silvaspoons Vineyards' Ron Silva turning his compost piles

Shriveling 2016 Silvaspoons Vineyards Souzão

Another look at the 2016 Silvaspoons Vineyards Alvarelhão harvest

Livestock on ranch neighboring Silvaspoons Vineyards in Lodi's Alta Mesa AVA

Discarded Zinfandel in Lucas Winery's ZinStar Vineyard

Syrah/Shiraz... Zinfandel... Petite Sirah... Grenache... what do these varietal reds have in common? Answer: they are all commonly described as “spicy,” and they all taste like autumn in a glass.

When the air begins to turn a shade cooler – daytime skies darken, humidity rankles the bones, while leaves transition from brilliant reds, oranges and yellow to dead, brittle browns – it is not uncommon for a wine lover to almost physically feel the compulsion to consume deeper flavored red wines, often with varying degrees of spice qualities suggesting cracked peppercorns.

That provocative scent of spice in many red wines, first identified by Australian chemists in 2008, is essentially the smell of an aromatic compound called rotundone, present in miniscule proportions in the skins of certain varieties of Vitis vinifera (i.e. wine grapes). According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (June 2008): “An obscure sesquiterpene, rotundone, has been identified as a hitherto unrecognized important aroma impact compound with a strong spicy, peppercorn aroma.”

Rotundone laden peppercorns and juniper

Sesquiterpenes, as it were, are a larger class of aromatic terpenes – volatile compounds found in oils of plants such as wild sagebrush (another smell often used to describe certain wines), pungent geraniums, and common kitchen herbs such as thyme and rosemary. Rotundone, according to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, “was found in much higher amounts in other common herbs and spices, especially black and white peppercorns, where it was present at approximately 10,000 times the level found in very 'peppery' wine.

“Rotundone is the first compound found in black or white peppercorns that has a distinctive peppery aroma. Rotundone has an odor activity value in pepper on the order of 50,000-250,000 and is, on this criterion, by far the most powerful aroma compound yet found in that most important spice.”

Barrel sample of Borra Vineyards' Lodi Syrah

The rotundone found in the skins of certain wine grapes is far, far lower than in peppercorns. It is not detectable in the taste of fresh grapes, but becomes present in a wine during the fermentation process.

While rotundone is far more concentrated in peppercorns than in wine, the nose of an average wine lover – at least someone who takes the time to swirl wine in a glass and appreciate nuances and aromas – can be extremely sensitive. Aromas suggesting pepper, according to a page in the Tenzing Web site, “can be detected with as little as 8 nano grams per liter in water and 16 ng/L in red wine... however not every taster is going to pick up this spice aroma. Approximately only 20% of tasters can detect this compound even at the highest concentration level (4000 ng/l).”

Bokisch Ranches' Terra Alta Vineyard, planted on Clements Hills' gravelly clay slopes

Rotundone in Syrah

While not everyone is predisposed to the scent of rotundone, neither are peppery aromas immediately apparent in every wine commonly associated with spiciness. Syrahs from South Australia (where the wine is often bottled as Shiraz), for instance, are more likely to be aggressive in peppery spice aromas than Syrahs grown and bottled in California, Washington, or even France’s Northern Rhône Valley. More than likely, this is due to clonal variations of the grape; particularly in Australia, where Syrah has had over 150 years to develop its own genetic markers.

The first thing you usually notice in Syrah based reds from the Rhône Valley, on the other hand, is their pervasive floral perfume, often suggesting violets. The peppery spice may be there; but often buried under the sweet fruit aromas, not to mention aggressively vanillin, smoky or charred aromas derived from French oak barrels.

Shiraz clone of Syrah in Lodi's Berghold Vineyard

Nonetheless, two Lodi Viticultural Area grown reds that nail the rotundone spice quality of the Syrah grape right between the eyes:

• 2013 Fields Family, Postage Stamp Vineyard Lodi Shiraz ($42) - Crafted from an Australian clonal selection of Syrah; dense yet lush, ripe and meaty with juicy blackberry and smidgens of earthy, sweet eucalyptus intertwined with sweet peppercorn spice.

• 2013 Klinker Brick, Farrah Lodi Syrah ($20) – Flowery yet toothsome, virile style of the varietal, bristling with plummy black fruit, slightly smoky oak and earthy notes tinged with spice qualities mixing sweet black pepper and anise.

Lodi Zinfandel leaves in the throes of autumn color

Rotundone in Zinfandel

Many California Zinfandels are quite pungent in their rotundone/spice, but most of them are not. Why? Typical California Zinfandels tend to overload the senses with “jammy”-sweet fruit aromas; and are often aged in American oak barrels, giving strong, dillweed-like aromas which can obscure subtle notes of spice in the nose.

This is why recent developments like the Lodi Native Zinfandel project have made an impact in some quarters: picked earlier in the season in order to be fermented with native yeasts and with zero amendments (like enzymes, oak dust or added acids), and then aged strictly in “neutral” wood (i.e. previously used oak barrels), there is a greater chance of perceiving terroir-related aromas and flavors on top of intrinsic varietal qualities such as peppery spice in a Lodi Native fashioned Zinfandel (re Alder Yarrow's The Lodi Native Revolution Continues, along with other recent press extolling the nuanced qualities of these wines).

Withal, three Lodi grown old vine Zinfandels that consistently capture the rotundone laced nature of the varietal, largely because of the restrained style of their respective winemakers:

• 2012 Stellina, Salto Lodi Zinfandel ($32) - Produced and bottled by Estate Crush owners Bob and Alison Colarossi; a sleek, slim, feminine style of Zinfandel fashioning flowery fragrances suggesting blueberry, violet and distinctive cracked black peppercorn.

• 2014 Ironstone, Rous Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel ($35) – A 117-year-old growth that cobbles the intrinsic pepperiness with fluid, even keeled yet mouth-filling sensations of clove and fleshy, flowery, blackberryish fruit.

• 2013 Lucas, ZinStar® Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel ($50) – An 83-year-old estate known for its silky, limber yet sturdy medium body, bright natural acidity, and seamless knitting of crusty blueberry pie sensations punctuated by subtle peppercorn/clove spice notes.

Abba Vineyard owner/grower Phil Abba

Rotundone in Grenache

In our own recent blind tastings, we have found that peppercorn notes tend to be more pronounced in Lodi grown red wines made from the Grenache grape; counter-intuitively, even more so than Grenache based reds from cooler coastal regions, such as Santa Barbara and Sonoma. Two cases in point: the 2013 McCay Cellars Lodi Grenache ($35) and 2013 Bokisch Vineyards Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Garnacha ($20) – both wines that lead off with billowing fragrances of sweet peppercorn spice mingling with wild scrub aromas, on top of the strawberry/cherry fruit qualities typical of the varietal.

This finding goes against the common assumption that rotundone levels tend to be increased in cool or cold climate wine regions. Unlike the increased incidence of rotundone derived spice in South Australian Syrahs, which are likely due to clonal factors, the McCay and Bokisch bottlings are made from different clones of Grenache: the McCay Grenache, sourced from Lodi’s Abba Vineyard, planted to French clones; and the Bokisch Garnacha, planted to Spanish clones.

Bokisch Ranches' Rioja Baja clone of Garnacha in Terra Alta Vineyard

Can the accentuated spice of Lodi grown Grenache reds be attributed to soil types? Abba Vineyard is located in the lower elevation flats of Lodi's Mokelumne River Viticultural Area, consisting of consistently deep (over 50-ft.), fine sandy loam in the Tokay series; whereas Bokisch's Terra Alta Vineyard sits on slightly higher elevation (around 400-ft.), gravelly Redding clay hillsides typifying Lodi's Clements Hills AVA.

A more logical conclusion would be that it is Lodi's specifically Delta influenced variation of Mediterranean climate that is a little more conducive to the formation of rotundone in the skins of Grenache grapes (see How warm, or cool, is Lodi?). At the same time, much of the phenomenon could very well be attributed to just sound vineyard management (for which both Abba Vineyard and Bokisch Ranches are widely known): particularly the aggressive leaf thinning and fruit exposure practiced in both plantings, as well as factors such as crop load and canopy vigor (both the Abba and Terra Alta plantings are cropped for moderately sized canopies and yields, largely through craftily timed deficit irrigation).

2016 Petite Sirah harvest in Kevin Phillips Vineyard (Michael David's Phillips Farms)

Rotundone in Petite Sirah

Finally, Petite Sirah, perhaps even more so than its parent grape Syrah (Petite Sirah, a.k.a. Durif, being a crossing of Peloursin and Syrah), is often associated with peppery spice qualities. Yet, not all California Petite Sirahs come across as “spicy.” Many, in fact, smell and taste more strongly of ultra-ripe fruit, often suggesting blueberries. The fact that most commercial Petite Sirahs (like Zinfandels) tend to be aggressively oaked probably also explains why not all bottlings of the varietal are obvious in their peppery spice character.

Nonetheless, the rotundone spice is definitely a hallmark of Petite Sirah. Two Lodi grown examples: the peppery core of deep, dark flavors found in the 2010 Viñedos Aurora Lodi Petite Sirah ($21); and the highly concentrated, pedal-to-the-metal 2015 Earthquake (by Michael David Winery) Lodi Petite Sirah ($26).

The appropriate foods for spice laden reds? 'Tis autumn, so it's appropriate to think "autumn." Braises or pot roasts of beef or lamb with pungent rubs of peppercorn, or seeds of mustard, fennel, or juniper. Grilled cracked peppered salmon, tuna, or red meats pre-soaked in peppery or even chile spiced marinades. Cowboy inspired cast iron pots of ground bison chilies. Roasted beet salads doused in peppercorn and balancing vinaigrettes. Lamb or beef stews studded with earthy root vegetables. Even classic coq au vin; with extra heapings of wild mushrooms and lardons added to this stew of chicken and red wine.

That’s the way to enjoy your vinous doses of rotundone!

Black as it gets: Viñedos Aurora Petite Sirah

Fallen leaves and cobbly stones under mid-October vine in Lodi's Borden Ranch AVA

What is “minerality" in wine, and why are more people talking about it?

Answer: After many years of drinking soft, fruity styles of California wine, many wine lovers are gravitating more towards wines that are, well, unfruity. Wines that taste decidedly dry, with a little more tartness, a little lighter on the palate, with aromas and flavors that suggest things like minerals, stones, maybe a little flintiness or even brininess, as opposed to the usual taste fruitiness traditionally emphasized in California varietals.

Many European wines, of course, have this taste; often to the point where there are no fruit-related aromas and flavors at all – just minerals and earthy, sometimes leathery or dusty qualities. If your palate has already been weaned on American wine, you may still prefer discreet touches of fresh fruit along with minerality in your wine. But definitely, no longer to the point where an annoying tutti-fruitiness is dominating the taste of your favored wines.

Hence, our first question – exactly what is minerality in wine? What it is not, according to people who have studied the science of it, is the taste of minerals coming up from the soil in which wine grapes are grown.

Borra Vineyards' Markus NIggli with Mokelumne Glen Kerner harvest

In a 2012 article in the wine industry journal called Practical Winery & Vineyard, Jordan Ross writes, “Do grapevines take up... geological minerals, which impart a mineral character to wine? Scientists say they do not.”

Ross elaborates: “Geologists talk about geological minerals, while plant scientists refer to mineral ions, also called mineral nutrients. Geological minerals are chemical compounds; they are the minerals in vineyard rocks and soils. Mineral ions or nutrients, on the other hand, are the components of geological minerals." 

It is not possible, however, for minerals to work their way into fruit and, eventually, resulting wines. Ross quotes U.C. Davis Professor Emerita Carole Meredith as saying, “The vine is unable to take up these minerals... a mineral is a complex chemical compound and when it gets in the area near the plant roots it is broken down into its component ions. Grapevines never take up a mineral, only the components of minerals.”

Addressing the issue of defining minerality in wine assessments, Ross quotes Cornell Assistant Professor of Enology Anna Katharine Mansfield: as saying, “Our problem is that we first need to have people agree on what minerality is... Is it chalkiness, is it stoniness, is it wet rock? Is it an aroma, a taste (such as salt) or a tactile sensation?... Right now it is a really trendy word. I am careful not to use the word because it is so poorly defined.”

Acquiesce Vineyards Grenache Blanc, always vinified unoaked to highlight subtle minerality

Nonetheless, “minerality” is as common a wine descriptior as almost any other, like “citrus,” “berries,” or “flowers.” Scientists may agree that it is impossible to uptake the taste of minerals from soils in which vines are grown; but it is no coincidence, according to Ross, that sensations of minerality also happen to correlate with wines grown in colder climates, producing wines higher in acidity. Chardonnay based white wines grown in France’s Burgundy regions, for example, tend to be more minerally than Chardonnays grown in California’s coastal regions, which are largely Mediterranean in climate (meaning, hot, dry summers and cold, wet winters).

The coldest winegrowing regions in the world are in Germany’s Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and Rheingau. Not coincidentally, Rieslings from this region tend to be very light, tart with acidity, and strongly minerally (along with having the flowery fruit qualities natural to the Riesling grape).

Ross cites Grégoire Pissot, a vintner in France’s Mâcon region, as saying, “’Mineral’ is, at times, used when 'acid' would be more appropriate.” Ross also cites Mosel winemaker Nik Weis, who draws attention to the fact that, although grown in similar gray slate, a higher acid Ockfener Bockstein will always taste more minerally than a lower acid Piesporter Goldtröpfchen; most likely because, within the Mosel region, Goldtröpfchen is a warmer site than Bockstein.

Markus and Liz Bokisch with Terra Alta Vineyard Albariño in Lodi's Clements Hills AVA

One we do know, here in Lodi: more and more wines grown here are exhibiting distinct qualities suggesting minerality. The Lodi Viticultural Area may not be nearly as cold a winegrowing region as Burgundy or the Mosel, but its Mediterranean climate is still moderate enough to allow earlier picking of grapes – particularly white wine grapes, or grapes picked for rosés – at lower sugar levels, with more than sufficient enough natural acidity to mobilize sensations akin to minerals.

Why didn’t anyone notice this before? Easy answer: because Lodi grown, artisanal style, single-vineyard sourced wines didn’t exist up until six or seven years ago. The phenomenon is that recent. Plus, up until recently, there wasn’t much of a call from consumers for these styles of wines; picked at lower sugars and higher acids for dryer, lighter, sharper tastes, with sensations of “fruit” dialed down far enough to allow tastes suggesting minerality to shine through.

Final question: What are the Lodi wines that fit this description? The following are notes on some of our favorites tasted over the past few months. If you love a wine that leans more towards the mineral rather than fruit side of the flavor spectrum, you’ll definitely enjoy this stunning introduction to what Lodi can do:

2015 Markus (by Borra Vineyards), Lodi Nativo ($19) – Wine lovers wondering how it is possible for a region like Lodi to produce a minerally, essentially Northern European style wine may find this exotic blend of Kerner (52%), Riesling (29%), Bacchus (15%), and Gewürztraminer (4%) to be a fascinating study on the phenomenon of minerality in wines. Acid related sensations with more of sense of flintiness run through this bone-dry, mouth-wateringly tart white from start to finish; underscoring wispy flower, lime and peach skin nuances. Winemaker Markus Niggli picked and steel tank co-fermented the Kerner, Riesling and Bacchus grapes all on the same day; the Kerner at 22° Brix (i.e. sugar reading), the Riesling at 21°, and the Bacchus (typically a later ripening grape) at a decidedly underripe 17.5°. Explains Niggli, “The floral notes of Riesling dominate the flavors in this wine, although Kerner, which dominates the blend, naturally has minerally/flinty qualities.” Adds Niggli, “The Bacchus is the component that pushed the T.A. (total acidity) even higher, which only emphasized the minerality.” Finally, zero oak aging revs up the sensation of flint even further. Visit Markus Wine Co.

2015 Fields Family, Delu Vineyard Lodi Vermentino ($19) – There is a clean, effable, bracing core of minerality running through this emphatically dry, unoaked, pungent varietal white; not so much with a sense of fruitiness as nostril tingling sensations of lavender, elderflower, smidgens of lemon verbena, all manifested in a lean (in a positive sense of not being “fat”), mouthwateringly tart, edgy, medium bodied taste. Visit Fields Family Wines.

2015 Acquiesce, Lodi Grenache Blanc ($24) – From a Lodi grower/producer that has forged a reputation for 100% non-oaked wines, this varietal white’s stony sensations mingle with Mediterranean-ish notes of blossoming honeysuckle and crisp pear-like fruit qualities; tucked into a pert, compact, nimble, sleekly textured medium bodied palate feel. Visit Acquiesce Winery.

2015 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño ($18) –After 15 vintages, Lodi’s leading grower of Spanish grapes has developed an exacting handle on how to amplify this varietal’s intrinsic mineral character while retaining its multi-faceted fragrances; resulting in acid mobilized stoniness, combined with flowery herbs (faintly of lavender), white peach and grapefruity citrus; manifested on a medium bodied palate, coming across as stony, lemony and edgy. Visit Bokisch Vineyards.

2015 Sidebar, Mokelumne River (Lodi) Kerner ($25) – Produced by Sonoma’s Ramey Wine Cellars from Kerner (Riesling x Trollinger grape crossing) grown by Lodi’s Mokelumne Glen Vineyards (the same source utilized by Borra’s Markus Niggli for his contemporary style whites). A spare, lean, crisp edged, medium bodied white driven primarily by its steely, mineral textured sensations; underscored by subtle scents and sensation of citrus (lemon and orange peel), backed by faintly earthy, organic notes. Visit Sidebar Cellars.

2015 Uncharted (by Holman Cellars) Mokelumne Glen Vineyard Lodi Bacchus ($25) – Still another Mokelumne Glen grown varietal; this one consisting purely of the Bacchus grape –a crossing of (Silvaner x Riesling) x Müller-Thurgau (Riesling x Madeleine Royale). Here the minerality is embedded in sensations of stringy flesh of apricot and pungent perfumes suggesting thyme and lavender; bone-dry, buoyant and fluidly medium bodied. Visit Holman Cellars.

2015 McCay, Lodi Rosé ($18) – One of several Lodi producers now specializing in transparent, nuanced yet highly expressive dry rosés, as close to authentic Provençal style rosés as any other on the West Coast. A svelte, silky-sheer, discreetly tart, strawberry scented pink laced with faint notes of lavender and loam, transitioning into stony/scrubby mineral sensations on the palate. How is it done? Meticulous winemaking (prior to native yeast fermentation, winemaker/owner Mike McCay soaks dormant pink must in a cold room for at least 30 days); combined with early season picking (about 22° Brix) and phenomenal grape sourcing (Carignan coming off wizened 109-year-old vines, with smaller proportions of Syrah cultivated by one of Lodi’s most oeno-retentive growers, Phil Abba). Visit McCay Cellars.

Ancient vine Carignan (planted in 1906) accounting for the mineral transparency of McCay Roses

Urbano Cellars' Bob Rawson and Fred Dick in their West Berkeley winery

If there is joy and camaraderie in wine, there is even more joy when you get together with friends of like mind and temperament to make your own wine.

Harvest 2016 found wine aficionados-turned-winemakers Bob Rawson and Fred Dick celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Urbano Cellars: an aptly named micro-sized winery and no-frills tasting room located smack dab in the middle of West Berkeley; just steps away from the shimmering lights and tony restaurants of Fourth St. (off University Ave.), and just down the hill from the storied University of California Berkeley campus.

There is also a Lodi spirit pervasive in this urban winery. In a local paper (Nosh Weekly), Mr. Dick was recently quoted to say, “We aren’t into buying popular grapes that would make us rich.” In other words, “We agree on what we don’t want to produce — no Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay.”

Instead, Rawson and Dick focus over 90% of their production on wines made from grapes grown in the Lodi Viticultural Area (the balance coming from Clarksburg and Solano County Green Valley). The appeal to them is that the fruit fits in with their goals and laid-back, zero-B.S. personalities. “Our overall goal is to produce really good, hand crafted wine that we can sell for reasonable prices,” says Rawson, “something you won’t find in Napa or Sonoma.”

Urbano Cellars' Bob Rawson

There is also the cachet of working with, as Rawson puts it, “underappreciated vineyards.” Dick adds: “Weather in Lodi is similar to Napa, and we find the fruit quality to be spectacular. As winemakers we like to think we do a lot, but quality really does come from vineyards. Plus, Lodi grows a number of varieties that aren’t as prolific in Napa or Sonoma, which happen to be the ones we’re more excited about.”

One of Urbano Cellars’ major grape sources is Clements Hills AVA vineyard farmed by Gregg Lewis (owner/winemaker of Lodi’s Dancing Fox). “We started with Barbera from Gregg’s vineyard,” says Rawson, and liked it so much that we started to take Tempranillo and Teroldego from him as well. We also did two vintages of Nebbiolo from the Lewis Vineyard, but neglected to tell him how much we liked it – when we went back for more in 2012, we discovered that he tore out his one row of Nebbiolo.”

Adds Rawson, “We also get Sangiovese from Larry Mettler’s Arbor Vineyards, and quite a bit from a vineyard we had been calling Bokides Ranch, but which is now owned and farmed by Jose Morales – we get Syrah, two clones of Grenache, Mourvèdre, Viognier, Malbec and Cabernet Franc.”

From sensory standpoint, Mr. Rawson tell us, “We find a nice thread of minerality running through the Lewis Vineyard wines. From the Jose Morales Vineyard, there is more of an earthiness.”

Dick adds, “One thing that may be different about the Clements Hills area in particular is that grapes seem to ripen well without being overripe. This lends itself to our style of wine, which is to keep the alcohols down.”

Urbano Cellars' Fred Dick

Dick and Rawson sell virtually all of their yearly production – hovering around 1,100 cases, including their successful refillable 1-liter bottle (“4th Street Red” and “4th Street White”) and keg (for local restaurants) programs – within a 15-mile radius to a Berkeley/Oakland clientele, known for their sophisticated tastes in wine and food. When asked if there is ever push-back to the fact that they source grapes primarily from Lodi, Rawson says, “Hardly ever – we’re proud of the fact that we make wine from Lodi grapes, and have no trouble selling it. It’s true, of course, that many people still have no idea where Lodi is, but there is now an advantage to the fact that the region has recently become better known.”

“Ah, but there is a double-edge sword to that,” says Dick. “If Lodi becomes too famous, prices may go up. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen too soon!”

Among the dozen and a half wines produced by Urbano Cellars, one of the highlights is their softly dry, transparently pink 2015 Urbano Bokides Ranch Clements Hills (Lodi) Vin Rosé ($18). “This is 100% Grenache,” explains Rawson, “from the vineyard we’re now calling Jose Morales Vineyard, and picked early – at just over 22° Brix – just for rosé.” The result is a low-key style of pink, with delicate touches of strawberry allowing mineral notes to predominate in the nose and through a light, easy, bone-dry finish.

Among the reds, the 2013 Urbano Bokides Ranch Clements Hills (Lodi) Côtes du Clements ($25) is perhaps the best and brightest drinking at the moment. “This wine is made from equal parts Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre,” says Rawson. “We could call it a ‘GSM’, but it’s better to call it ‘Côtes du Clements’ because it shows what we like best about Clements Hills fruit.” The nose is of sweet black pepper and black fruits underlined by mild yet distinctively earthy, loamy notes; firm with moderate tannin, and a medium-full body giving the spiced fruit qualities a rounded, easy feel.

The Berkeley locals should consider themselves lucky to be able to refill their 1-liter bottles of non-vintaged Urbano 4th Street Red ($17; $5 initial bottle cost), which is currently a joyously soft, fruity, highly quaffable blend of Lodi grown Grenache (35%), Tempranillo (20%), Syrah (20%) and Cabernet Franc (10%), reminiscent of the unpretentiously light, rustic, eminently food-worthy restaurant “house” wines so typical of Southern France or Northern Italy. “The blends vary,” says Dick – “they can be a literal kitchen sink, but the ‘GST’ blends are among our most popular.”

Still another local favorite, especially in Italian restaurants, is their 2013 Urbano Lodi Sangiovese ($23) sourced from Lodi’s Mettler family – a tightly wound, lean and lanky red, zesty with acidity, and a nose of sweet cherry tomato and dark chocolate. “We’ve been producing Sangiovese for going on 10 vintages,” says Dick – “it’s right up our alley because it’s such an ideal ‘food wine.’”

The grapes of Lodi, it seems, have found a natural home in the streets of California’s East Bay!

This November, discerning aficionados of red wines made from the Tempranillo grape will be able to experience a time of their life in Lodi wine country.

Liz Bokisch, co-owner of Bokisch Vineyards and its viticultural arm Bokisch Ranches, has announced a weekend-long celebration of International Tempranillo Day (officially, November 10, 2016): a Lodi Tour of Tempranillo taking place on November 11-13 (Friday-Saturday-Sunday), involving 17 Lodi based producers of Tempranillo.

According to Ms.Bokisch: “Tempranillo is often referred to as the ‘Cabernet’ of Spain due to its widespread planting and its noble status as the backbone of Spanish reds. It is actually the fourth most planted wine grape in the world. However, here in California we are just getting to know it. Less than 1,000 acres of Tempranillo are planted in California.

“Tempranillo is fondly known by many names such as Ull de Llebre 'Eye of the Hare,' Cencibel, Valdepeñas and Tinta del Pais. It has thick and tannic skins that add a complexity of aromas and color to the finished wine. It is a consummate blender, sharing and enhancing the profile of wines made from other varieties. Taste Tempranillo and you will taste the heart and soul of Spain.”

Liz Bokisch with Tempranillo grapes in Bokisch Ranches' Las Cerezas Vineyard

While now grown to excellent effect in various areas throughout California, Oregon, Washington and Texas, Tempranillo has proven to be particularly well suited to California’s Lodi Viticultural Area because of the region’s moderately warm, Delta and coastal influenced Mediterranean climate, not unlike that of Spain’s. While Bokisch Ranches is a leading supplier of Lodi grown Tempranillo grapes, other producers (such as McCay Cellars, Peirano Estate, Ripken Vineyards and St. Amant Winery) cultivate their own Tempranillo.

Complimentary Guidebook to Lodi Tour of Tempranillo

Starting on November 11, Tempranillo turistas may stop by the tasting rooms of any of the 17 participating wineries to begin their self-guided tour. You may plan ahead with the “Tour Planner” located at this link: https://flic.kr/p/NqKcCB. The complimentary guidebook will be available at all participating wineries, and will list special offerings by each winery:

Bokisch Vineyards, 18921 Atkins Rd., Lodi

d’Art Wines, 13299 Curry Ave, Lodi

Dancing Coyote Wines, 3125 East Orange Street, Acampo 

Dancing Fox Winery, 203 S School St, Lodi

Estate Crush, 2 W. Lockeford Street, Lodi

Fields Family Wines, 3803 Woodbridge Rd E, Acampo

Heritage Oak Winery, 10112 E Woodbridge Rd, Acampo

m2 Wines, 2900 East Peltier Road, Acampo

Tempranillo in Lodi's St. Jorge Vineyards

McCay Cellars, 1370 E Turner Rd. Lodi

Peirano Estate Vineyards, 21831 CA-99, Acampo

Riaza Wines, 20 West Elm Street, Lodi

Ripken Vineyards & Winery, 2472 W Sargent Road Lodi

St. Amant Winery, 1 Winemaster Way Lodi

St. Jorge Winery, 22769 North Bender Road Acampo

Toasted Toad Cellars, 21 E Elm Street Lodi

Viaggio Estate & Winery, 100 E Taddei Rd. Acampo

Woodbridge Uncorked, 18911 N. Lower Sacramento Rd, Woodbridge

Entrance to City of Lodi and its many wine tasting rooms

The Magic of Tempranillo with High Myoglobin Foods

One of the phenomenal aspects of Tempranillo is that its varietal qualities – berry components encased in meaty texture, tobacco and earthy notes, and a gripping feeling of fullness without the burdensome baggage of hard tannin or excessive alcohol – are often subtle, almost elusive to the senses, when the wine is consumed on its own. But when consumed with proteins, the varietal nuances can become dramatically delineated. Liz Bokisch, for instance, likes to suggest her Tempranillo with pork tenderloin or chicken mole; but you may find Tempranillo characteristics to be even more distinctive when tasted with high myoglobin proteins, found in the dark, rangy meats of muscle using animals such as lamb, venison, bison, goat, wild pig, goose, duck or squab.

Perhaps the most magic happens when Tempranillo based reds are served with lamb – lamb chops, roasted legs of lamb, almost any cut of lamb, cooked almost any way. Best yet, it doesn’t have to be elaborate: as long as the gamey, grassy taste of lamb is involved, you’ll experience one of the world’s greatest wine and food matches when a good glass of Tempranillo is poured.

The following is a favorite “everyday” lamb recipe, which can be prepared from start to finish within 25 minutes. In this dish, the synergy between Tempranillo and lamb is amplified all the more by umami-rich taste of Parmesan and the pungent herbiness of rosemary:

Parmesan Crusted Lamb Burgers

• 1 lb. ground lamb
• ½ cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
• ½ cup shredded Parmesan
• ½ teaspoon fine ground sea salt (or to taste)
• ½ teaspoon lemon pepper (or to taste)
• ½ teaspoon fine chopped rosemary
• ¼ teaspoon dried minced garlic (or to taste)
• 1 egg
• olive oil
• butter

Mix panko, Parmesan, salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic in flat bowl. Beat egg in small bowl. Form small, flat ground lamb patties; dip in egg and then coat with panko mix. Heat generous amount of olive oil in large frying skillet over medium-heat. Melt fat pad of butter into oil and sauté burgers; about 5 minutes on each side until pale pink inside, golden brown on outside.

Serving suggestions: Pour pan drippings over serving of favorite loose pasta (consider orzo or angel hair) or rice. For vegetable options, sauté spinach or zucchini with about a tablespoon of drippings; or fine chopped mushrooms, splashed with white wine or dry vermouth, then folded into pasta.

Note: for similar wine/food fireworks, ground lamb patties may be substituted by ground bison or grass fed beef; or else cutlets from any part of lamb.

Bokisch Vineyards' Markus Bokisch with spit roasted goat

Essence of Lodi: vintages of St. Amant Marian's Vineyard Zinfandel

The Quintessential Lodi Zinfandel

Lodi is known for Zinfandel. There is more of this grape grown here than anywhere else; untold numbers of acres of this classic Vitis vinifera lovingly cultivated by multiple generations of families for over 50, 75, or even 100 years.

So what is the quintessential Lodi Zinfandel? Lodi may have a Mediterranean climate similar to that of Sonoma County, Napa Valley, Paso Robles, the Sierra Foothills and other California regions, but deep sandy loam soils – particularly in the historic Mokelumne River Viticultural Area surrounding the City of Lodi – and slightly narrower diurnal swings (cool nights that are not quite as cold, and fewer days of searing 100-degree heat) generally result in softer, more gentle, somewhat flowery, red fruit centered styles of Zinfandel, with variations of earthy undertones.

Yet, as to be expected, the old vine plantings do produce a nuanced variety of sensations within the rounded “Lodi” spectrum: If anything, more perfumed, cherry scented styles, generally with crisper acidity, grown on the east side of the city; and plumper, often lusher, and usually more markedly earthy (scents of loam, compost, mineral, etc.) qualities found in Zinfandels grown on the west side.

Which is why, if you ask most Lodi winegrowers about which Zinfandels might be considered the most emblematic of the Lodi style, it would be those grown in Marian’s Vineyard, which typically exhibit sensory qualities associated with both east and west side vineyards. Marian's is an 8.3-acre block planted in 1901 by a branch of the Mettler family on natural rootstocks, located south of the City of Lodi in a section of the Mokelumne River AVA practically straddling the east and west sides.

In Marian's Vineyard, Elaine Brown (Hawk Wakawaka Wine Reviews) interviews Mohr-Fry Ranches' Jerry Fry (left), Bruce Fry (right) and St. Amant's Stuart Spencer (middle)

Marian’s Vineyard is now owned and farmed by the Fry family, and is part of Mohr-Fry Ranches – one of Lodi’s strongest and most vocal proponents of Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing since its earliest years of conception (starting in 1992), and its official launch in 2005.

Without a doubt, the fact that Marian’s Vineyard is Lodi Rules certified has a lot to do with the consistently round yet meaty, lush yet concentrated profile of Marian’s Vineyard Zinfandels; and their combination of floral, spicy, dark and red fruit qualities that come across as full scaled yet buoyantly balanced and even keeled from front to finish, with just the faintest notes of earthiness.

Still, make no mistake: Marian’s Vineyard may be impeccably farmed, but the nature of its Zinfandel-ishness has most to do with its utterly unique and specific terroir, or “sense of place” – the circumstances of its location, soil and topography, and undoubtedly even the clonal material that was originally used when it went into the ground 115 years ago.

There are, in fact, neighboring blocks of Mohr-Fry Ranches Zinfandel of advanced age (planted in the 1940s) on two sides of Marian’s Vineyard, just across narrow dirt roads, and none of these blocks produce Zinfandels on anywhere near as grand a scale as Marian’s. As in all the great wine regions of the world, distances of just a few feet can make all the difference in the world when it comes to individual vineyard expression.

Zinfandel in Marian's Vineyard just past July 2016 veraison

Let us not, of course, ever forget the factor of Mother Nature. Some years are cooler or hotter, some wetter or dryer. Some years Marian’s Vineyard puts out fruit loads as large as 4 to 5 tons per acre that may take until mid-October to achieve full flavor maturation, and some years it is less than 2 tons and ready to pick as early as the beginning of September. No matter how meticulously the Fry family may farm Marian’s, there are always things totally out of their control.

The current vintage of Marian’s, according St. Amant Winery owner/winemaker Stuart Spencer – whose family has had a monopole on this growth since 1999 – is a product of a low yielding year. According to Spencer, the 2014 St. Amant Marian’s Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel ($24) reflects an “approximately 2/ton acre yield,” yielding “intensely flavored fruit that was picked ripe and hand-sorted at the crusher... (it has) a deep saturated purple color, ripe berry aromas, and a concentrated mid-palate deliver a broad range of rich fruit flavors.”

Lodi Zinfandel and Cheese Matches

Although Spencer never hesitates to recommend his Zinfandel with “grilled burgers, tri-tip, ribs,” in our opinion this terroir driven iteration of the Lodi style of the grape is actually epic enough to save for the end of a good meal, when you can show special friends and family how a multi-faceted Zinfandel can shine with well chosen cheeses.

Our first choice? Fescalini’s Extra Mature Bandage Wrapped Cheddar from nearby Modesto, CA; a personal favorite of Cindy Della Monica, the owner of Lodi’s Cheese Central, which always offers well over 100 artisanal style cheeses from around the world. Della Monica may be partial to Fescalini because, as she puts it, it is an “award winning raw milk cheddar produced right here in our backyard!”

Downtown Lodi's Cheese Central

But she also recommends the Modesto crafted Fescalini for the intensity of umami sensations that results from aging in special cheese cloth at least 15 months; until it develops “that wonderful rind” and “exhibits fine texture and those crunchy crystals” that eat up the rounded tannin and paint a fine line under a St. Amant Zinfandel's earthiness, while bringing out its bright Delta sun ripened fruit tones.

Our second choice: have you ever had a white truffle specked Boschetto al Tartufo with an earth nuanced Lodi Zinfandel?  Then you haven’t lived. The springy, sumptuous texture of this blend of sheep and cow's milk cheese fills in the grains between the youthful tannins of a St. Amant at its peak (Spencer always suggests enjoying a Marian’s between 3 to 6 years old); while the pungent truffle, which overwhelms almost all other wines, plays off the wine’s faint, complex whiffs of loaminess, enhancing the plump berry qualities.

Other good choices: also from Italy, a Chili Pepper Pecorino’s subtle spice and grassy sheep’s milk savoriness brings out the peppery varietal spice almost lost in the lusciousness of a budding St. Amant Zinfandel; while deep, caramelized, well aged Goudas, like the Beemster Classic 18 Month Old or Beemster XO (Extra Aged), are some of the few cheeses in the world with the strength to carry a full fledged Zinfandel, with enough natural, sweet, crystal textured qualities to polish and underscore the wine’s hefty dose of fruit.

Can’t decide? If you are entertaining, it is not a bad idea to serve a selection of three or four of the aforementioned cheeses (Cheese Central is a perfect one-stop shop); plus, for good measure, throwing in a blue veined cheese such as an Italian Gorgonzola or Holland’s Moulin Bleu Goat, with their silky, palate slaking brininess which bring out the bright and peppery berryishness of a classic St. Amant Zinfandel like sea salt in caramel ice cream.

Wintering Marian's Vineyard Zinfandel

Lodi grower Dave Devine's Lodi Rules certified L.D.L. Vineyard Zinfandel planting in Lodi's Clements Hills

Here at the end of 2016 – a year marking 25 years of existence for the Lodi Winegrape Commission – we cannot let the year go by without talking about a crowning signature achievement of this association of over 800 growers and wineries: Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing; first conceived and developed during the 1990s, and officially launched in 2005.

One of the surest marks of quality that you can find on a bottle of Lodi grown wine is the “Certified Green” seal, usually found on back labels, signifying it has been made from grapes passing a rigorous, third-party audited and certified process.

The question for many consumers, no doubt, is how meaningful a Lodi Rules seal on a bottle really is. Dr. Stephanie Bolton, who is Lodi Winegrape Commission’s Grower Communications & Sustainable Winegrowing Director, tells us, “The Lodi Rules seal stands for a guaranteed level of value, accountability, and trust.

“Consumers do not visit the farms. They usually do not personally know the grower or the winemaker, and so they have to rely on what they see on a label to make their buying decisions. There is a truly ridiculous amount of science and accountability backing up a Lodi Rules seal. A Lodi Rules certified wine guarantees the highest level of responsible farming.”

Sustainability in agriculture, however, entails more than just how a product is farmed. Adds Dr. Bolton, “To qualify for Lodi Rules, growers are required to demonstrate that that they are treating their employees with respect, that they are responsibly taking care of their land and waters, that they have positive relationships with local schools and neighbors, and that they are setting up their business practices for successful longevity.”

Dr. Clifford Ohmart, one of the originators of Lodi's groundbreaking Lodi Rules

Dr. Clifford P. Ohmart – who devoted 14 years as Lodi Winegrape Comnmission’s Sustainable Winegrowing Director, and is one of the original minds behind Lodi Rules – goes a little further by saying: “I think what a Lodi Rules seal means most to the average consumer is twofold: 1) that the grapes that made the wine were grown responsibly; and 2) there is an intrinsic level of quality attached to a certified sustainably grown bottling.“

Adds Dr. Ohmart, who is now a Senior Scientist for SureHarvest (a sustainable agriculture management company): “When we were deciding what practices would go into the Lodi Rules we all agreed that they would need to be practices that produce better quality grapes, which make better quality wine. The focus on quality was due to the fact that growers must improve quality in their grapes to remain successful.

“Having worked with the Lodi growers to develop and launch the Lodi Rules program in 2005, I am particularly pleased at its continued success. I have watched it grow from 6 growers certifying 1,200 acres in 2005 to more than 100 growers certifying more than 36,500 acres in 2016.  

Terra Alta Vineyard, one of Bokisch Ranches' many Lodi Rules certified plantings

“Lodi Rules is providing value to growers via bonuses from wineries for certified grapes as well as satisfaction in being able to document their vineyard stewardship. Wineries are getting exceptional quality grapes and consumers are getting great wines as indicated by the many awards Lodi Rules wines are winning at wine tasting competitions.”

Lodi Rules first evolved out of a grassroots Integrated Pest Management program supported by the Lodi Winegrape Commission during its first year (1991/1992).  As a result of neighborhood grower meetings and the leadership of Dr. Ohmart, 70 demonstration vineyards were initially utilized to develop the program; the concerns of which Ohmart summarized as “Three Es.”  That is, being

• Environmentally sound

• Economically viable

• Socially Equitable

Dr. Stephanie Bolton, Lodi's Sustainable Winegrowing Director

There are two key practical components to Lodi Rules:

1. A total of 101 sustainability practices or “standards” developed through the collaborative efforts of growers and viticultural professionals; verified and certified by Protected Harvest, an independent, nonprofit specializing in accreditation of sustainable agriculture. These standards take the measure of not only how growers manage their vineyard ecosystems, soil, water and pests, but also how they manage their business and human resources.

2. Something unique to Lodi Rules – a Pesticide Environmental Assessment System (PEAS), which tracks and manages the impact of pesticide usage on the environment (including bees and other beneficial pests), farm workers, the community and ultimately consumers.

Dr. Bolton is particularly inspired by the humanistic aspects of Lodi rules; saying, “Although not the most important in terms of impact, my favorite Lodi Rules standard is Number 2.10, which asks if the farming operation has provided employee bonuses, which may include a holiday turkey.”

Spring cover crop of mustard and legumes in Phillips Farms' Lodi Rules certified Bare Ranch 

Aaron Shinn – a Lodi Rules grower, and current Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing Committee Chair – observes: "In an increasingly consumer-conscious market, the Lodi Rules program gives growers a marketing advantage as well as an opportunity to highlight many of the sustainable practices that have been ongoing here for generations. As other sustainability programs begin to surface, it is becoming more and more clear to both gatekeepers and academics alike just how authentic and rigorous our certification program truly is.

“The time and energy spent by the growers of Lodi and the Lodi Winegrape Commission to perfect the Lodi Rules for Sustainability is a testament to the commitment of the people of our district to be the most progressive and sustainable winegrowing region in the world. I truly believe that sustainability is the key to future success in this industry, and I am proud to say that the Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing will help us accomplish just that."

It has helped that, from the beginning, a number of the leading Lodi Rules certified proponents have been growers who have lived and worked in Lodi for as long as 150 years, or who are also wine producers: including, as examples, Rod and Gayla Schatz (Peltier Winery), the Lange family (LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards), branches of the Mettler family (Mettler Family Vineyards and Harney Lane Winery), and Markus and Liz Bokisch (Bokisch Vineyards).

Harney Lane Winery's Mettler & Son managed Zinfandel block

Still others, like the Phillips family who own Michael David Winery, not only farm their own vineyards (Phillips Farms) according to Lodi Rules, but also offer substantial bonuses to their numerous independent grower/grape suppliers (over 40 of them each year) for achieving Lodi Rules certification. 

For Michael David, the aggressive commitment to sustainability is a matter of both responsibility to the community and quality of grapes, leading to higher quality wines. The Phillips family's success speaks for itself: countless accolades, placements in prestige accounts all around the world, and more golds and "best of class" awards than any other family-owned winery (or any winery, for that matter) in Lodi.

Michael David's achievements are emblematic of true sustainability in action: growers and wineries coming together to take the steps necessary to increase quality of grapes and resulting wines, which sustain both the economy and quality of life of the entire Lodi wine region, especially for the long term.

It has been by no means the only factor; but to a significant extent the dramatic increase in the reputation of the Lodi Viticultural Area for premium quality wines can be directly attributed to the groundbreaking institution of Lodi Rules.

Arbor Vineyards' Larry Mettler (right) and Jason Eells, Lodi Rules growers 

A list of Lodi Rules certified winegrowing companies located (primarily) in Lodi as well as outside the region:

Anthony & David Fuso Farms

Arbor Vineyard Inc.

B&B Vineyards

Balletto Vineyards

Bischofberger Family Farms

Bogle Vineyards

Bokisch Ranches

Burnett Vineyrds

Charles Spenker Winery

CLR Farms

Colligere Farm Management

Cory Ranch

Lodi Rules certified Hunters Oak Vineyard in Lodi's Clements Hills

Bob Demple

Den Hartog International Farms

Dhaliwal Vineyard

Duarte Nursery, Inc.

Duke H. Farming Company

Ferrero Vineyards

Goehring Estates

Graffinga Fruit Company

Harney Lane Winery & Vineyards

Heringer Estates Family Vineyards & Wienry

Hunters Oak Vineyard

Joe A. Cotta Vineyards

Ancient Zinfandel (over 100 years old) in Lodi Rules certified Lewis Vineyards, going into LangeTwins Family's Centennial Zinfandel

Joe Spano

Johas River Vineyard

Johnson-Cofran-Furlong

Keith Watts Vineyards

KG Vineyard Management LLC

Kirchoff Vineyrds

L.D.L. Vineyard

LA Delta Investment Inc.

LangeTwins, Inc.

Lewis Enterprises, Ltd.

Lewis Vineyards

Beautifully restored riparian environment in LangeTwins Family's River Ranch Vineyard in Lodi's Jahant AVA

Lock L. Ranches

L.W. Moore Vineyards

Machado Vineyards

Manassero M.B. & Sons

Manna Ranch

McManis Family Vineayrds

Mohr-Fry Ranches

Molles Vineyard

Momtoma Vineyards

Nestor Enterprises

2016 Alvarelhão harvest in Lodi Rules certified Silvaspoons Vineyards

Nickle Ranch

Pat Hale Vineyards

Phillips Farms LLC

R&G Schatz Farms

R-N-R Vineyard

Rio Viento

Rock Ridge Ranches

Roland Hatterle Vineyrd

Round Valley Ranches

S&V Dutra Farms

San Antonio Valley Sustainable

Schulenburg Vineyard

Shoup Vineyards

Silvaspoons Vineyards, LLC

Chris Storm in Vino Farms' Lodi Rules certified Grand Vin Lands Vineyard

Soucie Vineyards

Stanton Lange Vineyard Management, Inc.

Starr-Woehl Vineyards

Stokes Brothers

Trinchero/Sutter Home Estates

Underwood Estate Winery

Vino Farms

Warnecke Ranch and Vineyards

Williams Custom Vineyard

Wilson Farms

Winkler Family Farms

Zabala Vineyards

Richard and Nancy Ripken in their Lodi Rules certified Ripken Vineyards

Mitra and David Lucas (the father/daughter team behind The Lucas Winery)

Mitra Lucas – the “owner and daughter” of Lodi's The Lucas Winery and its founder/grower David Lucas – has many fond holiday memories growing up in this groundbreaking, certified organic estate, established the year she was born in 1978.

Ms. Lucas tells us: “The Lucas family’s Thanksgiving tradition has always been to invite more family and friends to dinner than we could possibly have room for. And so, since 1978, we have always held Thanksgiving dinner in our old barn which would transform, for one magical evening, into an exquisite dining hall filled with music, warm food, and the comfort of family and friends.

The Lucas family barn (now a tasting room), circa 1980

“Preparation would start early that morning. My brothers and I would help move the tractor, disc, sulfur machine, tools, and even my dad’s 40 Ford Sedan out of the barn. We would carry in tables and chairs to cover the dirt floor, hang string lights, and roll in space heaters. We would clear off my dad’s workbench and drape it in linen to hold the buffet, hiding the extra irrigation pipe and grape stakes underneath.

“Relatives and friends would begin to appear, each carrying a dish or homemade wine, and our old barn would begin to swell with voices, laughter and light. From the outside, the old barn would resemble an enormous jack-o-lantern with light escaping between its aged wood boards and spilling into the vineyards.

Table setting in Lucas family estate berrel room

“In many ways, not much has changed about our Thanksgiving meals. They are still held in our old barn and while the floor is no longer dirt, and there is no longer a need for space heaters or string lights, the tradition is still the same - invite way too many people than we have room for and enjoy every moment of it.”

We have recently posted quite a bit of detail on the estate grown and bottled 2013 Lucas ZinStar Lodi Zinfandel (the family’s 37th vintage!), and how it reflects a long, stubborn legacy of single-vineyard finesse winemaking. Lodi Zinfandel doesn’t get much more elegant (that is to say, the opposite of big and clumsy) than ZinStar – a perfect match for virtually dish laid out on a Thanksgiving table.

The Lucas family "barn" (tasting room) and chai (barrel room) today

But if that’s not enough, The Lucas Winery – and Heather Pyle-Lucas, the winery’s widely admired winemaker (who also consults for numerous other Lodi wineries – have always been known for undoubtedly the most refined, silkiest, crisply balanced French oak barrel fermented Chardonnay in the region. The family’s current vintage – the 2014 The Lucas Lodi Chardonnay ($37) – is impeccably balanced with remarkably restrained slivers of creamy oak flourishes: an ecstatic match for slightly smoky turkey meat (seriously consider roasting your bird in a Green Egg kamado!).

To top it all off, the non-vintaged The Lucas Lodi Late Harvest Zinfandel ($50/375 ml.) always achieves an essence of autumn: pungently spiced, luscious fruit in a sweetly balanced (about 7% residual sugar) red that achieves its moderately full body (about 17% alcohol) by completely natural means, by fermenting shriveled grapes picked in mid-November and dried for a short time on straw mats (in the traditional Italian passito style). Think spicy pumpkin desserts with layers or infusions of chocolate.

ZinStar Vineyard Zinfandel raisining on the vine in late October

Mitra Lucas also shares her recipe for a red Zinfandel laced cranberry sauce (below); telling us, “Even if your Thanksgiving wines aren’t the greatest, your sauce can be!”

The Lucas Family’s Homemade Zinfandel Cranberry Sauce

• 2 (12 oz.) packages fresh cranberries
• 1 ¾ cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup Lodi Zinfandel
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 slices (half-inch thick) fresh ginger, grated then smashed
• 1 pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon ground pepper

Over medium heat combine all ingredients (except the pepper) together and let  simmer until most of the cranberries open and the sauce is thick and syrupy (20-30 minutes). Add the pepper.  Allow to chill before serving.

The Lucas Winery's classic ZinStar Vineyard Zinfandel

The last five years have seen a tremendous swell of support and recognition for the Lodi wine region, most notable being the receipt of the coveted title of 2015 Wine Region of the Year from Wine Enthusiast Magazine. This success could not have happened, however, without the dedication and vision of the region's winegrowers and the grower-established and funded Lodi Winegrape Commission. Lodi's winegrowers are what sets the region apart and truly makes it special. In Lodi, there is an intense sense of cooperation among its winegrowers and the non-competitive belief that "a rising tide lifts all boats." 

Wendy Brannen, Lodi Winegrape Commission's new Executive Director

This past October Wendy Brannen crossed the country from her longtime home in Washington D.C. to Lodi to assume your new position as Executive Director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission – the organization representing more than 750 winegrape growers and 85 wineries in the Lodi American Viticulture Area, a large number of them belonging to families who have farmed in the region for over 50, 100, or even 150 years.

Lodi is easily the country’s most widely planted AVA, comprising over 110,000 acres (and counting) of wine grapes. For over 25 years, the Lodi Winegrape Commission has served as a model of effective regional wine marketing and unified messaging. Brannen succeeds Camron King, who stepped down this past April to become President of the National Grape and Wine Initiative (NGWI), based in Sacramento. Prior to that, Mark Chandler – currently the Mayor of the City of Lodi – led the Lodi Winegrape Commission for just over 20 years.

Brannen brings her own track record of bold, award winning leadership within the agriculture industry; over 10 years combined as the U.S. Apple Association’s Director of Consumer Health and Public Relations and as Executive Director of the Vidalia® Onion Committee.

In a conversation earlier this week, Brannen spoke about her heartfelt embrace of Lodi. “It’s interesting that the position came up during a time when I had no motivation whatsoever to leave a job I was really enjoying. But when I was approached about the potential opportunity, I was immediately struck by the symmetry with the Vidalia onion industry – particularly the fact that, by federal law, Vidalia onions can only be grown in 13 parts of the country. In marketing Vidalias, we often used the wine industry as an example of how sweetness and quality is tied to terroir, inherent characteristics of regions and climates, and dedication of growers and packers.

“But what I found most interesting was meeting the people representing Lodi’s selection committee. I instantly liked them. I could see their passion and commitment, the light in their eyes shining through, which I found very appealing. Even though I laughingly told them that I hope things don’t work out so that I can stay in D.C. doing the work I love, after our first meeting I went home and found myself obsessing over ways to market wine instead!”

Brannen adds, since arriving in her new home at the beginning of November: “What I’ve seen has already confirmed what I felt during my interviews. This is a community of people who love what they do, which accounts for their longevity. The Lodi growers are a very aggressive bunch, determined to take the innovative approach to marketing Lodi grapes and wines.

“Right now my priority is to get out into the community and learn more directly from our members, about the area, how we grow our grapes, the suite of wines we are producing. This is an exciting time for Lodi. With our recent success hosting bloggers and showing more media what Lodi has to offer, we plan to continue bolstering the perception of Lodi as a great place for grapes – something that will always remain priority number one.”

Can we talk?

Ready for the one-hundred-millionth article on what wines to serve with your Thanksgiving turkey? Heck, we’ve composed a good half-dozen ourselves; and yes, we always recommend Lodi grown wines – but for real, practical reasons, not just wishful thinking.

This fact, to begin with: the beloved turkey is as bland a centerpiece as anyone could possibly choose for a meal considered to be the meal of meals in American life. Why do you think, other than the occasional turkey sandwiches or carnival drumstick, the vast majority of us eat turkey only once a year? It’s not like, every other weekend, we can’t wait to get home and pop a turkey in the oven. We eat, or enjoy, turkey mostly under duress.

Here’s what we also do with our turkey: we smother it in a gravy (at its best, made from natural drippings from the roasted bird), a sweet cranberry relish, along with well seasoned herbed bread or savory stuffings to make it more interesting to the palate.

Ancient vine Lodi Zinfandel in frosty November morning

If the familiar turkey trimmings are made to take the blandness out of turkey, it only makes sense to approach a selection of ideal wines for turkey in the same way. Which wines best enhance, rather than obliterate, the ho-hum taste of turkey?

As much as many of us are lovers of grand, special occasion wines such as red Bordeaux from France or Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, the fact usually remains: dense, heady red wines from Bordeaux or Napa Valley tend be as pleasant as ketchup on ice cream when it comes to turkey. Conversely, turkey with its sweet cranberry relish and herby stuffings tend to make sturdy reds like Cabernet Sauvignon taste dry as sandpaper.

Therefore, the tried-and-true wines for the Thanksgiving table tend to remain the same, no matter what we’ve stocked away in our cellars or our best and latest wine “discovery” may be:

► First, wines that do no harm – that are soft, easy drinking and fruit-forward enough that they don’t clash violently with dry turkey breast or the sweetness of cranberry

► Second, wines that cozy up nice-and-neat with both cooking methods (be it Cajun style deep-frying or roasting in ovens or outdoor smoker/grills) and specific styles of stuffing (simple bread and herbs, wild rice, chile specked cornbread, or mushrooms, chopped giblets, sausages, oysters, crabmeat, etc.).

Turkey smoke-roasted in Japanese kamado

This does not mean, mind you, sticking strictly to wines that are lower in alcohol or low in oak character. The most important trait of a Thanksgiving-friendly wine is clarity of fruit in the aroma and flavor, whether it’s a 13% alcohol Grenache or a 16% alcohol Zinfandel. Generally, wines with little or zero oak embellishments have a higher percentage chance of complimenting turkey-centered meals; but in our experience, if your turkey sees a little smokiness from, say, a Japanese kamado, a judicious amount of smoky oak quality in a wine is a help, not hindrance.

Roly-poly whites and minerally rosés

In fact, we would say that an outdoor smoker roasted Thanksgiving turkey is one of the few times when the ideal wine is a classic, roly-poly, butterball style of barrel fermented Chardonnay; especially when the turkey is stuffed with traditional, sage accented bread or croutons, which have an affinity with the mineral, citrus or apple-like taste of Chardonnay. Two Lodi grown classics of that ilk include the barrel fermented Chardonnays of Harney Lane Winery and The Lucas Winery; although the partially barrel fermented Chardonnays of Michael David Winery, Oak Farm Vineyards, Mettler Family Vineyards, or bottled under the Watts family’s Upstream Wines label are also great matches with smoky styles of roast turkey.

Chardonnay harvest in Phillips Farms' Bare Ranch

But if you’re doing an oven roasted turkey with herbed stuffings, one of the new, dry, decidedly un-oaked styles of rosé makes a more sensible match because of their sensory emphasis on red fruit qualities (cherry, cranberry, strawberry, raspberry, pomegranate, etc.) along with floral (particularly rose petal, violet or lavender) as well as mineral (i.e. earthy) sensations. Put it this way: dry pink wines have a way of gently mingling with the mild taste of turkey tinged with the sweet/tart taste of cranberry and pungent accent of green herbs.

Our list of highly recommended Lodi grown rosés include those of Onesta Wines (made from 130-year-old Cinsaut vines), McCay Cellars (from ancient vine Carignan with Grenache), Acquiesce Winery (Grenache based), St. Amant Winery (fashioned from tart Barbera grapes), Bokisch Vineyards (from Garnacha, a.k.a. Grenache), Harney Lane Winery (artful blending of pink Tempranillo, Petite Sirah and Zinfandel), Klinker Brick Winery (Grenache), LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards (Sangiovese), or Estate Crush (primarily Sangiovese).

Beauty and the occasional beast

When Lodi's tart alternative whites make sense

For oven roasted turkey with sausage or seafood stuffings, bone-dry, oak-free, medium bodied white wines with more of an accent on citrusy crisp, lip smacking acidity make even more sense. In this food context, it is easier to branch out into the multiple “alternative” styles of white wines for which Lodi is becoming increasingly known, such as those made from

• Albariño (look for those of Bokisch Vineyards, Oak Farm Vineyards, Harney Lane Winery, or Viñedos Aurora)

• Vermentino (outstanding producers include Uvaggio Wines, Fields Family Wines, PRIE Winery, and Toasted Toad Cellars)

• Grenache Blanc (such as Acquiesce Vineyards, Bokisch Vineyards (their Garnacha Blanca), Onesta Wines, or Fields Family Wines)

• Sauvignon Blanc (look for those of LangeTwins Family, Oak Farm Vineyards, Ironstone Vineyards, or Peltier Winery’s Hybrid bottlings)

• German varieties (Borra Vineyards produces several imaginatively zesty, airy, tart edge whites under their Markus Wine Co. label from grapes such as Riesling, Kerner, Bacchus, and/or Gewürztraminer)

Grenache Blanc harvest in Acquiesce Vineyard

When Lodi reds rule

If you love a turkey with heartier stuffings and/or gravies – such as those made with sausages, wild mushrooms, giblets, bacon, or even things like veal kidney or chicken livers – then the richer, deeper taste of a red wine prevails over lighter white or even pink wines. Our only caveat: it is the bitter, slightly astringent taste of tannin in heavier red wines, often laced with aggressive oak barrel tastes, that often fight the taste of even the richest preparations of turkey. “Bigger” is not better when it comes to Thanksgiving turkey.

Hence, our recommendation of some of the many round, gentle yet richly aromatic red wines that have long been grown in Lodi; such as those made from grapes such as

• Cinsaut (Michael David Winery, Onesta Wines, McCay Cellars, Fields Family Wines, Estate Crush, and Turley Wine Cellars are among those producing luscious styles of this varietal red)

• Grenache (silken, pungent, super-spicy bottlings by McCay Cellars, Bokisch Vineyards’ Garnacha, or Oak Farm Vineyards)

• Carignan (Jessie’s Grove Winery, McCay Cellars, Klinker Brick, Michael Klouda Wines as well as Van Ruiten Family Vineyards produce deep yet lush styles of this heritage varietal)

Zinfandel pick in Lodi's Stampede Vineyard

Finally, of course, there is the classic among all classics: red Zinfandel. Contrary to some wrong-headed assumption, Zinfandels grown in the Lodi Viticultural Area – more so than any other region in California – tend to fall more into the gentle, feminine (if you will), red berry scented spectrum of this grape; often with tinges of a loamy earthiness, adding a certain je nais se quoi not found in most California Zinfandels. This is a plain fact; part and parcel of the region’s deep, porous sandy soils and mild, steady Mediterranean climate.

Ergo, if rounder, fruit forward styles of Zinfandel are best with richly stuffed turkeys slathered in sweetly spiced cranberry dressing, then Lodi styles of Zinfandel are as good as it gets for Thanksgiving. If you want to go for some of the more elegant, fluidly balanced styles of Lodi Zinfandel, it’s hard to go wrong with Ironstone’s Rous Vineyard ($35), McCay Cellars’ Lot 13 or Truluck’s bottlings ($32), Harney Lane’s Lizzy James Vineyard ($35), LangeTwins Family’s Centennial ($60), or The Lucas Winery’s ZinStar Vineyard ($50).

But here’s the thing about the Lodi: you need never spend more than $35/bottle to enjoy a Lodi Zinfandel that meets the ideal criteria of being gentle and fruit-forward. There are probably more than you can shake a stick (or fork) at; beginning with the all-time Lodi classic, St. Amant’s Marian’s Vineyard, or the exquisitely crafted Neyers Vista Luna Vineyard (both retailing for just $24!).

Not to mention the ever-dependable Lodi grown Zinfandels of Macchia Wines, Turley Wine Cellars, Jessie's Grove Winery, Michael David Winery (their 7 Deadly Zins or Earthquake brands), Oak Farm Vineyards, Heritage Oak Winery, Klinker Brick Winery, Fields Family Wines, Michael Klouda Wines, Estate Crush’s Stellina Vineyard, m2 Wines, Rippey Family Vineyards, d'Art Wines, PRIE, !ZaZin, Concrete Wine, Van Ruiten Family, and more... there are certainly more!

There is nothing like a late November walk through Lodi vineyards at the break of dawn; when vines are shrouded in ghostly fog, over a lush, green carpet soaked in numbing dew (waterproof boots recommended).

From afar, the dying leaves on the vines might look depressing – curled up or burnt crisp, another year of life on the wane – but up close, each leaf might also beguile the senses. As poets are apt to put it, there is beauty in death; particularly in cloaks of yellow, flames of orange, or rivers of blood-red color on gnarled spurs and trunks of more ancient vines. Who doesn’t find joy in such loud and violent cacophony?

Hence, the snippets of verse that these photos – recently snapped in the oldest block of Carignan vines (planted in the 1890s) in Spenker Ranch, now better known as the Jessie’s Grove property – seem to whisper, as Emily Dickinson does in...

As Summer into Autumn slips

And yet we sooner say

"The Summer" than "the Autumn," lest

We turn the sun away,

The familiar, deathly feel of cold air and shadowy days, as Robert Frost wrote, is My November Guest...

My sorrow, when she’s here with me,

   Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;

She loves the bare, the withered tree;

   She walks the sodden pasture lane.

In Lodi, the early morning fog slithers in from the Delta, like insiduous waves of air in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind...

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing...

Like the moldy residuals of the past year's harvest pictured above, Thomas Hood envisioned the season's blurred, disquieting edges in the verse of his Autumn...

I Saw old Autumn in the misty morn

Stand shadowless like Silence, listening

Although in Emily Dickinson's reclusive yet whimsical mind, there was rhythmic mirth to be found in autumn's dying colors in her III. NATURE XXVIII. AUTUMN....

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I'll put a trinket on.

Inevitably, in fall, Dickinson would find pulsating life in fields painted with red...

The name – of it – is "Autumn" –

The hue – of it – is Blood –

An Artery – upon the Hill –

A Vein – along the Road –

While Robert Louis Stevenson could proclaim, in Autumn Fires...

Sing a song of seasons!

Something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer,

Fires in the fall!

Emily Bronte waxed blithely, although with some glee, that Fall leaves fall...

Every leaf speaks bliss to me

Fluttering from the autumn tree.

While an emotional Carl Sandburg found in Autumn Movement...

I CRIED over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

Edna St. Vincent found something of redemption in The Death of Autumn...

My heart. I know that Beauty must ail and die,

And will be born again -- but ah, to see

Beauty stiffened, staring up at the sky!

Oh, Autumn! Autumn! – What is the Spring to me?

And as Patricia L. Cisco chortles, this is a time of year to, like, "make like a tree and leaf"...

Sing to me, Autumn, with the rustle of your leaves.

Breathe on me your spicy scents that flow within your breeze.

Rippey Family Vineyards' Tyson Rippey

The Rippey Family Signature

Even most true-blue Lodi wine lovers have yet to catch on to Rippey Family Vineyards, who produce and show their wines at the site of Lodi Vintners, north of the City of Lodi (technically in the CDP of Acampo) along the railroad tracks where they are bisected by Woodbridge Rd. This is a historic spot, dating back to 1900. It is here that Urgon Winery was built to serve as Lodi’s first growers’ cooperative, in response to monopolistic prices set by El Pinal Winery, which dominated the San Joaquin Valley wine industry at the turn of the last century.

“We are a four-generation Napa family,” says Tyson Rippey, who manages the wine production facilities at Lodi Vintners, “but we’ve been here in Lodi for 17 years. Our Lodi winery has been my baby, while my father, brother and wife have been concentrating on managing our Sonoma/Carneros facility (Carneros Vintners, the family’s second custom crush facility).”

Lodi Vintners, at the site of the historic Urgon Winery

In fact, Lodi Vintners was the Rippey family’s first venture into the wine industry. It was Tyson’s father Dennis who transitioned the family from construction and land development to wine production; although Tyson and his brother Nathan can recall crushing Petite Sirah grapes in their grandfather’s St. Helena garage as kids.

What any visitor would discover at the Lodi Vintners tasting room is that Rippey Family wines happily combine the artisanal, small lot, handcraft quality associated with Napa Valley wines with the incredible value and innovation of more and more Lodi producers.

At the end of this past November we sat down with Mr. Rippey and let him tell his family’s story:

“We’re about 50/50 Lodi/Napa-Sonoma right now, although recently we have been buying more land and vineyards in Lodi. The fun thing is that we are probably the only family with tasting rooms and vineyards in both areas.

“The fun thing for consumers is that they can walk into our tasting room in Lodi and make a comparison between, say, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah grown in Napa vs. Lodi – makes the wine tasting experience more interesting.

“Ours is more of a ‘passion project.’ Our main business is still custom crushing for other wineries. But we’ve always had the desire to produce out own wines under our family name. But when Cycles Gladiator (once Lodi Vintners’ major client) was sold in 2013, we were finally prompted to start our own brand.

“All the Rippey Family wines are produced in quantities of 200 cases or less. That’s why we don’t have huge market visibility right now. You’ll find our wines in a couple of retail stores or restaurants, but mostly we’re a hand-sell, from right here in our tasting room.

“All of our wines (including Napa Valley grown bottlings) are under $30 – maybe a little too low for what you get. But like I said, we’re in it mostly because we enjoy it. We realize most people still haven’t heard of Rippey Family wines – most of them were created only within the past year and a half. But as we grow, we’ll start to build our identity.”

Quick notes on the Rippey family’s current slate of Lodi grown wines:

2014 Rippey Family, Lodi Viognier ($15) – Extravagant tropical fruit aroma with lush, peachy tones (absolutely no oak influence); completely dry (no tutti-fruitiness), round yet zesty, fluid, full bodied (14.4% alcohol) feel in the mouth.

Tyson Rippey in family vineyard at site of historic Urgon Winery

2014 Rippey Family, Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel ($20) – Luscious, picture-perfect “raspberry jam” aroma of the grape, with red cherry tones typical of Lodi grown Zinfandel; on the palate, a plump, round, layered feel to the fruit, with a sheer vanillin oak veneer, tasting smooth as the proverbial baby’s bottom.

2014 Rippey Family, Lodi Petite Sirah ($20) – Perhaps because this aggressive varietal – peppery spiced blueberry with sweet toned kitchen herb nuances, wrapped in a big (14.9% alcohol), dense, gripping tannin feel – warrants it, this seems to be the only Rippey Family bottling that comes with a good smack of smoky/toasty oak, which serves to fill out the wine’s voluminous feel

2014 Rippey Family, Lodi Syrah ($20) – Fragrant, bright and flowery iteration of the grape (as opposed to the ultra-ripe, raisined fruitiness typical of most domestic Syrahs) with a light, breathy minerality; these floral, earth toned notes couched in rounded, fleshy, yet nimble (opposite of plodding) sensations in the mouth, very much in what seems to be the “Rippey Family” signature.

The Groundbreaking Concrete Wine Company

In addition to the family's Lodi Vintners custom-crush business, Tyson Rippey is personally involved in an equal partnership in Concrete Wine Company with Joseph Smith (the winemaker at Lodi’s Klinker Brick Winery, also produced at Lodi Vintners) and Barry Gnekow (consulting winemaker for Klinker Brick Winery as well as Michael David Winery and Mettler Family Vineyards; and as former winemaker of J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, a lot of the brains behind this Central Coast operation’s phenomenal success).

Mr. Rippey tells us, “We take great pride in our Concrete Wine Co. project, which has already been named one of the Top 10 Hot Brands by Wine Business Monthly (in 2014). The exciting thing about Concrete is that it gives two veteran winemakers complete freedom to use all the technology and grapes at their disposal to make an ideal Cabernet Sauvignon, and as complete a Zinfandel as you can possibly make.”

Concrete partner/winemaker Barry Gnekow with Flash Détente

The technology Rippey speaks of is actually threefold; involving usage of

• Throw-back giant sized, square concrete fermentation tanks (as large as 20,000 gallons) originally installed at the old Urgon Winery site during the 1940s; retro-fitted with stainless steel coils for temperature control.

• A super-high-tech machine called Flash Détente, first installed at Lodi Vintners by Gnekow in 2010; which basically involves rapid heating of black skinned grapes (2-5 minutes) to very high temperatures (up to 190° F.) followed by instantaneous cooling in a vacuum chamber, resulting in grape cell walls instantly transformed into steam while color, tannin and flavors from the skin are released into a juice, which can then be transferred immediately into barrels for fermentation and aging.

• More conventional fermentation (by today’s standards) of destemmed red wine grapes on the skins; in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks, followed by the usual barrel aging.

The initial product of this blend of three minds and old, conventional and cutting-edge approaches to vinification was a 2012 Concrete Lodi Zinfandel ($20) – an unrepentedly flashy, ultra-saturated style of Zinfandel oozing with maximized “mouth-feel,” fulfilling the three architects’ goal of achieving a self-described “Vertical Palate.”

The threesome’s latest release – the 2014 Concrete Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon ($20) – is easily as generous as Cabernet Sauvignons more than two times the price: plump, luscious, lightly herbal fruit aromas leaping from the glass and tingling the nose; sweet oak embellishments becoming more apparent in a broad, velvety mouth-feel, supported by moderate yet well muscled tannin. In that sense, a terrific value, and classically “Lodi.”

Concrete partner/winemaker Joseph Smith

Lodi vineyard manager Aaron Shinn

One of the most highly regarded, and more forward thinking, of the Lodi Viticultural Area’s winegrowers is Aaron Shinn: Vineyard Manager for Round Valley Ranches, one of the region’s largest vineyard management companies; and owner of his own management firm, Shinn Farms.

Like any vineyard manager, Mr. Shinn’s talents are measured by results. For instance, Chad Joseph, the vaunted winemaker of note at Oak Farm Vineyards as well as Harney Lane Winery, described Shinn’s work as “energy, passion and knowledge.” Joseph elaborates by saying, “A lot of growers have the knowledge, but very few have the energy and passion it takes to attend to all the little details necessary to grow grapes with the potential to produce world class wine.

“Not that Aaron makes things complicated. He simply does more than most with the fundamental knowledge of grape growing that he has. Of all the growers I work with, he seems to be the one who is always there at the right time throughout the season, willing to do all the things that make the difference between wines that are just ‘good,’ and wines that can be great.”

December moss in Cemetery Vineyard

Asked to comment on his working relationship with Mr. Joseph, Shinn tells us: “For me, it has always been a matter of establishing trust. When we tell Chad we’ve done the shoot thinning, or that we’ve pulled leaves around the fruit zones on the north-east side of each vine to maximize sunlight in the morning and kept a canopy on the south-west side to shade the fruit in the afternoon, Chad knows we’ve done that.

“I think the best relationship any grower can have with a top winemaker like Chad is one of absolute dependability – that we’re making all the extra passes through the vineyard, going that extra mile to produce the best grapes possible, and to justify a premium price for the grapes.”

Shinn is justifiably proud of the fact that one of his Shinn Farms properties – the 7-acre Cemetery Vineyard, a Zinfandel planting located right alongside Cherokee Memorial Park & Funeral Home on the east side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA – is the only single-vineyard designate bottling done by Oak Farm Vineyards, which has won more than its share of prestigious awards such as California State Fair’s “Best of Show.”

Indeed, the 2014 Oak Farm Indigenous Cemetery Vineyard Zinfandel ($32) has garnered the “Gold Medal/Best of Class” medal at Vineyard Winery & Management Magazine’s Grand Harvest Challenge in Santa Rosa, and for good reason: it is a sleek, velvety, restrained yet solid, balanced, sturdy expression of where it is grown (Grand Harvest winners are rigorously judged on the basis of their expression of sense of place, or terroir); finishing with just a sliver of sweet new oak, which many Zinophiles love. The wine is bottled as "Indigenous" because it is native yeast fermented, to amplify intrinsic qualities of the vineyard.

This past Monday (December 5), standing alongside the slender, rusty leafed head trained vines in his Cemetery Vineyard, Mr. Shinn poured a bottle of his 2014 Zinfandel at the back of his truck, stuck his nose into the glass and commented: “By the floral fruit fragrance (suggesting red cherries and just a touch of blueberry purée), and in the lighter elegance in the feel, you can tell that this wine fall right into the style of other Zinfandels in this area, which some people are now calling the Bruella or Victor Triangle – there is a resemblance, almost a Pinot Noir-like character, similar to other Zinfandels from nearby, such as Kirschenmann Vineyard, or one of Mike McCay’s.”

But it’s not just place, according to Shinn, it’s always what is put into a vineyard like Cemetery: “This is not what you would call an ‘old vine’ planting – it was planted only about 35 years ago, on Freedom rootstock. Typical of this sub-area, this is a very sandy piece of property – so well drained, you can drive through here even right after a heavy rain, and never get stuck.

Aaron Shinn demonstrating 2-shoots-per-cluster pruning aimed at lower yield and stronger fruit/vineyard expression

“But to maximize what this soil wants to give you, we prune it to no more than 2 shoots per spur. So instead of the 7 or 8 tons per acre that is possible to get from head trained vines like these, we never get more than 4.

“We also micro-manage each vine to give us maximum quality at lower sugars. We shoot for about 23.5° Brix (i.e. sugar reading), which I think gives the best balance of natural acidity and lower alcohols, usually less than 14%. The fewer 'adjustments' a winemaker has to make, the better. The quality has to be in the grapes before a winemaker gets his hands on them.

“With the lower crop, exceptionally sandy soil, and watering kept to about half as much as comparable blocks in the area, this means Cemetery Vineyard is just about the first Zinfandel picked in Lodi each year – ready for harvest as early as the first week of August.”

But what you get, according to Shinn, is a style of Zinfandel that comes “natural to the site.” He adds: “Vines are like people – as they mature they tend to stick to the habits formed while they are being raised. This block has never been pushed to produce White Zinfandel, or lower-end wine. We stress the vines, but not to the point where we’re inhibiting them. And so the clusters in Cemetery tend to be small, more cylindrical. The berries are also smaller than average, with higher skin to juice ratios. Still, the idea is not to produce the most intense Zinfandel, but a Zinfandel that is most true to the vineyard.”

Dried unpicked Zinfandel cluster in Cemetery Vineyard

Earlier in the day we got the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Shinn over coffee to delve into his background and other activities; which includes a volunteer post at the Lodi Winegrape Commission as current Committee Chair of Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing. Our chat...

R.C.: Where does your family fit in with the larger clan of Shinns, who have played a large part in Lodi’s history since the 1850s?

A.S.: Someone in my family has always been involved with farming in Lodi for 7 generations. In my immediate side of the family, east side Lodi (i.e. east of Hwy. 99 and the City of Lodi) collided with the west side, and combined into one. Historically, most of the Shinns have been concentrated on the west side – the same way that the German families, like the Mettlers, are concentrated on the east. Suffice to say, I have many relatives; like the Shinns around my age involved with Shinn Ranch, who are my second cousins.

Growing up, though, my family lived in town (City of Lodi), with maybe fewer direct ties to farming. My dad was a schoolteacher, but my uncle (Jonathan Wetmore, owner/grower of Round Valley Ranches), was very much involved in agriculture. Then at one point, my dad and uncle bought a ranch together out on the east side – 40 acres of cherries and grapes, out on Alpine Road. An old Mettler property, as a matter of fact. My uncle farmed the property, and my family lived on it.

Lodi Rules seal

That was my start – how I developed my first fond experiences of the grape business. I was intrigued pretty early on by the idea of managing vineyards. As a teenager, I began pruning, tying vines to stakes and trellises, driving tractors, testing for sugars in grapes... until I reached a point where I knew I wanted to pursue this as a career.

By the end of my teens (while attending Tokay High School) I was officially working for Round Valley Ranches. I attended (San Joaquin) Delta College in Stockton, but my mother put pressure on my uncle not to continue employing me unless I finished college. So I attended Fresno State (University), where I majored in Agricultural Business, which involved some studies in viticulture.

R.C.: What prompted you to branch out with your own vineyard management company, Shinn Farms?

A.S.: While still in school, I had the opportunity to lease a 10-acre cherry orchard, and that’s when I started my own business. My “day job,” though, was and still is as Vineyard Manager for Round Valley Ranches. Over the past two years I have planted vineyards, and still manage 40 acres of cherries. Shinn Farms is up to about 100 acres total, grapes and cherries. With Round Valley Ranches, we manage over 2,000 acres – doing everything from pruning in the winter to harvesting in the fall, and all the gory details in between.

Round Valley Ranches' Jonathan Wetmore

R.C.: How much of vineyards managed by Round Valley Ranches is owned by your uncle?

A.S.: Close to a quarter. The majority is either owned by other people or planted for investment groups – your typical lawyer who might actually look at a property only once or twice a year, or longtime Lodi residents who own, say, 50 acres, who also enjoy seeing their land turned into vineyard.

The exciting thing – for not just Shinn Farms and Round Valley Ranches but also the entire Lodi winegrowing industry – is that our main business may be large, expansive projects catering to big producers like E. & J. Gallo, but we also focus more and more on smaller scale projects for ‘niche’ producers, such as Oak Farm, Acquiesce, and the Stellina Vineyard. We are selling to a growing number of small, independent wineries, like Jeremy, Riaza, and m2. Estate Crush takes quite a bit from us for their custom crush winemaking. Managing vineyards for big producers can be fun; but in a way, growing for smaller producers, with a stronger emphasis on quality, is more fulfilling.

It’s a challenge to focus on smaller projects, but a good feeling because it helps us all to see what really can be done with Lodi grapes when grown for higher-end products. Instead of just farmers who grow grapes, we are part of the process producing special wines.

R.C.: How much of Shinn Farms and Round Valley Ranches is certified according to Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing?

A.S.: 100%. Because we totally believe in it, and we believe it represents the future for the winegrowing industry.

Aaron Shinn, December Zinfandel leaves

R.C.: In what way?

A.S.: The industry is already moving in that direction. If we don’t responsibly manage the resources we have, sooner or later it will be imposed upon us anyway – either by regulatory agencies, or by big wineries who, under direct pressure from consumers, will begin to demand a certified green product.

We can be proud of the fact that here in Lodi, growers began taking that step on their own, way back in 1992. The Lodi Rules program was conceived bottom-up – created because it only makes sense for people living in a community like Lodi to make sure that their land and grapes are farmed responsibly for future generations, or that we don’t use harsh pesticides or herbicides that ruin our water, our soil, our way of life.

I think the Lodi growers who started Lodi Rules were also genuinely conscious of the fact that if you develop a program of sustainability – one that is third party audited to insure that the guidelines are followed – you will end up with superior grapes producing higher quality wine, which creates greater demand for those grapes. Sustainability is all about taking our industry to the next level. Judging by the growing prestige of Lodi grapes and wines, it’s obviously been working.

Chad Joseph, vaunted Lodi winemaker

R.C.: So are you also saying that a consumer can infer that any bottle stamped with Lodi Rules Certified Green seal is also probably a superior wine?

A.S.: I truly believe that nine times out of ten, a wine with a Lodi Rules seal is a better wine. Look, I also know there are many growers in Lodi – a majority of them, in fact – who aren’t really into Lodi Rules. However, many of them are actually growing sustainably – they just don’t see the need to follow Lodi Rules... yet.

While the Lodi Winegrape Commission encourages sustainability, our goal is still to be inclusive. We work just as closely with growers who aren’t quite ready to embrace Lodi Rules. We're still all-in-it-together.

That's why I’m so optimistic about the future. Lodi is growing, and we all know we have a long ways to go. But the more variety of grapes we have to offer, the more we go out of our way to farm for smaller high-end producers, and the more we can honestly say there is a strong quality attachment to grapes that are grown certified green, the more we are re-assuring our own future as an industry.

Shinn Farms and Round Valley Ranches' Aaron Shinn in Cemetery Vineyard

Stan Grant of Progressive Viticulture

Lodi has become synonymous with generous, expressive wines; many readily available at exceptional, value-range prices, and more and more of them crafted by smaller specialty producers in classic artisanal styles. None of this came out of nowhere. It represents a culmination of labors, organization and advances generated primarily in Lodi's vineyards, which now add up to easily the largest acreage of premium wine grapes in the U.S.

Vineyard consultant Stan Grant has played a small part in this growth; enough to be able to articulate it, at least from a viticultural perspective. We met with him last week (early December 2016) in Den Hartog International Farms – a vineyard owned and farmed by Pieter Den Hartog, located in the north-west corner of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA.

Mr. Grant drew our attention to the trellis system that he recommended for Den Hartog’s Pinot Noir block; in which two horizontal cordons (or “arms”) are trained from a single 5-ft. high trunk – only, rather than perpendicular as in most California vineyards today, the arms are spread apart and trained along two parallel wires, effectively opening up an area of space down the middle of the vines.

“This is called the Wye trellis,” says Grant. “It’s a double-cordon system with the arms trained on wires in an ‘S’ shape, creating parallel fruit zones down the vine row and promoting balance between leaves and fruit, and fruit exposure to dappled sunlight.”

Trellis systems; image courtesy of Progressive Viticulture

Then Grant walks a few feet across a dirt road to an adjoining block of planted Pinot Gris vines, trained on a more typical modern-day trellis called VSP (i.e. Vertical Shoot Positioned); where shoots are grown upwards between parallel wires, giving grape clusters growing along the cordoned arms below more exposure to sunlight.

“There are a number of redeeming features to VSP,” Grant explains. “It is relatively inexpensive to install, not requiring a lot of hardware. It’s easy to prune, hedge, and mechanically harvest; and it’s aesthetically pleasing, which is probably why you see it everywhere you go on the West Coast.

“But the downside – for most of California, including Lodi – is that VSP can be inefficient viticulturally. Clusters tend to be bunched in a narrow fruit zone. Shoots are also scrunched up together between the wires, creating interior leaf shading rather than the ideal configuration, where every leaf is exposed to sunlight (thus, doing the work of photosynthesis). There can also be over-exposure of external clusters to direct sunlight, resulting in sunburn or raisining.

“While the fruit quality off of VSP is sometimes less than ideal, productivity is also limited on a consistent basis. I would argue that you not only get higher quality fruit from a more spread-out Wye trellis, there is also potential for higher yields. VSP in Lodi, in other words, puts limitations not only on quality, but also limits production per unit to raw land.

Stan Grant with Pinot Noir on Wye trellis (Den Hartog International Farms)

Mr. Grant’s point being: The Wye trellis is one of several technological options available to forward thinking Lodi growers. It is a system that allows them to address many of their growing needs; particularly concerning how to achieve economically viable yields of higher quality wine grapes, to meet the increasingly higher standards set by today’s wineries, both large and small. This is not to mention the multiple challenges, both topical and perennial, possible or imminent: labor shortage, drought, land use restrictions, a shifting economy, an evolving market, pests and diseases, climate change, or any combination thereof.

Grant’s consulting firm, Progressive Viticulture, has been very active in California. He has consulted on, or designed and developed, vineyards in Clarksburg, the Central Coast, the Sierra Foothills, and all over San Joaquin Valley. In Lodi, he has worked closely with the Lodi Winegrape Commission’s staff and Lodi Rules Committee; while also serving as adjunct advisor for Mid Valley Agricultural Services, applying his innovative viticultural designs to companies like Den Hartog International Farms, Tamura Farms, Sorelle Winery, and others.

Earlier this month (December 2016) we sat down with Mr. Grant to pick his brains further; particularly to get an idea of where he thinks the Lodi American Viticultural Area is headed in respect to viticulture. Our chat...

R.C.: How long have you been working in the Lodi area?

S.G.: To some degree, nearly as long as I’ve been involved with viticulture, which is going on three decades. During that time, what’s been happening has been nothing short of a quiet viticultural revolution.

The industry has evolved tremendously; becoming more in synch with seasonal grapevine development and the allocation of resources throughout the season in order to maintain healthier vines, which produce higher quality grapes for wineries.

Sangiovese on Wye trellis in Lodi's Sorelle vineyard

More than ever, the focus is on doing the right things at the right time; beginning with the proper selections of clones, rootstocks, training and trellising methods. The objective is to produce the best quality grapes as efficiently as we possibly can. I feel fortunate to have come into the industry at a time when there are so many opportunities for a guy like me.

R.C.: When did you start your own consulting firm?

S.G.: I began Progressive Viticulture nearly 17 years ago. From the beginning of my consulting business, Lodi has been a primary market for me. I first came here when I was working for E. & J. Gallo as a viticulturist. My involvement deepened as I developed and managed vineyards in the Lodi region for Duarte Nursery. 

R.C.: What is the primary focus of Progressive Viticulture?

S.G.:  Helping grape growers advance their vineyard businesses. To that end, I assist in evaluations of potential vineyard sites, vineyard design and development, and vineyard management for optimized operational efficiency and sustained high yields of high quality wine grapes.

R.C.: Are there adjustments made when advising growers planting to different varieties, or in the different viticultural areas of Lodi?

S.G.: There is, in fact, a great diversity of soil types in the Lodi region – some more conducive to larger vines than others. Most soils in the heart of the region, around the City of Lodi, are deep, well drained, and fertile; which correspondingly support larger vines. When we go east of Hwy, 88 we find older terrace soils, including San Joaquin series soils, which are highly weathered and low in fertility. Vines on these older soils tend to be smaller, so we adjust vineyard designs and management inputs accordingly.

Adjusting to grape variety, of course, is always crucial in vineyard design. Foliage support is commonly the key. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc are upright growers – whereas Petite Sirah has a draping growing habit and therefore benefits from foliage support, with the use of cross-arms on a t-trellis, or a Wye trellis.

Stan Grant with example of VSP (Vertical Shoot Positioned Pinot Gris) 

Beyond variations of site and variety, there is always a standard set of goals in vineyard design and management. First, you always want a balance of leaf and fruit growth – about 14 to 16 leaves for shoots bearing 2 clusters. You want to achieve that balance as soon as possible after fruit set.

R.C.: Please explain the reasons for achieving that precise kind of vine balance in a way that a layman might understand.

S.G.: Put it this way: when there is not enough leaf surface on a plant it is difficult to ripen crop. You end up with fruit that won’t reach full maturity. But when there is too much leaf surface in relation to fruit, there is a tendency for fruit to end up with vegetal characteristics that also won’t meet wineries’ quality standards. On top of that, you get operational inefficiencies – the need to hedge canopies, waste of water and nutrients, or possible fungal diseases. The idea is to have balance – you want just enough canopy, but not too much canopy, to ripen fruit efficiently and meet quality goals.

R.C.: How would you summarize the overall goals of an ideal vineyard design?

S.G.: You want to achieve three things, all with the fewest inputs during an average rainfall year. First, you want it to be conducive to a balanced growth; allowing you to manage it to meet the right equation of leaf and fruit. Second, you want to be able to achieve exposure of fruit beneath a canopy to dappled sunlight – you get that with a veneer of a single leaf layer over fruit.

2014 Sangiovese harvest in Sorelle vineyard

R.C.: In other words, you don’t want grape clusters fully exposed to sunlight, but at the same time you don’t want fruit to be under full shade caused by excess amount of leaves?

S.G.: Correct. Direct exposure harms fruit – bleaches the skin, damages mechanisms of color and flavor synthesis, and might result in raisining or shriveling. But if you have more than one layer of leaf and too much shading, color and flavor are also diminished.

R.C.: What is the third goal of correct vineyard design?

S.G.: That would be installation of a high performance drip irrigation system to moderate water stress; again, something in practice that is achieved as soon as possible after fruit set. Careful vineyard water management – or what we call RDI, regulated deficit irrigation – can have a direct impact on color, flavor, aroma, tannin, etc., and also keeps pH lower and acidity higher.

R.C.: Have thoughts on deficit irrigation also evolved over the past 30 years?

S.G.: Oh, yes. The deficit irrigation concept grew out of research in the 1970s in Australia, and the 1980s in the U.S. After that, it took a number of years before California practitioners came to appreciate, adopt, and become comfortable with deficit irrigation. 

R.C.: Is it safe to assume that, 20 or 25 years ago, many of the plantings in Lodi weren’t as easily amenable to evolving irrigation or canopy management strategies?

S.G.: No question, it is easier to achieve vine balance and productivity when vineyards are designed appropriately for the variety and site.

Stan Grant demonstrating Pinot Noir on Wye trellis

R.C.: Especially since more and more of these same growers – at least in Lodi – have also been transitioning to winemaking themselves. Does it matter more when you are more conscious of growing grapes to make wine, rather than just “fruit”?

S.G.: Very much so. A lot of the progress in Lodi has been driven by growers who have become wine producers, focused more on higher quality grapes.

R.C.: Yet in Lodi, growers are still getting a fraction of what growers get in places like Napa and Sonoma for their fruit. How can Lodi growers possibly put more effort into growing higher quality grapes when they are not nearly as well compensated?

S.G.: There is a two-pronged approach to dealing with this situation. One: optimize the quality of Lodi wine grapes and improve perceptions about them. Two: take advantage of our local assets and farm efficiently.

A key component of the second prong is designing vineyards that maximize quality, efficiency, as well as productivity per acre. For instance, as you know I am a strong advocate for what we call the Wye trellis – a horizontally divided, bilateral trellis system involving interlocking cordons in an “S” shape, which opens up the canopy, increases fruit production per acre while also increasing fruit quality.

R.C.: Why is the Wye trellis superior to the VSP (Vertical Shoot Positioning) that predominates up and down the West Coast?

S.G.: The VSP is a trellis system designed for cool climates, but Lodi as well as most California winegrowing regions have warm climates. The advantage of VSP is that it keeps shoot tips upright and fully exposes clusters to sunlight – which is great in a cool climate, but a distinct disadvantage in warm climate regions.

Lodi grower Pieter den Hartog

R.C.: Is the Wye trellis just as effective for varieties like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as it is for Cabernet Sauvignon or Petite Sirah?

S.G.: The Wye trellis is adaptable to nearly all wine grape varieties, although vine spacing and cordon length need to be adjusted to accommodate the inherent growth capacity of the variety and rootstock. 

R.C.: Just as long as you maintain an ideal balance of fruit and leaf/canopy?

S.G.: Precisely. Another advantage of the Wye, which I didn’t mention before, is that vines are trained higher and trunks are longer – 55 to 60 inches, as opposed to 30 or 32 inches typical of Vertical Shoot Positioning. The longer trunk gives vines greater storage capacity for carbohydrates and minerals such as nitrogen. Vines with more stored reserves have a greater capacity for early season leaf development. This gives plants a head start and a ripening advantage.

However, the comparison of Wye trellises with vertical shoot positioning trellises may be bit behind the times. While VSP trellis installations were common in Lodi during the 1990s planting boom, the percentage of new VSP vineyards since 2000 has diminished. Since that time, a large number of the major wineries have recommended alternative systems, and some prominent Lodi viticulturists have openly criticized it, including Paul Verdegaal (the San Joaquin County Farm Advisor for University of California Cooperative Extension) and Chris Storm (Viticulturist for Lodi’s Vino Farms).

R.C.: While I have seen trellis systems like the Wye done successfully at wineries like Sorelle, where it is used for Sangiovese and Barbera, it has not become a norm. When you drive around the Lodi region, it still looks like many growers are determined to copy what they see in Napa Valley.

S.G.: I can't agree with the premise of that statement. While a few Lodi growers look to the coast, most of them chart their own course, and many are true innovators. You don’t have to look far for examples of that: the accomplishments of grower organizations like the Lodi Winegrape Commission; the many Lodi-specific research projects; and Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing certification.

I love working in Lodi, but frankly, my own role in advancing viticulture in Lodi has been minimal. I have functioned more as an observer than agent for change. Since first becoming involved in Lodi projects in 1989, the art and science of vineyard design and management has progressed substantially in California, and I believe the advances have been most profound in Lodi and the Delta.

So many significant advances in vineyard design, farming practices, vineyard mechanization and mineral nutrient management have originated in Lodi. While the Lodi wine region itself has many natural assets, clearly it is the people in Lodi who are making exciting things happen!

Vineyard consultant Stan Grant with trusty Mac

Ancient Lodi Zinfandel

For Christmas, what do you give a Lodi wine lover who has tried most everything?

Our suggestion: a case of 12 Lodi grown wines, each showing what Lodi does best. And what Lodi does does great – generally from grapes more conducive to warm, steady Mediterranean climates and exceptionally deep sandy soils – it does as well or better than just about any other American wine region. That is to say, wines that are gentle, fresh, filling yet friendly, with a purity of fruit expression from beginning to end. If that's your cuppa, Lodi is for you!

Here’s another thing about Lodi grown wines: where else do you find wines of first class quality generally priced well within the $18 to $40 range? A 12-pack of Lodi's finest wines never has to break the bank..

Hence, the following list of wines released over the past year that we think best express Lodi's diversity of wine grapes, sense of place, and unbeatable value., released over the past year. Wines that are unique, original, and pure "Lodi.".

Oak Farm Vineyards team: winemaker Chad Joseph and owner/manager Dan Panella

That said, a 12-bottle “Christmas” case that would please the most avid aficionados of Lodi wine:

2015 Oak Farm Vineyards, Lodi Chardonnay ($25) – Lodi may not be known for Chardonnay (yet!), but this bottling is a head-turner; expressing a Lodi sense of purity with an airy fresh, lemony crisp yet creamy smooth, exquisitely fine texturing. In other words, neither as watery, overly dry and sharp as many Chardonnays bottled as “unoaked” nor annoyingly fat, lumbering or “buttery” like most oak influenced California Chardonnays. What a refreshing departure! Thanks to the Oak Farm team’s judicious, crafty approach to brightly scented Lodi grown fruit; with 50% native yeast fermentation, and just 25% traditional barrel fermentation and sur lie (i.e. spent yeast cells) contact.

2015 Markus (by Borra Vineyards), Lodi Nativo ($19) – It’s official: starting next year the Borra Vineyards label will be dissolved, to be replaced completely by Markus Wine Co. (the Borra family will continue to focus exclusively on grape growing, while longtime Borra winemaker Markus Niggli takes ownership of the winery bond). It’s wines like Nativo that bode well for the future (for the winery as well as all of Lodi) – a cutting-edge white wine blend of Kerner (52%), Riesling (29%), Bacchus (15%) and Gewürztraminer (4%), which also happens to be joyously light, dry, and refreshingly tart with sensations that are at once floral, minerally, white peachy and potpourri-ish, with silky-creamy suggestions. Californian originality at its best!

2015 Onesta, Bechthold Vineyard Lodi Cinsaut Rosé ($22) – Authentic dry rosé – that is, made from black skinned grapes picked early enough to retain fresh, natural acidity, the lightness of restrained alcohol, and mineral sensations avoiding overripe fruitiness – has recently become a Lodi pièce de resistance. Praise the lord and pass the bottle and aioli! Onesta’s stands out because it is made from the choice sections of Lodi’s historic, 130-year-old (!) Bechthold Vineyard, and because it’s all there in the bottle: a translucent pink wine prickling the palate with sprightly, dancing sensations of first-strawberry-of-spring fruit with a lip smacking kiss of rhubarb, tinged with nuances of sweetly spiced, purple flower tipped sprigs of Provençal lavender.

Estate Crush winery/tasting room in Downtown Lodi

2013 Estate Crush, Bechthold Vineyard Lodi Cinsault ($26) – Each year Estate Crush is one of the dozen or so specialty producers allotted Cinsaut grapes from Bechthold Vineyard (managed by the Phillips family of Michael David Winery fame; but still owned by heirs of Joseph Spenker, who planted these ancient vines in 1886). This is as svelte and acrobatic a rendering of this heritage vineyard as you will find: soaring perfumes of fresh strawberry and pomegranate; sleek and limber, cozying up to the palate with the warmth of a baking strawberry-rhubarb pie. Christmas ham or roast beef, anyone?

2013 Bokisch Vineyards, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Garnacha ($20) – The news is out: Lodi’s mild Mediterranean climate – not quite as extreme in diurnal temperature swings as coastal regions of similar ilk (such as Napa Valley or Paso Robles) – makes this region ideal for the Grenache grape. Some have gone so far as to call Grenache “Lodi’s Pinot Noir.” Grenache is not Pinot Noir; but like Pinot Noir, its moderate tannin gives red wines a round, smooth taste. What’s unusual about Lodi grown Grenache (called Garnacha by the Bokischs, since they use exclusively Spanish clones of the grape, sourced from their own travels) is its pervasive spice – billowing fragrances of sweet, cracked peppercorn-like spice mingling with milder earthy notes of wild, sage-like scrub and strawberry/cherry fruit qualities typical of the varietal. Imagine that with grilled pepper salmon, or lamb roasted with juniper and rosemary. Definitely “wine-of-the-year” material!

2015 MK (Michael Klouda) Lodi Carignane ($26) – It’s a little freaky, but not an uncommon occurrence in Lodi; where obscure, long neglected old plantings suddenly produce a wine that screams, “I’m here!”, like Horton Hears a Who! This one comes from a 1-acre stand of head trained vines – vestiges of a once larger planting, now replanted with newer, shinier plants on modern-day trellising – that came with a property recently purchased by Vino Farms viticulturist Chris Storm. This postage-stamp sized block is more like a family backyard than a “vineyard.” Storm, however, managed to breathe life back into the ungainly old vines (planted in the mid-1960s), and it produced this inky dark red wine: gushing in aromatic black cherry/wild berry fruit; deep, broad, sturdy and velvety in the mouth; full bodied (14.15% alcohol) without being heavy and ponderous, and brightly fruited without being jammy or raisiny. In short, phenomenal as a pure, unfettered (i.e. not over-oaked or manipulated) rendering of this heritage grape – screaming to be respected once again.

MK owner/winemaker Michael Klouda

2014 Mettler Family, Lodi Aglianico ($40) – Talk about “classic”: over 2,000 years ago, a wine called Falernian was considered to be the finest in ancient Rome – and therefore, in the entire civilized world. You can look it up. When you do, you will also find that most likely Falernian was made from the black skinned Aglianico grape, which is still cultivated along Central Italy's western coast. That’s one reason to appreciate this bottling by the Mettlers, one of Lodi’s most important premium grape growing families. The other reason is because this is a genuinely doggone-it-people-like-me red wine: teeming with compelling, intensely focused blackberry and baking plum pie-like aromas, tinged with licorice and finely polished vanillin oak subtleties; while fleshy, buoyant, layered yet zesty with dramatic, high flying flavors on the palate. Something to celebrate!

2014 Rippey Family, Lodi Petite Sirah ($20) – Petite Sirah has been called the “Rodney Dangerfield” of red wines. We’re not completely convinced, because there sure seems to be a heckuva lot of Petite Sirah lovers, as boisterous as the wines themselves. If you like a big, chunky yet smooth, pungent red wine, there’s a good chance you’ll like Petite Sirah; but not all of them, since some Petite Sirahs can be coarse, clumsy or tough – like chewing an old shoe. But when Petite Sirah is good, it tastes like the Rippey Family’s exacting, amiable rendering: saturated in peppery spiced blueberry-like fruit, tinged with sweet toned kitchen herbs; and certainly “big” enough (14.9% alcohol), its generous, fleshy qualities flexed by slightly gripping tannin and an intoxicating dose of smoky/toasty oak.

2015 St. Amant, Leventini Vineyard Lodi Barbera ($18) – No black skinned grape retains as high a natural acid balance as Barbera; which is why, in Lodi’s steady, warm yet mild Mediterranean climate, the grape can thrive – producing fruit forward red wines, sans the sharp acid bite more typical of Barberas from Northern Italy or other regions. St. Amant’s 18th vintage of this varietal remains a Lodi standard bearer: positively plump in black and red fruit (black cherry/cranberry) aromas; the varietal’s characteristic tartness tasting almost sweetly entwined with a high toned fruit profile, sharpening up a full, fleshy feel, pliant yet sinewy tannin, and faint smidgens of American oak.

Dynamic duo at Michael David Winery: Kevin Phillips (V.P. of Operations/Grower) and Adam Mettler (GM/Director of Winemaking)

2013 Fields Family Estate, Lodi Syrah ($24) – Syrah has not been “cool” for some time now, which is all the more reason to give kudos to this winery for sticking to that basic article of Syrah fan-dom: this is one of the great, classic reds of the wine world, dammit. Fields Family, in fact, makes one of the best (bar none) on the West Coast, especially considering its typically “Lodi” value pricing: beautifully fragrant and floral – in a penetrating violet and rose petal nuanced sense – and filled to the brim with rich, meaty, full sensations, ringing with vibrant natural acidity.

2014 Earthquake, Lodi Zinfandel ($26) – Michael David Winery produces three different varietal reds under their Earthquake label each year; and each year, one of them seems to stand out among the rest. This time around, it’s their 2014 Zinfandel, which is tasting omigosh-by-golly amazing, starting with a mesmerizing, autumn berry-pie aroma animated by nostril-ringing peppery spice; these same vibrant sensations following up in dense yet luscious waves across a full body (this is an “Earthquake,” after all), lavished with sweet oak subtleties, yet truly hitting all the notes in unerring tone, scale and harmony – everything anyone could ask for in a generous yet keenly balanced Zinfandel. Bravo!

2014 Lodi Native (by Macchia Wines), Maley’s Lucas Rd. Vineyard Mokelumne River-Lodi Zinfandel ($35) – Last week (early December 2016) winemakers belonging to the groundbreaking Lodi Native project (Lodi Zinfandel specialists producing low-intervention, native yeast fermented, neutral oak aged styles of the varietal from heritage sites) sat down to a blind tasting and self-evaluation of their own wines. Their consensus: this particular bottling, crafted by Macchia’s Tim Holdener from a vineyard farmed by Maley Bros.’s Todd Maley, is as “complete” a Zinfandel as any Zinfandel purist could ever want. The nose – punctuated by peppery spiced blueberry and cranberry notes, with the mildest touch of earthy loaminess – is classically “Lodi” (at least for the west side of the Mokelumne River Viticultural Area). But what really distinguishes this Zinfandel is the way it fills the palate from front to back, in the middle and side-to-side; bright, seamless, rich, cozy, almost sneaky sensations that simply never quit in pure, unfettered, lovable Lodi Zinfandel-ishness

Macchia Wines' Tim & Lani Holdener