Lodi winemaker Mike McCay and his specialty dry rubbed baby back pork ribs

Are we overstating things when we say that Lodi wines are ideal for barbecued foods?

Hear us out: Lodi is known – and sometimes faulted (particularly by more narrow minded wine press) – for growing softer, lusher, fruit-forward styles of wine.

We get that; but we also know there are advantages. Our climate falls within the warmer spectrum of what is defined as a classic, dry seasonal Mediterranean climate. That is to say, Lodi’s average temperatures are on the par with the mid-to-upper sections of Napa Valley (St. Helena and northwards) as well as Sonoma County regions up around Healdsburg, but without as much fog influence during the growing season.

This results in slightly narrower diurnal swings – summer nights that are not quite as cold, and summer days that are not quite as hot – which, when you think about it, are closer to what you actually find in the Mediterranean Basin (where classic “hot” wine regions, like France’s vast Provence, are even narrower in diurnal swings than anywhere on the West Coast). This subtle difference has an impact on grapes, and ultimately on Lodi's unique style of wines.

Curving vineyard alongside Lodi's Mokelumne River

The other major factor: A good chunk of Lodi’s wine grapes are grown in the historic sub-appellation of Mokelumne River, surrounding the City of Lodi. This region is defined by low, flat topography (50-150-ft. elevation) of consistently deep sandy loam, completely devoid of rocks or gravel – soil types that, like the climate, are highly conducive to softer, lusher styles of wine.

But here’s the thing: Many wine lovers prefer soft, lush, smooth yet rich styles of wine expressive of the fruit from which they are made. In a sense, these are more balanced, if unabashedly gentle, wines. The wine lovers who dig this – representing a good majority of the American wine consuming public – are not as partial to wines that are hard, rough, sharp or drying.

Thus, it is absolutely no coincidence that Lodi is easily the largest supplier of wine grapes to the American wine production industry. More acreage of Vitis vinifera – Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Albariño, Zweigelt, you name it – than Sonoma County and Napa Valley combined. A good deal more than what is grown in the entire states of Washington and Oregon put together. No single American wine region comes close.

Simply put, wineries big and small know that Lodi is the ideal region for growing the greatest variety of premium quality wine grapes; and therefore, this is where they get ‘em.

Mike McCay's dry rub baby back pork ribs

Now about barbecues: What is it about the taste of barbecued foods that always sounds so sweet, makes your heart skip a beat, heals the sick, raises the dead and makes little girls talk out of their heads?

This answer is no secret either. Barbecued meats and vegetables are smoky, even charred; and there’s something about smoky, charred foods that makes mouths salivate. The response may be primitive, but it's real.

Barbecues are also often seasoned with beguiling combinations of cayenne or red pepper flakes, ground pepper, onion and garlic powder, paprika, herbs like oregano and thyme, and often exotic ingredients like cinnamon, ginger, clove, sandalwood, nutmeg, etc.

Then there is the matter of sauce. Oh, how barbecue lovers crave their sauces; which, more often than not, are palate-jarring combinations of sweet, hot, tart, salty, bitter and even high umami sensations: pungent vinegar, brown sugar, honey, onions, mustard, and often, chili spices, liquid smoke, Tabasco, Worcestershire and good ol’ ketchup.

And that’s just one culinary direction. Then there is the Asian or Hawaiian styles of marinades; when barbecues are soaked and slathered in soy sauce based liquids inundated with cloves of garlic, chunks of ginger, and generous doses of sugar to balanced out the saltiness of the soy sauce; plus the addition of chili spices, sesame seeds, Worcestershire, hoisin, pineapple, beer or saké, rice or white wine vinegars, mustards or wasabi, ponzu or yuzu, star anise, green onions or mint, etc.

Texas style dry rub spices (image from sustainingthepowers.com)

Barbecued foods, in other words, are meant to touch every part of the palate, tickle the nostrils, and ultimately, reach that part of the brain that tells you, “This may be a dangerously sensory overload, but I'm lovin' it!”

That said, let us circle back to the subject of wine: No, barbecue as a food group (as Southerners half-seriously describe it) is not exactly ideal for refined, delicately balanced red wines like Pinot Noir. Barbecued foods tend to clash, like Goofus and Gallant, against the heavy dose of tannin and oak typical in red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Most barbecues usually run roughshod over finer nuances of expensive Chardonnays.

However, there are many wines that go great with barbecues. Wines with tannins that are round and soft enough to avoid fighting the sweet/salty/spicy sensations of marinades and sauces. Wines that are lush and fruit forward enough to balance out the sweetness and savory umami tastes of typical barbecue sauces; yet have just enough meatiness to easily absorb the fat of barbecued meats. What are those wines?

When it comes to barbecue-friendliness, Lodi may be the "Gallant" of wine regions

Why, of course, wines that are direct reflections of the typicity of Lodi’s warm, moderated Mediterranean climate and porous sandy soils.

Ergo: Lodi was made (by Mother Nature) for barbecue!

Now that that’s settled, let’s go over the three different barbecue dishes that our 2017 Lodi ZinFest guest chef Chad Rosenthal is planning to present at our upcoming “Up In Smoke” ZinFest Barbecue Experience:

• Texas Smoked Beef Brisket 
• Memphis 15-spice Dry-Rub Pork Ribs with Mustard Slaw
• Alabama Smoked Chicken Tacos with Lexington Red Slaw and White BBQ sauce

Chef Rosenthal – a Food Network personality who is also the owner of a modest empire of barbecue and Asian style restaurants in the Philadelphia area – tells us that his favorite barbecue “regions” are Texas, Memphis and Alabama. He also makes a point of mentioning that he loves to combine Asian ingredients with traditional barbecue flavors of the American South.

ZinFest guest BBQ chef Chad Rosenthal on Food Network set

Our wine-related thoughts:

Texas Smoked Beef Brisket

If there is any type of barbecue that needs fruit forward, barrel aged red wine, it’s Texas smoked beef brisket. Think about it:

• You need a little smokiness from oak to enhance the smokiness in the brisket.

• You need it to be a red wine, because red wine has the tannin to absorb the fattiness of the beef.

• You need it to be a red wine with soft, round tannins because brisket is a leaner cut of beef.

• You need the red wine to have pungent fruit qualities and a little bit of peppery spice to ring in the lethally sweet/spicy/salty/vinegary sauces often enjoyed with Texas barbecue.

Texas style beef brisket (image from amazingribs.com)

If this sounds like a job for Lodi style Zinfandel, you’ve guessed it. The beauty of it is that it doesn’t even have to be expensive to taste like a million bucks. $14 to $24 labels such as Michael David’s Seven Deadly Zins, DFV’s Gnarly Head, Tierra Divina’s !ZaZin, Heritage Oak’s Zinhead, Macchia’s Mischievous, or the “regular” Zinfandel bottlings of producers like LangeTwins Family, Klinker Brick or Harney Lane are not just plenty good, but even better than sturdier $25-$75 bottlings precisely because of their luscious, pliant fruit qualities.

Memphis 15-spice Dry-Rub Pork Ribs with Mustard Slaw

The “sauce vs. dry rub” argument between connoisseurs of barbecued meats will rage on forever, but this is the general drift: Dry rub cognoscente truly appreciate the subtle interaction of multiple spices on a piece of fatty meat like pork ribs, and they don’t like things like ketchup sauces to mess it up.

Dry rubs seasonings typically entail chili spices (including paprika), and cracked black pepper and mustard seed. In which case, red Zinfandels, with mildly mildly peppery spiced aromas, are an ideal wine match; but here are three other ideas that a dry rub connoisseur might seriously consider, and why:

Paprika chile: indispensible American BBQ spice (image from herbco.com)

• Syrah is also typically spicy in its scent, but also little more floral (think violet or lavender) and finely textured than most Zinfandels, and also a little fuller in tannin, which makes it all the better for the fattier taste of pork ribs. Finer Lodi grown examples include those of Klinker Brick’s Farrah, Fields Family, or Michael David’s 6th Sense.

• Petite Sirah is a quintessential pepper-spiced varietal red, with fruit qualities veering towards black fruit or blueberry (as opposed to the black cherry/strawberry of most Lodi Zinfandels); plus the round yet generous grip of tannin necessary for slabs of pork ribs. Michael David’s Earthquake, Rippey Family, Harney Lane, Mettler Family, Oak Ridge’s Maggio label are among Lodi’s more peppery spiced examples.

• Grenache grown in Lodi is particularly spicy; in fact, downright perfumey in black pepper, clove and mace qualities, mingling on the palate with a gentle silkiness that is strikingly Pinot Noir-like. – all the better to appreciate the delineated sensations of dry rub seasonings on baby back pork ribs. Look for either the McCay Cellars Grenache or Bokisch’s Terra Alta Vineyard Garnacha.

Memphis style BBQ sauce (image from bbq-sauce-recipes.com)

Alabama Smoked Chicken Tacos with Lexington Red Slaw and White BBQ sauce

Chicken is less fatty than pork or beef, although Chef Rosenthal will be firing up his smoker to thoroughly inundate this lean white meat with nostril tingling sensations.

Again, it is the softer, rounder, less expensive styles of Zinfandel that is ideal for chicken tacos, but that’s not the only choice. Three other great  ideas:

• Smoked chicken tacos is where good ol’ Chardonnay comes in handy; epecially those highlighted by subtle oak qualities, such as those of Lodi’s Harney Lane, Oak Farm, Watts' Upstream label, Stama, or Van Ruiten Family.

• Although vinified with zero oak, Lodi grown whites made from Vermentino (look for Uvaggio, Borra, PRIE or Fields Family) have the meaty qualities that easily absorb smoky styles of chicken, plus a distinctive minerality true to the varietal that adds another dimension to the taste.  

• Perhaps even better, Lodi’s bevy of bone dry rosés have a minerally taste reflecting the region’s Mediterranean climate, mingling with fleshy, black skinned grape textures adding up to an ideal match with leaner barbecued meats like chicken. Look for the classic Grenache based dry pinks by producers like Klinker Brick, Acquiesce or Bokisch; or more unusual bottlings by LangeTwins Family (made from the Sangiovese grape), St. Amant (100% Barbera), the new zeal by markus (blend of old vine Carignan and Syrah), or Onesta (sourced from ancient Cinsaut vines planted in 1886!).

All fired up for 2017 ZinFest? See you there!

Grenache cluster picked from ancient vines in Lodi's Manassero Vineyard

2017 Lodi Wine & Food Festival in Ole Mettler Grape Pavilion

For 35 years it was the Lodi Spring Wine Show, but now it is the Lodi Wine & Food Festival that takes place each year at the end of March or beginning of April on the grounds of the Lodi Grape Festival.

No matter, because the 2nd Annual Lodi Wine & Food Festival still had the feeling of spring, as it gave many of the participating Lodi wineries a chance to trot out their latest wines – including recently bottled 2016 whites and rosés, which are all vinified pretty much bone-dry (the days of sweet, tutti-fruity “vin rosé” are long gone, and even soda-pop-like White Zinfandel is pooh-poohed by the local vintners of today).

The event took place in the late afternoon of this past Saturday (April 1, 2017), with the cheery, skin warming sunlight of spring equinox days – inching its way up, for a couple of minutes longer each day – lighting up the historic Ole Mettler Grape Pavilion, within which wine and food lovers could clearly see and feel like standing inside a gigantic, ribbed, wooden wine barrel (either that or an upside-down Noah's Ark). Don’t you love these things about Lodi?

Without further ado, some notes on some of the more memorable new wines shown over the weekend:

2016 PRIE Winery, Mokelumne Glen Vineyards Lodi Gewürztraminer – It’s spring, so we all look for “new.” Hence, it’s fun to see this still-new (less than three years), boutique sized Alpine Rd. winery expand its portfolio. This year we’ll be seeing more wines crafted from German grapes grown by Mokelumne Glen, also on the east side of town. This particular one is a dry style of Gewürztraminer, but it has the extremely flowery, billowing fragrance of the grape – suggesting lychee, rose petals, peach and grapefruit. The feel is light on the palate (11.7% alcohol), and there is a trace of the grape skin bitterness also typical of the grape. But it is a refreshing, palate scrubbing bitterness – think of it like an Italian apertivo – that would actually enhance most “other white meat” dishes (pork, chicken, squab, etc.), although the winery recommends it with pasta tossed with Pecorino and pancetta (another great notion).

PRIE Winery owner Lisa Gash with Mokelumne Glen grower Brett Koth and their Gewürztraminer

2016 Klinker Brick, Lodi Albariño – Albariño is practically Lodi’s “Chardonnay” – more of the small local wineries produce it, and it highlights the region’s sun drenched Mediterranean slant. Also, it is a grape that retains the varietal’s buoyant natural acidity, flowery perfume, eminent dryness and airy feel when grown in the Delta air. The nose in Klinker Brick’s rendering is positively confectionary in its essences, suggesting peach skin, lime, and tropical white flowers. The citrus/lime notes sharpen the fruit qualities, leaving lip-smacking sensations in their wake.

2016 Peltier Winery, Lodi Rouge Rosé – Bottled under this winery’s most recent line of “Black Diamond” labels, here’s another bone dry style pink (crafted from Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir) to add to Lodi’s growing list of imaginative curios in this genre. This one is unabashedly pink – a bright, coral reef-like blaze of pink color – and its strawberry/cherry aromas and flavors are slinky and slurpy, with a medium-full feel. The bouncy fruit qualities  are zipped up by a mild tartness (think cranberries with twists of lemon peel), as the wine hops joyfully back and forth across the palate.

2016 Klinker Brick, Bricks & Roses Lodi Rosé – This winery’s latest iteration of dry rosé indicates a movement away from pure Grenache qualities; now taking on the complexity possible in the blending of Carignan, Syrah, Mourvèdre along with Grenache – Mediterranean grapes that grow well and plentiful in the region. The nose starts off both floral and mildly of dried kitchen herbs, with strawberry/watermelon qualities rising up from beneath. Bone dry, lightly tart, almost lean yet zippy in the mouth – the sensations taking on more of a stony dryness rather than the annoyingly monochromatic fruitiness more typical of California grown rosés. In other words, very Provençal, even if a tad fuller. Think about this the next time you’re grilling salmon and serving it up with a side of fresh pico de gallo or watermelon salsa.

Klnker Brick owner/grower Steve Felten and his latest rosé

2014 Maley Bros., Lodi Merlot – It is time to forget what that character Miles said about Merlot in the movie Sideways. Merlot can be delicious and satisfying; especially this one, retailing only for about $14. There is an unvarnished quality about this wine: its plump black cherry aroma underscored by a fun, interesting, herby/mint spriggy leafiness, and mercifully free of unnecessarily woody oak “flourishes” more ambitious winemakers are wont to impose on that purity. On the palate, the wine is judiciously fleshy, with a velvet feel very proper for the varietal. The herbiness in the nose takes a little turn towards a mild organic loaminess, and the moderate, well rounded tannins have a touch of tobacco in the taste. This is what Lodi can do: produce a wine true to the varietal character, with a little bit of the regional stamp – all for a terrific price!

Maley Bros. owner/grower Todd Maley with his Merlot

2014 PRIE Winery, Lodi Petite Sirah – Every Petite Sirah lover has slightly different thoughts about the grape. Many like its big, bold feel in the mouth; others, its rounded, voluminous feel, or its occasional pepper-grinder spice. But if you like the blueberry aspects of the varietal, you’ll find oodles of it here – lush, ripe, effusive aromas and flavors of blueberry-like fruit. On the palate, the wine is full in body and tannin, giving an almost roasted dark coffee-like thickness and mild bitterness to the taste. All the more likely to appeal to a P.S. lover!

2014 McCay Cellars, Rous Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel – We’ve covered this Znfandel in a previous post – crafted from one of Lodi’s more venerated ancient vine growths (planted in 1909) – but it bears another mention because, well, it was showing spectacularly over the weekend: violet and red cherry perfumes encased in cracked peppercorn and cardamom spices, bursting from the glass like the 4th of July; velvet layers and bright, upbeat yet mildly earthy sensations flowing across the palate like foam on tropical shores. Or is it mostly the feel of spring in the air?

More scenes from the 2017 Lodi Wine & Food Festival:

Celebrity Chef Bradley Ogden and Wine & Roses Hotel owner Kathy Munson serving silver lined hospitality at Lodi Wine & Food Festival

McCay Cellars' Mike McCay engaging wine lovers

Guitar at Lodi Wine & Food Festival

Old vines planted all around Lodi's Ole Mettler Grape Pavilion

Wine & Roses Hotel's Consulting Chef Bradley Ogden

“A Light exists in Spring,” wrote Emily Dickenson, “Not present on the Year, At any other period...”

Although these exact words – expressing the radical changes felt all the way down to the bones when April flowers, and even showers, awaken spirits and senses – may not have been on the minds of the 28 people gathered this past Wednesday (April 5, 2017) in Wine & Roses Hotel’s Towne House Restaurant, our earth did seem to tilt, ever so slightly.

The event was a 6 course/6 wine spring themed celebration prepared by the celebrated Chef Bradley Ogden; where a heady Dickensonian joy was tasted in each nibble and sip, and the sense of clarity, promise and hope often associated with the early days of the vernal equinox permeated the air.

The wine part of the equation was supplied by the multitudinous-award wines of Lodi’s Michael David Winery, which were matched with each of Chef Ogden’s courses. Michael David Co-Owner/President David Philips, and his wife Corene, were there to enhance the experience. 

In greeting her guests, Towne House Restaurant Manager Tricia Maley introduced Chef Ogden to her guests by stating, “Bradley is one of California’s culinary pioneers, and one of the originators of the idea of farm-to-table cooking.”

One could say far, far more, of course, about Chef Ogden’s rare talents, beginning with a seemingly endless list of accomplishments – topped off by peer-accorded James Beard Foundation Awards (as a Chef as well as for his landmark Bay Area restaurants, Lark Creek Inn and One Market).

In light of spring: pre-pouring of first course white (Michael David's tropical/spring-fresh Sauvignon Blanc)

Exactly what has this iconic chef been up to in Lodi wine country? Explains Wine & Roses Hotel Proprietor Kathy Munson, “Brad has been working with us over the past six months as our Consulting Chef. It is an indefinite arrangement. The connection was originally made through John (Town House Restaurant Executive Chef John Hitchcock), who worked for Brad for over five years.

“What’s amazing is that Brad doesn’t just advise us on our operations, our training and development. He comes in 5 days a week and works with the entire staff on everything, down to every last detail. He inspires our kids, and they just love him.”

Adds Co-Proprietor Russ Munson, “In a word, Bradley elevates us. We want to become better known as a wine country destination, and he has been working closely with us, showing the ways we can accomplish that.”

Chef Ogden sharing his multi-award winning philosophy of cooking

Chef Ogden’s own most quoted description of the approach to cooking he has helped foster: “Keep it simple; use the freshest ingredients available and put them together in such a way that the flavors, colors and textures combine to bring out the best in each other.”

When asked how he feels about working with Lodi’s regional foodstuffs and wines, Chef Ogden proffered this perspective: “Lodi reminds me of the way wine regions like Sonoma and Napa were like when I first came to California in the early ‘80s. Back then, there was a sense that we had everything we need at our fingertips – the best and freshest ingredients, the finest wines made from the best grapes – and all we had to do is take advantage of it. Lodi has all of that, and it’s just a matter of bringing it further out into the open. You’ve got to build a food and wine culture – and, as they say, they will come!”

Towne House Executive Chef John Hitchcock (left) and Bradley Ogden plating scallops alongside little pillow of agnolotti

That said, a course-by-course accounting of this memorable affair:

Tuna and Kaffir Lime “Cured” Salad with Pressed Organic Pineapple - 2015 Michael David, Lodi Sauvignon Blanc

Chef Ogden described this opening course as, “Sort of like my version of tuna poke, except I marinate tuna in kaffir lime, and serve with purées of guava and passion fruit, organic pineapple pressed with tequila, organic mango relish and micro-cilantro.” This exhilarating gelling of tropical sensations proved positively sensational with Michael David’s bone dry yet tropical-scented (passion fruit with white and violet flowers), crisp and airy Sauvignon Blanc.

Chef Ogden's version of "tuna poke," riding in on a miniature "surfboard" of organic pineapple

Day Boat Scallop with Agnolotti Poppers and Sweet Peas - 2015 Michael David, Lodi Chardonnay

The herby, lemon nuanced and mascarpone filled agnolotti (miniature stuffed pasta) served like dreamy pillows nestling the fresh, dry packed Maine scallop, along with sautéed pea tendrils and a zingy fresh red pepper/carrot purée that Chef Ogden underplays by calling it “my secret ketchup.” While creamy as opposed to crisp in texture, the Michael David Chardonnay’s emphasis on floral/citrusy fruit (the wine is only partially barrel fermented) was just bright enough to underscore the sense of spring freshness and clarity in this dish.

Chef Ogden's Day Boat Scallop

Crispy Veal Sweetbreads with Morels and Asparagus Ragu - 2014 Michael David, Lodi Carignane

“Veal sweetbreads is one of my favorite ideas for spring,” Chef Ogden told us. “We served it a lot at Campton Place (the Union Square/San Francisco hotel where Ogden presided between 1983 and 1989), and here we give it a spring touch with Delta asparagus and morel mushrooms, which now cost us $25/lb. – to think, we used to pick it ourselves back in Maine.” As it were, this course achieved the “seamless match” Chef Ogden alluded to when describing the construction of his dishes: the asparagus and morels adding high and low organic elements to the succulent, pan crisped white meat of the sweetbreads; mirroring similar contrasting sensations in the Michael David Carignane, which combines the effusive cherry perfume (making it very Pinot Noir-like) with subtle herby/earthy undertones (very “Lodi”) in the nose as well as a soft yet zesty, bouncy palate feel.

Breaths of spring: pan crisped sweetbreads with asparagus and morels

Rib Eye Ravé with Espuma and Ramps - 2014 Inkblot (by Michael David), Lodi Cabernet Franc

Chef Ogden’s “Ravé” is a sliced, rare roast of the rib eye served with what he calls “my version of steak sauce” – an nth-degree reduction of red wine (“it takes 4 bottles to make 1 cup,” according to Ogden) with a touch of “balsamic and hard apple.” Ogden’s other secret ingredient is an instant soaking of the beef in a butter reduced with the red wine essence – invisible on the plate, but hugely intense on the palate – which is intensified even further by a serving of buttery ramps, the wild onion greens that have become a spring ritual in restaurants that make a fetish out of seasonal cooking. Michael David’s ultra-concentrated, violet/raspberry scented and velvet textured Cabernet Franc served as a perfect foil for Chef Ogden’s culinary tour de force.

Chef Ogden's Rib Eye, infused in invisible yet powerful Cabernet butter

Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam with Honey Comb, Wild Arugula and Rhubarb Jam - 2013 Rapture (by Michael David), Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon

While on paper, Cowgirl’s classic triple-cream style soft ripened cheese, sourced from West Marin dairy farms, is not an ideal match for sturdier California Cabernet Sauvignons, there is just enough roundness and smooth layering of cedary/cassis/blackberryusg fruit in Michael David’s Lodi grown Rapture – and tinge of twiggy herbiness in the whitewash colored rind of the Mt. Tam – to forge some common ground for the palate to enjoy both cheese and wine together. In other words, if the wine was a chewy, high tannin Cabernet Sauvignon typical of, say, Napa Valley, the creaminess of the Mt. Tam would have only exacerbated the bitterness in the tannin. Instead, this turned out to be a case in which the typically soft character of Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon becomes a plus, rather than a disadvantage.

Early Strawberry Soufflé with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream - 2016 Michael David, Lodi Symphony

There was just enough residual sugar in Michael David’s medium-sweet Symphony – a white wine grape crossing of flowery/perfumey Muscat of Alexandria and fleshy textured Grenache Gris, which the Philips family pioneered in Lodi – to highlight the spring-airy lightness of Chef Ogden’s strawberry soufflé. A refreshing finish to this amazing dinner; giving us a glimmer (or, A Light exists in Spring) of what may soon evolve into a full-fledged culinary culture distinct to Lodi wine country!

A few more photos commemorating the occasion:

Another moment of truth: opening of Michael David's Rapture

Legendary Chef Bradley Ogden with Michael David's David Phillips and Towne House Executive Chef John Hitchcock

Prepping freshly made beds

Chef Ogden slicing roasted rib eye

Luscious essence of butter and Cabernet rubbed into slices of roasted rib eye

Pouring of Michael David 's creamy, silky Chardonnay

Towne House's John Hitchcock and his mentor Bradley Ogden take a breather after preparing their memorable dinner matched to Michael David's Lodi grown wines

Nine-vintage vertical of Bokisch's iconic Terra Alta Vineyard Albariño

Does a white wine like Albariño age? Does it really matter?

Whites like Albariño, after all, are produced to be consumed immediately upon bottling, which is fine by the vast majority of American consumers who pop their bottles within days (more like hours or minutes) upon purchase.

Nonetheless, Markus and Liz Bokisch of Lodi’s Bokisch Vineyards – one of the California pioneers, and indubitably the acknowledged masters, of this Spanish grape – did something unusual, even for them, this past week. They lined up nine of the most recent vintages of Bokisch Albariño – all sourced from their Terra Alta Vineyard in Lodi’s rolling Clements Hills sub-appellation – and tasted them all together.

“We’d never done this before,” said Liz Bokisch, “and I don’t know why.” Their ostensible reason, she explained, was to select four of the vintages to showcase as part of an event coming up on April 23, 2017; marking the first-time release of their latest wine, an old European style 2015 Bokisch Lodi Vi de Panses – an orange-brassy tinged, raisiny, sweet style of Albariño made from grapes that were picked extra-ripe (at 26° Brix), then deliberately dried to further heighten the sweetness and the lemon peel/tangerine intensity of the grape, couched in rounded, oxidized tones.

Markus and Liz Bokisch with newly picked Terra Alta Vineyard Albariño

But in lining up the past nine vintages (from 2008 to 2016) of their regular Albariño – all produced in the crystal-clear, sprightly, bone-dry fashion similar to the classic styles of Albariño grown in its native Spanish region of Rías Baixas – the Bokischs were able to glean two more things:

1. How well Albariño can age, especially when produced in a higher acid, lower alcohol style as a direct result of picking grapes early enough in the season (usually within the first two weeks of August).

2. The success of the Bokisch family’s own steady viticultural and enological evolution over the years.

Bokisch Vineyards has experienced a hugely positive reception for their Albariño ever since their first commercial vintage, a 2001. Early vintages had the honeyed, citrusy and palate slaking wet-stone dryness of Spanish Albariño; but they were also very “Californian” in terms of two qualities: an ultra-ripe, almost pineappley tropical fruitiness, and high alcohol levels typically in the 14% range, which made the wines almost Viogner-like (although California grown Viognier, like Albariño, has since been lightened up across the board).

Terra Alta Vineyard Albariño harvest in Lodi's Clements Hills AVA

Back in 2010 Markus Bokisch told us: “Starting in 2009, we decided to address that by picking our Albariño by Brix (i.e. sugar reading) rather than by waiting for optimal flavor. It was a leap of faith, but we felt that picking at lower sugars would be the key to making a wine with lower alcohol, more acidity, and brighter, crisper, more varietally correct Albariño character.

With an alcohol level of 13.5%, the Bokischs’ 2009 took a positive turn. Liz Bokisch, however, points out that they really weren’t able to capture what they were truly looking for until the 2010 vintage, when the alcohol finished at 12%. In their own evaluation of the past nine vintages, she tells us, “The 2010 is really the vintage that started us on our current trend. In the vertical tasting, we both preferred the lower alcohol wines (2010 through 2016) because they show what Albariño can do best in our area when picked at lower sugar to retain its natural acidity.”

Still, as a matter of personal taste, she tells us, “Markus actually enjoyed the oldest (2008 and 2009) wines because they are developing some nutty, dry Sherry style components, whereas the middle vintages (2012 and 2013) are not yet aged enough to get into that realm, while no longer quite fresh enough to express the desired fruity Albariño style we all seek. It will be interesting to see if the 12% alcohol wines will age into that Sherry-like quality into the future. We shall see.”

In any case, says Ms. Bokisch,. “The tasting was like a new discovery for us to learn about how Albariño can age gracefully. Reaching back historically showed us the journey we’ve taken to explore how to create world class Albariño in California.”

Bokisch grown Albariño

Our own notes on the vintages tasted in April 2017, with alcohol levels notated in parenthesis:

2008 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (14%) – Honeycomb and sweet tropical fruit and flowery notes in the nose, along with a creaminess that expands into a texturing over a crisp, medium-full body. The lazy, pliant notes of slight oxidation rounding out the palate sensations; finishing firmly dry.

2009 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (13.5%) – With the stylistic turn towards slightly lower alcohol and higher natural acidity, this vintage retains more of the fresh citrus (tangerine/lemon/lime) quality in the nose, along with notable flinty minerality and touch of honey. On the palate, the wine is tart and minerally, but flattens out a little; finishing lean, slightly empty and rough.

2010 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (12%) – While steely in its crispness and dryness, this vintage is actually slightly more oxidized (or as Liz Bokisch puts it, “Sherry-like”) than the 2009. The citrus/floral fruit qualities, alas, have vanished; lending credence to conventional thinking – that white wines like Albariño really aren’t meant to “age.”

2011 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (12.5%) – In contrast to the 2010, the nose in the 2011 still comes up fresh as a daisy – or more like sweet candied lemon peel and mandarin orange slices. On the palate, the wine is keenly balanced, with a feathery lightness and refreshingly mild tartness. Maybe Lodi grown Albariño can age – in certain vintages like 2011, during which Lodi experienced a more coastal cool climate during most of the growing season.

Bokisch winemaker Elyse Perry in Terra Alta Vineyard

2012 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (12.5%) – With this vintage, the Bokischs seem to have hit its stride (as Liz Bokisch puts it, “All part of the learning process”). The fruit is still lush, with almost tropical/floral citrus qualities – like little morsels of high-season tangerine. The acidity seems to be more razor-sharp – lemony tart, giving the flavors a zingy margarita-like lime freshness. If anything, it goes to show how importance of fresh natural acidity and balance of moderate alcohol when it comes to longevity of wines.

2013 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (13%) – Fresh citrus qualities (lemon/lime/orange) in the nose are echoed in lively, pure, upbeat, crisply defined and airy sensations on the palate. I’m not sure if you would ever want a wine like this to develop oxidized/aged characteristics; but its balance of citrusy acidity bodes well for a smooth transition, whatever it may be over the next four, five years.

2014 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (12.5%) – This vintage tastes like it was bottled last month – still retaining pinpoint delineations of flinty/minerality, white flower, and lemon/mandarin citrus fruit in the nose, although the lemony crispness is veiled in a sheer layer of silkiness on the palate. Very complete and finesseful: along with the 2016, perhaps the most impressive wine in this entire nine-vintage vertical.

Albariño harvest in Bokisch Ranches' Terra Alta Vineyard

2015 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (12.5%) – While sandwiched between a masterful 2014 and exuberant 2016, this vintage is no slouch: very fresh, pristine, pure and airy flowery perfumes with lemon/mandarin highlights; exhilaratingly tart, edgy and refreshing on the palate, with its moderate alcohol lending a sense of full flavor within the scope of a seamless, feathery feel.

2016 Bokisch, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño (12.5%) – A “wow” white. The flowery/citrusy perfumes are laser-like in their focus and brilliance; and the sensations on the palate are, well, sensationally bright, luscious, mouth-watering, exhilarating. Should Albariño be consumed as young as possible? Going by the results of this vertical tasting, it would seem to be the wisest thing to do!

Final note: Those interested in attending Bokisch Vineyards’ April 23 Vi de Panses Release event should can sign up through this bokischvineyards.com page. Along with cheeses specially selected by the Bokisches in collaboration with Lodi’s celebrated cheesemonger, Cindy Della Monica of Cheese Central, you will be able to taste four vintages (2008, 2009, 2012 and 2015) of the iconic Bokisch Albariño. $50/person. That is all.

What it's all about: Liz and Markus Bokisch (right) entertaining wine lovers under one of the ancient oak trees preserved in Terra Alta Vineyard

Peltier Winery & Vineyards winemaker Susana Rodriguez Vasquez

As much as we harp on the intrinsic ecological advantages of the Lodi Viticultural Area, there is also a growing number of “star” winemakers playing a crucial role in the region’s growth.

True-blue Lodi wine lovers are familiar with some of the bigger names among our winemaking talents: Heather Pyle-Lucas at The Lucas Winery (who also consults at Estate Crush); David Akiyoshi at LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards; Chad Joseph at Harney Lane Winery and Oak Farm Vineyards; Adam Mettler at Michael David Winery and Mettler Family Vineyards; Markus Niggli at Markus Wine Co. (transitioning from Borra Vineyards); Joseph Smith at Klinker Brick Winery; John Gianinni at Van Ruiten Family Winery; Elyse Perry at Bokisch Vineyards; Ryan Sherman at Fields Family Wines; Stuart Spencer at St. Amant Winery; Layne Montgomery at m2 Wines; Mike McCay at his eponymous McCay Cellars... and now, of course, we are in big trouble because we are leaving a good number of others out of this accounting, but for the sake of brevity...

We turn your attention to a newer, brightly shining “star” winemaker who, so far, has been quietly working under the radar since joining Peltier Winery & Vineyards a little less than a year ago: Susana Rodriguez Vasquez, who calls herself Susy.

Peltier's Susana Rodriguez Vasquez working on blends in her office/lab

First, an edited version of the winery’s biography of Vasquez:

Susy was born and raised in the town of Cochabamba in Bolivia. The daughter of professors, she was raised in the countryside, with a love of agriculture. This led to a B.S. in Agriculture at Universidad Mayor de San Simon, before relocating to the U.S.

After an internship at Cal Poly focused on organic crops, she became a liaison between the winemakers and vineyards for E. & J. Gallo, which sparked a penchant for winemaking. After receiving her Winemaker Certificate from U.C. Davis, Susy worked for 10 years at both E. & J. Gallo and Constellation Brands (for the latter, working primarily out of Turner Road Vintners on Lodi’s Turner Rd.).

Since joining Peltier Winery in May 2016, she has demonstrated an impeccable palate for choosing the right grapes, and revels in each step of the way in the winemaking process with a passion that is infectious....

If you have driven past Peltier Winery at E. Peltier and N. Kenneflick Roads lately, you may have noticed some big changes wrought by owners (and third generation Lodi growers) Rodney and Gayla Schatz. There is dramatically evolving landscaping as well as a tasting room now open seven days a week, although construction of a new tasting room on the property is scheduled to begin any day.

Peltier Winery tasting room

It was Ms. Vasquez’s talent and experience that prompted the Schatz family to invite her to help their winery grow into the next phase; and with just one vintage (2016) under her belt, the decision is already reaping dividends. At the 2017 Rosé Today Competition held in Sonoma County this past March, the 2016 Peltier Black Diamond Lodi Rouge Rosé ($18) was awarded a Gold Medal (along with McCay Cellars for their 2015 Lodi Reserve Rosé), out of a field of 238 other dry style rosés representing the finest made in 12 states and 9 countries.

This is how we described the award winning Peltier Winery rosé in a recent  blog post after being wowed by it at the Lodi Wine & Food Festival earlier in April: Unabashedly pink – a bright, coral reef-like blaze of pink color – with strawberry/cherry aromas and slinky, slurpy flavors giving a medium-full feel; bouncy fruit zipped by mild tartness (think cranberries with twists of lemon peel), as the wine hops joyfully back and forth across the palate.

So here’s the scoop – and great example of how Vasquez is able to follow an unerring instinct – that we learned after chatting with the winemaker last week.

2016 Peltier Winery Lodi Rouge Rosé

According to Vasquez: “The 2016 was the first time the winery made this style of dry rosé. We had an old vineyard planted to Cabernet Sauvignon that we could tell was not going to get fully mature. But the grapes had good aromatics, so I decided to ferment it as a rosé. We got so much color, at first we thought we’d need to strip a little of it out, but we decided to go with the deeper color in preserve the wine's fresh, intense fruitiness. In fact, we enhanced the color even more by blending in a little bit of Pinot Noir (a red wine cuvée), which also added a nice strawberry quality.”

Vasquez attributes her willingness to take wines in new directions to her experience at E. & J. Gallo. “Doing research and trials comes naturally to me,” she tells us, “which I got a lot of practice doing while working for Gallo. A winery (Peltier) this size allows me to experiment even more. The logistics of working in the corporate world, for a large company like Constellation, never allows you to do experimental trials. Working for Constellation was an amazing experience, but you’re pretty much stuck making the wines that the corporation tells you to make. Under those circumstances, a wine like Rouge Rosé would never have been made.”

Where Vasquez really show her chops, however, is where she has already taken the Peltier Winery Sauvignon Blanc program; even with its established track record of bright, light, crisply balanced, herby “gooseberry” style whites (similar to New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs) reflecting the high quality fruit grown by Rod Schatz in his Cosumnes River-Lodi AVA vineyards. The winery’s current release – the 2015 Peltier Lodi Sauvignon Blanc ($18), crafted by its previous winemaker – falls into this vein, with an ease of soft, mildly tart, airy drinkability.

Susana Rodriguez Vasquez with the first of her 2016 Peltier Winery whites

The Vasquez-crafted 2016 Peltier Lodi Sauvignon Blanc ($18), on the other hand, takes things into another dimension. The core of puristic, herby-green, fresh fruit is even brighter and more luscious than in previous vintages, highlighted by floral tropical notes. On the palate, the acid balance is a little more razor-sharp – tasting like a squeeze of the freshest imaginable lemon through silken fine cloth, transporting the wine through a long, penetrating, energetically fruited yet steely dry finish. At just 11.5% alcohol, the wine touches every part of the mouth, yet tastes light as air – Lodi-fresh air.

The success of the soon-to-be-released 2016 Sauvignon Blanc was no accident of Nature or vintage. It came by Vasquez’s detailed oriented approach; particularly her bold move to skin contact fermentation (about 60% of the 2016), along with multiple yeast trials which brought additional flavor profiles to the winery’s estate grown Sauvignon Blanc.

According to Vasquez: “Sauvignon Blanc from this area is naturally more tropical, even picked at just 19° to 20° Brix, which we did for the 2016. But I like a little greenness, even a touch of asparagus, which makes a Sauvignon Blanc a little more interesting, as long as there isn’t too much.

2016 Peltier Winery Lodi Sauvignon Blanc

“Fermenting the Sauvignon Blanc on skins helps to enhance all the different qualities of the fruit. In 2017 we’ll be able to go even further, with more yeast trials, picking grapes at different Brix levels, some greener, some riper, and maybe focusing on different vineyard blocks.”

It helps, of course, to be able to work with winery-owned vineyards. Says Vasquez, “Rod makes things easy. He lets me know the sugar readings and waits for me to go and out and look at the grapes myself, before we make any picking decisions.

“I am very happy with the 2016 Sauvignon Blanc. It has that green, crisp acidity and intense fruit I look for, and is still absolutely dry with no residual sugar. But this was my first year, and I know we can make it even better. I will look to expand the mouth-feel and get a little more perfect with the skin contact fermentation, where can get all the good parts of the phenols (flavor compounds in grape skins) without any of the bitterness from the skins.”

“Skin contact” white wine, in case you hadn’t heard, has largely been relegated to a miniscule faction of mostly younger, experimentally minded American winemakers; many of them seeking to make so-called “orange” wines – which have coppery colors, as well as drying tannins, derived from fermentations on grape skins (in conventional white wine production, skins are immediately separated from juice precisely to avoid the orange-tinged colors and bitter tannin derived from skins).

Lodi grown Sauvignon Blanc

Vasquez’s own adroitness with skin contact fermentation is entirely divorced from this school of “cool kid” winemakers – many of whom are following Old World (i.e. European) traditions, while conscious of “reinventing” the slowly grinding wheel of the domestic wine industry. Vasquez, as it were, came by her innovative approach through her work at E. & J. Gallo – that goliath-sized bastion of conventional wine production.

Says Vasquez, “Fermenting white wines on skins was one of the research trials I was able to do at Gallo. I can’t begin to tell you how much experimentation goes on there, but in many ways Gallo is way ahead of the rest of the industry.

“My approach to Sauvignon Blanc is a result of a step-by-step progression. At Constellation, for instance, I was able to work a full vintage (in 2015) in New Zealand at Kim Crawford (part of the Constellation Brands portfolio), and I picked up a lot of ideas there.”

With this unique set of skills and experiences, Ms. Vasquez is clearly bringing an extra dimension to the entire Lodi winegrowing industry. Bravo to her, and kudos to Peltier Winery & Vineyards for being bold enough to take this on.

Lodi wine lovers

Exactly what is good wine?

That is to say: Why, in a store, is one wine rated 95 points out of 100, and another wine just 89 points? Is there a difference in quality that would matter to you? Is an extra 5 or 6 points even worth an extra $5 or $6, or another $50 or $150 for one measly bottle?

We have parsed the vagaries of 100-point rating systems elsewhere in this blog (re Discovering your own taste beyond 100-point scores). But if you are still scratching your head over the definition of “good wine,” it might comfort you to know that even wine professionals still puzzle, or strongly disagree, over this simple question.

Recently, for instance, I had an email conversation with a longtime Master Sommelier (since 1989) named Chuck Furuya, who has been living and breathing wine as a full-time restaurant wine professional since the late 1970s. I asked Chuck that loaded question, “what is good wine?”

The black, opaque color of Lodi grown Petite Sirah

Mr. Furuya's answer was about 500 words long; but with severe editing, he basically said:

A good wine should have intensity and concentration, whether it is light in body or rich and full bodied. A good wine should have a very even and seamless flow on the palate from beginning to end... not “front-loaded,” or bold and showy out of the gate. A good wine should be UN-bitter, UN-alcoholic, UN-oaky – which actually works much better with a wide range of foods, since good wines are also balanced wines, and balanced wines have a better chance of going with balanced dishes prepared by a good chef.

But I don’t look for “correct” wines. I look for something more – character, for one. The same way I don’t look for someone who sings a song correctly, or even perfectly. I much prefer someone who sings from the heart, with an emotion that moves me.

Chuck went on to cite the classic sommeliers’ tool used to hone their craft and learn more about wine: Through blind tastings, in which sommeliers are constantly guessing what is in a wine glass based upon their knowledge and prior experience. Blind tastings, of course, are a great way to condition the senses to delineate things like quality, character and typicity (i.e. each wine’s sense of place, related to terroir). Yet Furuya admits:

I always have mixed feelings about blind tastings. Most sommeliers inevitably select their favorites in a line-up, which is usually the biggest, blackest, loudest, most dramatic wines, or maybe the opposite. While that is okay for most, you have to ask – what have you learned?

In Phillips Farms' Armstrong Rd. vineyard (source of Michael David's Rapture Cabernet Sauvignon), a stray Flame Tokay vine in amongst a n entire block of prized Cabernet Sauvignon

I believe one of the areas our industry needs to spend more time on is the study of wines by truly masterful winemakers. Game-changers... such as André Ostertag in Alsace, Gunter Künstler in Rheingau, Michel Reverdy in the Loire, Coche-Dury in Burgundy... producers of pure, transparent. delicately nuanced wines of fabulous intensity, glorious breed and pedigree, done with seamlessness, completeness, class and finesse.

As much as we love a Master Sommelier's poetic turn of phrase, the danger of focusing on “game-changers” and their wines, however, is falling into the same trap that has plagued the entire score-obsessed industry over the past 40, 50 years: The preoccupation with Platonic ideals of what constitutes “good wine.” Producers like Ostertag, Künstler, Reverdy and Coche-Dury may produce wines that exemplify grape characteristics associated with their respective wine regions, but the danger is that even longtime wine professionals are tempted to rate all other wines in the exact same terms, regardless of this reality: That different regions may produce wines that are so different, they may as well be made from different grapes.

Take Cabernet Sauvignon – a varietal for which Napa Valley has justifiably earned its prestigious reputation. Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons may be the standard by which all other American Cabernet Sauvignons are now measured, but that hasn’t kept other wine regions – such as Sonoma County, Paso Robles, Livermore Valley, Lake County, or Washington’s Yakima, Columbia and Walla Walla Valleys – from recently challenging Napa Valley’s preeminence with their own highly rated Cabernet Sauvignons.

Michael David's Kevin Phillips sampling barreled Petite Sirah, who has recently been quoted to say: "Losi Petite Sirah is so good, we use it in just about every wine... if I could blend Petite Sirah into Chardonnay, I would."

The negative side is that when you taste many of the top Cabernet Sauvignons from Sonoma County, Paso Robles, Livermore Valley, Lake County or Washington, you can see what these regions have largely been doing to “compete” with Napa Valley: Producing Cabernet Sauvignons that taste as much as possible like Napa Valley’s; despite the fact that all these regions grow their Cabernet Sauvignon in distinctly different climates, soils, altitudes, topographies, etc. Such are the quirks of blind tastings and 100-point rating systems: Once you put wines all in one basket, you’re sorting them out as if they all should be the same, or grown under the same circumstances – when obviously they’re not!

Taking this conversation closer to home: While Lodi cultivates nearly as much acreage of Cabernet Sauvignon as Napa Valley and Sonoma County, local producers have long acknowledged the fact that Lodi’s mild Mediterranean climate tends to produce a softer, more fruit forward style of Cabernet Sauvignon. Therefore, one way some of Lodi’s leading producers of Cabernet Sauvignon – such as Michael David Winery and Mettler Family Vineyards – have been addressing the intrinsic softness and fruitiness of Lodi grown Cabernet Sauvignon has been to blend in generous proportions of Petite Sirah, which adds deeper color and sturdier tannin to the varietal.

The results? Try the fact that both Michael David Winery and Mettler Family Vineyards have been consistent gold medal winners wherever they enter their wines in competitions, virtually all conducted as blind tastings (although in some competitions, such as Sunset International Wine Competition, judges taste blind but are told what regions each entry is from).

Acquiesce owner/grower/winemaker Sue Tipton, who produces all her white wines (such as the Picpoul grapes in this photo) with zero oak

This past January, for example, we made note of the fact that Michael David’s 2013 Rapture ($59) and 2013 Earthquake ($26) Cabernet Sauvignons won a double-gold and gold respectively in Florida’s most recent American Fine Wine Competition – a judging in which these wines were measured against numerous gold medal winning wines from Napa Valley, such as Yao Family ($225), Frank Family Patriarch ($225), Raymond Generations ($150), Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ SLV ($135), Pride Mountain ($140), Robert Keenan ($105), and other bottlings generally falling in these lofty price points.

Still, make no mistake: Lodi producers like Michael David achieve this by consciously crafting Cabernet Sauvignons that can compare favorably, on a sensory basis, with those of Napa Valley. Other top Lodi producers, such as Lange Twins Family Winery & Vineyards and Van Ruiten Family Vineyards, take a different route by producing first class Cabernet Sauvignons that eschew the aggressive usage of blenders like Petite Sirah. Last October we quoted Van Ruiten winemaker John Giannini, who held forth on his approach:

... 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 winemaker John Giannini with fermenting 2016 reds

The point of bringing up this contrasting philosophy is not to suggest that one is right and the other not-so-right, but to underline this pervasive fact: When it comes to wine, quality can be defined in multiple ways. For many wine lovers, critics and members of the wine trade, Cabernet Sauvignons fashioned with opaque color, chewy tannin and richly oaked qualities make for higher quality. For others, Cabernet Sauvignons showing more restraint, or softer qualities more natural to wine regions such as Lodi, may be the preferred style.

Here in Lodi we make no bones about the fact that more and more of our producers are moving along the lines of Van Ruiten’s Giannini in endeavoring to redefine quality by playing up the very characteristics that make Lodi grown wines different from other regions. Characteristics that, in the past, may have been considered drawbacks. Why? Because these producers truly believe that consumers are ready for this.

This is being executed in different ways. Acquiesce Winery, for one, does it by stubbornly producing white wines that are stainless steel tank fermented and never aged in oak barrels. Producers like McCay Cellars and Fields Family Winery embrace oak, but have also been turning to Old World practices such as native yeast fermentation to express as many sensory qualities indigenous to individual vineyards as possible.

Markus Wine Co.'s Markus Niggli, a strong proponent of lighter weight, higher acid style Lodi whites crafted from grapes such as Kerner (as seen in this photo)

Tiny, handcraft producers – such as Markus Wine Co., PRIE Winery and Michael Klouda Wines – aim to produce “Lodi” style wines by making a point of picking grapes earlier, with higher natural acidity, in order to produce wines that need fewer “adjustment” in order to be brought into acceptable balance. Because lower sugars produce lower alcohols, these wines may end up tasting a little lighter than other wines – but not without their own interesting chutzpah!

The overall positive impact of this quiet, steady, visible evolution is that Lodi grapes and wines are starting to be defined by qualities unique unto their own. The simple concept that it is, after all, perfectly fine, maybe preferable, to be softer or more fruit forward. That lighter can be a good thing. That clarity of fruit, or earth tones intrinsic in fruit, are just as much a mark of complexity as in wines strongly influenced by oak barrels or picked at riper sugars.

Not the same complexity. Maybe not even better complexity (to each their own, of course); but something just as appealing, and therefore laudable, as that of any other wine, grown anywhere. Especially if it captures what makes Lodi special.

Now that’s good wine!

Viñedos Aurora winemaker Gerardo with new Cabernet Sauvignon planting, with which he also blends a generous amount of Petite Sirah

Extremely rare Marzemino grapes grown by Lodi's Barbara Huecksteadt (Hux Vineyards)

How well do you know your wine grapes? To take a measure of your knowledge, we invite you to take the little quiz below, which gives us an excuse to show off photos of some of the more unusual grapes grown in Lodi.

The Lodi Viticultural Area, in fact, is the place to be if you are a student of wine, making a concerted effort to bolster you knowledge of wine grapes. Why? Beause there are over 100 variations of Vitis vinifera – the classic cultivars of the European family of grapes – grown out here in the Delta. Easily the most in the U.S. (for a full list and pictorial, see the 100 Grapes of Lodi).

There are, in fact, many terrific places to grow world class wine grapes up and down the West Coast; but why Lodi? A lot of it is climate and soil – Lodi has a mild Mediterranean climate and ideally suited, well drained soils to grow a wide range of wine grapes. But frankly, so does Paso Robles, Yakima Valley, Sonoma County, Napa Valley, and many other well-known regions.

Yet most of these other regions are primarily known for just a handful of grapes and varietal wines. You know the ones: Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay being the most popular; followed by varieties like Pinot Noir, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, and Zinfandel.

Lodi grows these same grapes in equally large proportions, but also so much more, all made into commercial wines: from Albariño to Zweigelt, Carménère to Kerner, Verdelho and Vermentino, Piquepoul and Pinotage, Graciano and Garnacha, Tannat and Tempranillo, Dolcetto and Dornfelder, Marzemino and Marsanne, Touriga and Torrontés... well, you get the picture.

Carménère grapes grown by Michael David Winery's Phillips Farms

There is a perfectly good reason why, of course, that a region like Napa Valley focuses primarily on a grape like Cabernet Sauvignon. Make that two reasons – the first being the fact that Napa Valley grows magnificent Cabernet Sauvignon, producing some of the finest wines in the world.

The second reason is economical: The fact that it costs almost four times more to develop a vineyard in Napa Valley than it does in a place like Lodi. How much more? In a 2012 research report conducted by the University of California Cooperative Extension, a breakdown of the costs to develop 1 acre of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon added up to $30,318; and that was just to prepare a site, install irrigation, establish new vines. Adding in the cost of land, property taxes, and insurance, the total cost of 1 new acre of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon has been closer to $38,647.

In a 2012 article in Wines & Vines, on the other hand, the cost of developing 1 acre of grapes in Lodi was estimated to be $11,541. Couple this with the fact that much of the Lodi winegrowing industry’s growth over the past 30 years has been spurred by Lodi families who have owned their properties for generations, you get this: Lodi can grow a greater variety of wine grapes because it can. In a place like Napa Valley or Sonoma County, you almost have to plant Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir to produce bottlings with high enough return (i.e. wines retailing for $50 to $200) to make investments in vineyard development a reasonable proposition.

Zweigelt grapes in Lodi's Mokelumne Glen Vineyards

But you know what? Even with over 100 wine grapes in the ground, the Lodi wine region is only touching the surface of where it can excel. The classic dry white wines of Italy, for instance, have always been enormously popular in the U.S. import market; and these are grapes that could theoretically do extremely well in Lodi’s Mediterranean climate: Including varieties such as the Soave’s Garganega and Sicily’s Ansonica (a.k.a. Inzolia); the Grechetto, Greco, Fiano, Falanginha, Verdicchio and Vernaccia used in the finest whites of Central Italy; Northern Italy’s Arneis, Cortese and Ribolla Gialla; the Glera (a.k.a. Prosecco) used to make one of the world's most popular sparkling wines.

Lodi has already proven to be an ideal place for Spanish and Portuguese grapes. For the same reason, the increasingly more popular varietals of Greece, such as Assyrtiko or Moschofilero, would bode well for bolder growers in Lodi; but so would other overlooked grapes from Portugual, such as the Loureira and Treixadura used in ever-refreshing Vinho Verde.

And this is not to mention the many black skinned grapes well suited to Mediterranean growing conditions. But rather than further digression, let’s move on to that pop-quiz we promised.

Test your wine smarts with these 10 questions on grapes currently cultivated in Lodi (answers at the end):

Bella Vigna Vineyard Vermentino grown by Lodi's Kevin Delu

1. Vermentino is

a) A white wine grape of ancient lineage, native to the Greek islands of Crete and Santorini.

b) Closely related to the Viura grape of Spain, where it is used for both sparkling wines (i.e. Cava) and excellent dry table whites.

c) Known as Rolle in Provence, and is also grown in Corsica – two places where it produces beautifully transparent dry whites.

Albariño in Bokisch Ranches' Terra Alta Vineyard (Clements Hills, Lodi)

2. Albariño is

a) A white wine grape of Spain’s Rías Baixas (Galicia) region; also known as Alvarinho in Portugal.

b) Once mistakenly thought to be a clone of the Riesling grape, brought to Spain by way of France’s Alsace region.

c) Both of the above.

Piquepoul ready to harvest in Lodi's Acquiesce Vineyard

3. Piquepoul is

a) Also known as Picpoul; so named because of the “lip stinging” tartness of its white wines, grown and produced as a varietal in France’s Languedoc region.

b) Also a synonym for the Folle Blanche grown in France’s Cognac and Armagnac regions, as well as for the Pigato grown in Sardinia.

c) Both of the above.

Verdelho grapes in Silvaspoons Vineyards (Lodi's Alta Mesa AVA)

4. The Verdelho cultivated in Lodi is

a) The same grape as the Verdejo in Spain, and Verdicchio in Italy.

b) A cultivar sourced from the Island of Pico in Portugal’s Azores, and is also grown in Madeira.

c) An ancient Italian white wine grape originally brought into the U.S. by emigrants from Sicily and Sardinia.

Bacchus grapes in Lodi's Mokelumne Glen Vineyards

5. Bacchus is

a) Named after the god of wine because, 2000 years ago, it once produced some of the finest wines of the Roman Empire.

b) A white wine grape of ancient Greek origins; later planted in Central Italy by the Romans.

c) A (Silvaner x Riesling) x Müller-Thurgau crossing; fairly popular in Germany because of its intense aroma and productivity.

Mokelumne River-Lodi grown Charbono grapes

6. Charbono is

a) A black skinned grape originally from the Savoie region of France, where it is called Douce Noir.

b) Not an Italian grape, as the name suggests; and today, it is cultivated far more in Argentina, where it is called Bonarda.

c) Both of the above.

Graciano grapes in Bokisch Ranches' Terra Alta Vineyard

7. Graciano is

a) A red wine grape cultivated in Spain’s Rioja region, where it is often blended with Tempranillo.

b) A clonal variant of the Garnacha (a.k.a. Grenache), often blended with Tempranillo to produce red wines in Spain’s Rioja region.

c) Both of the above.

Mettler Family Vineyards grown Pinotage (Mokelumne River, Lodi)

8. Pinotage is

a) A clone of Pinot Noir, more popular in South Africa than in France.

b) A black skinned crossing of Pinot Noir and Syrah (the latter grape, once known as Hermitage), developed by a viticulturist at France’s University of Montpellier, and later cultivated throughout South Africa.

c) A black skinned grape crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut, developed by a Professor of Viticulture in South Africa’s Stellenbosch University.

Red pulped Alicante Bouschet in Borra Vineyards (Mokelumne River, Lodi)

9. Alicante Bouschet has an intriguing historic significance as

a) A rare teinturier grape – meaning, both its pulp and skin are red in color (whereas in most black skinned grapes, the flesh is white) – with a resistance to rot that made it very popular during during Prohibition among home winemakers.

b) A Petite Bouschet x Grenache crossing originally developed in 1866 by the French grape breeder Henri Bouschet (Petite Bouschet being a crossing of Aramon Noir x Teinturier du Cher developed by his father, Louis Bouschet, in 1824).

c) Both of the above.

Mettler Family Vineyards Petite Sirah (Mokelumne River, Lodi)

10. Petite Sirah (a.k.a. Durif)

a) May also be called Petite Syrah because it is clone of Syrah developed by a French botanist named Durif in the 1860s.

b) Has been erroneously thought to be a clone of Syrah, and is a crossing of Syrah and Peloursin grapes developed by a French botanist named Durif in the 1860s.

c) Is one of the officially sanctioned grapes of France’s Rhône Valley, often blended with grapes like Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce Côtes du Rhônes reds.

Phillips Farms Petite Sirah harvest

Answers:

1. c

2. c

3. a

4. b

5. c

6. c

7. a

8. c

9. c

10. b

Verdelho harvest in Silvaspoons Vineyards (Lodi's Alta Mesa AVA)

Renowned wine educator/writer Deborah Parker Wong, who will help lead our ZinFest blind tastiing

2017 Pre-ZinFest Blind Tasting: How do Lodi Wines Compare to the Best In the World?​

Lodi grapes and wines are... pretty darned good these days.

We like to think they’re special – having those pure, lush, ringing, smooth qualities very much in synch with the tastes of many of today’s consumers. And the variety of Lodi grown wines – ooh la la, so much more than the usual litany of varietal labels (Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc.) grown on the West Coast.

But exactly how do Lodi wines compare with comparable wines from other regions of the world, such as France, Spain, South Africa, or nearby Sonoma County? Are they lighter or heavier? Softer or rougher? Earthier or fruitier?

There’s only one good way to find out, and that’s through a blind tasting where we can compare the sensory qualities of Lodi wines with that of wines from other regions without the prejudice of knowing what we’re tasting.

Which we will do, for the first time as a pre-event leading up to Lodi’s annual ZinFest; taking place in the Lodi’s Wine & Roses Hotel Ballroom on Friday, May 19, 2017 (2:00-4:00 PM). We are inviting 50 consumers to sit down with a panel of professional wine educators to taste, and discuss, a total of 8 Lodi grown wines alongside 8 wines from other parts of the wine world.

We are calling this blind tasting what it is: A question of How Do Lodi Wines Compare to the Best In the World? Care to join us? If so, please visit this lodiwine.com page to sign up ($30 per person).

Our panel of experts leading the tasting will include lodiwine.com author Randy Caparoso (who is also Editor-at-Large for The SOMM Journal), Fred Swan CSW (Educator at San Francisco Wine School and author of norcalwine.com), and Deborah Parker Wong DWSET (Global Wine Editor of The Tasting Panel/The SOMM Journal, Director of Education of Wine and Spirits Education Trust, and Adjunct Professor of Santa Rosa Junior College).

We can’t give it all away (it’s a blind tasting, after all), but we will tell you that you will taste wines made from the following grape varieties, grown in these respective regions:

► Piquepoul (a Lodi wine vs. a South-West French version)

► Albariño (Lodi vs. Rías Baixas, Spain)

► Vermentino (Lodi vs. Corsica, France)

► Cinsaut (Lodi vs. South Africa)

► Grenache (Lodi vs. France's Southern Rhône)

► Zinfandel (Lodi vs. Dry Creek Valley)

► Carignan (Lodi vs. South-West France)

► Syrah (Lodi vs. France’s Northern Rhône Valley)

San Francisco Wine School/NorCal Wine's Fred Swan, one of our blind tasting panel/leaders

Tasting is always believing; but we asked one of our panelists, Deborah Parker Wong, what to expect when blind tasting Lodi wines next to wines from elsewhere in the world. According to Wong, these days it is not easy make distinctions between “New World” and “Old World” styles of wine in blind tastings. Mainly because even in “traditional” regions of Europe, “Benchmarks – whether distinct mono-varietals or blended wine styles – are beginning to give ground to broader ranges of style made to capture prevailing consumer interests.”

When asked to elaborate, Ms. Wong said: “Some examples of French Sauvignon Blanc from both Bordeaux and Sancerre, historically defined by mineral expressions associated with their regions, are now being made from grapes picked earlier to capture the pronounced (herbaceous) taste of pyrazines, to make wines that are similar to the popular New Zealand styles of Sauvignon Blanc.” Winemaking or commercial styles, in other words, are beginning to blur regional distinctions even in much older wine regions.

And so, ironically, during a time when more and more specialty producers in California are moving more towards wine styles reflecting a sense of place (i.e. terroir), there are “style shifts,” as Wong puts it, going on in other countries that are moving away from tradition; thus, “changing the way wine critics are assessing wine quality and style.”

What makes Lodi special: ancient vine (111 years old) Carignan

If anything, says Wong, “there is less style shift to contend with in Lodi, thanks to the diversity of grape varieties grown in Lodi that can correspond with very specific wine regions in the Old World.” Wong cites Lodi bottlings of old vine Carignan as an example; saying, “Languedoc in France still produces old vine Carignan, and because there aren’t many other regions in the world producing this style of wine, we have a better chance of distinguishing a Lodi Carignan from a Languedoc Carignan based upon terroir-related factors.”

This, of course, is the beauty of many of the alternative wines now being produced in Lodi: Varietals like Carignan, Cinsaut, Grenache, Vermentino and Albariño do not need to be hammered into styles equating to “flavors-of-the-moment” – mostly because these varietals are not huge commercial categories. They are, indeed, alternatives, appealing to the tastes of a minority of wine lovers; which means they do not have to kowtow to mass-market expectations.

And that’s why we think Lodi grapes and wines are special – even compared to similar wines from other wine regions and countries.

So let’s blind-taste and find out exactly how!

Spring Wine & Food Class in the Wine & Roses Hotel Ballroom

On this page we welcome guest blogger Robin Black, who pens Wine-Stained Lens when not plying her trade as a professional photographer (visit Robin Black Photography). Robin reports on a Lodi wine and food class that took place this past April, led (as it were) by our regular lodiwine.com author Randy Caparoso.

Robin Black

Take it away, Robin!

Days of Lodi Wine and (“Roses”) Food Pairings

When LoCA's Randy Caparoso asks if you might possibly have plans to be in Lodi the following weekend, you should probably say YES, even if you live in Los Angeles and did not, in fact, already have plans to be in Lodi. If it were me, that is – and it was, and I did say yes.

Randy Caparoso doing what he does (tasting wines with foods)

Randy was leading a culinary wine and food pairing class ("exploration" might be a better word) at Lodi's beautiful Wine & Roses Hotel a couple of weeks ago along with Executive Chef John Hitchcock, and I happily accepted the offer to cover the event for Lodi Wine.

As part of Wine & Roses' ongoing Cooking School offerings, the evening was somewhere between a class (ahem, exploration) and an elegant food and wine pairing featuring some of Lodi's best offerings.

The setting for our exploration of food and wine pairings at Lodi's Wine & Roses Hotel

Wine & Roses Hotel itself is a historic Lodi property which had its beginnings in 1903 as a private estate, and is a gorgeous setting for such an event. I had the privilege of staying at Wine & Roses that weekend, and it's a wonderful destination in its own right with the on-site Towne House restaurant and spa. The rooms are spacious and well-appointed, with an unmistakable air of luxury.

As I skimmed the menu for the dinner and pairing, three significant things jumped out at me:

1. There was a nod to classic pairings (caviar and bubbles, for starters).

2. Some challenging pairings – and by challenging, I mean dishes that employed unconventional flavors (and thus a challenge to find just the right wine) such as wasabi.

3. That some of Lodi's best wines (and several of my personal favorites) represented the region quite well in the company of great cuisine.

Yukon gold blini with crème fraîche and caviar, paired with LVVR's Lodi appellation sparkling wines

French Laundry Yukon Blini, Caviar, Crème Fraîche, Lemon Zest

First up, and perfectly so, was the Yukon Gold blini with caviar, crème fraîche and lemon zest – this French Laundry recipe was paired with two Lodi sparklers, a Brut and a Blanc de Blancs from Lodi’s LVVR Sparkling Cellars. The two nonvintage sparkling wines are produced in the méthode Champenoise style and were an ideal accompaniment to the lighter-than-air blini and the hit of salty-briny caviar. Both are fine sparkling wines with their traditional production method evident in the yeasty, bready nose; these were both new Lodi wines for me, and I still can't decide on a favorite. I thought both paired really well with this small bite, and provided a great introduction for the assembled crowd to begin thinking about the relationship between food and wine.

Billi Bi - a traditional French cream of saffron mussel soup

Billi Bi – Cream of Saffron Mussel Soup

The second offering, Billi Bi - a traditional French cream of saffron mussel soup, was served as a small bite on porcelain spoon, and was the first real wake-you-up flavor of the night with the mouthful-of-ocean taste of the mussel. Paired with that was Markus Wine Co.'s 2016 Nativo, a bone-dry and intensely aromatic blend of German varietals (Kerner, Riesling, Bacchus and Gewùrztraminer) from the Koth family’s Mokelumne Glen Vineyard in Lodi's Mokelumne River AVA. 

This particular vineyard, which boasts more than 50 German varietals – many of them the only such plantings in the United States – is one of Lodi's most remarkable hidden gems, and winemaker Markus Niggli creates some of the most compelling and original wines from them. The Billi Bi is a tricky pairing, because it does best with a white wine, but needs a white that can stand up to the strong flavors of the dish. The Nativo's elegant and spicy acidity was the perfect choice (and I'm currently working on a profile of Markus Niggli, which I hope to publish next week).

Sommelier Randy Caparoso guides the attendees through a series of wine and food pairings featuring Lodi's best wines (and cuisine).

This particular pairing, along with the oyster with wasabi that followed, was the ideal platform for Caparoso to go into a subject area that few in the business know better (not to mention had an active hand in developing) – how to pair wine with decidedly non-French, non-traditional (European) flavors of spice and umami (also see Caparoso's Umami, At Long Last Deconstructed). 

After years as a sommelier and wine program manager for more traditional French restaurants, Caparoso joined up with Hawaiian Chef Roy Yamaguchi and would go on to co-found the Roy's Restaurant franchise, ultimately reaching 28 locations across the globe. Roy's helped popularize the pan-Asian cuisine that now seems omnipresent, but that cuisine presents a spectrum of flavors that do not immediately and obviously bring to mind the kind of wine pairings familiar in more traditional Euro-centric restaurants.

Wine pairings, Caparoso told the class, should take into consideration contrast as well as similarity. "Food should make the wine taste better, too" (not just the other way around).  Think of wine AS food, he said – or, as an ingredient with the food. With food featuring flavors of spice and umami, use that idea of contrast when you begin to search for wines that will pair well with those kinds of dishes.

The Kumamoto oyster with micro wasabi and Asian pear (my favorite small bite of the evening)

Fried Kumamoto Oyster, Micro Wasabi, Asian Pear

And indeed, the next pairing was a great example of what Caparoso was talking about. The fried Kumamoto oyster with micro wasabi and Asian pear had exactly that pan-Asian personality, with the subtle but sharp heat of the wasabi lifting the savory fried oyster to a whole new level.

So what goes with wasabi? Forget the Asahi and Sapporo. Wine absolutely can be successfully paired with this flavor, and it doesn't have to be the most oft-parroted suggestion of a dry Riesling. With this, the 2016 Fields Family Wines' Vermentino was dry, tart, and perfect. Flavors of Meyer lemon and lemon grass, a slight salinity and solid minerality – that citrus backbone balanced so well with the fried oyster, and held its own against the wasabi component of the dish.

Randy Caparoso and Executive Chef John Hitchcock discuss the pairings with the class

We enjoyed a third wine in the mix with the appetizers before heading on to the main course – Acquiesce Winery's 2016 Grenache Rosé.  We were encouraged to try the two whites and the Grenache Rosé with both of the appetizers as a way of experiencing how a dish can pair well with a variety of wines. This traditionally styled rosé, with a strong nod to its French roots, is dry, with abundant fruit and a little of that trademark spice that the Grenache grape shows so well. And it was a great transition into the wines featured with the next course.

Plating the seared sous-vide squab with the beautifully brunoised ratatouille

Seared Squab, Pan Jus, Ratatouille

The entrée for the evening, seared squab with pan jus and ratatouille, was a simple, traditional and stunningly presented dish. Instead of the traditional rustic presentation, Chef Hitchcock and his staff prepared a meticulously brunoised (i.e. julienned and diced) take on this dish; that careful and skillful touch elevated an already-great dish; the aesthetics and texture were simply lovely. The squab was prepared sous-vide (i.e. vacuum-sealed and steamed) and then seared and dressed with pan jus.

And to go with this hearty but not heavy dish? Two stellar Grenaches: Bokisch Vineyards' 2014 Garnacha (the Spanish name for the Spanish variety perhaps better known by its adopted Rhône identity), and McCay Cellars' 2014 Grenache. This is a lightish/mediumish-bodied variety, with lively spice and fruit, and both iterations of this wine tasted beautifully with the squab. These wines are a wonderful testament to Lodi's ability to produce high quality reds that are a universe apart from the big Zinfandels which built Lodi's reputation over the last century-plus.

Artful plating takes our dessert course from this...

... to this

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, Rhubarb & Strawberry Salad, Micro Mint Lavender

The final course (dessert, of course) struck me as a perfectly pitched, almost sentimental nod to Lodi. The vanilla bean panna cotta with rhubarb and strawberry salad with micro mint and lavender was light and creamy, with the seasonal, local rhubarb and strawberries throwing a balancing note of tartness. It was paired with perhaps the Lodi-iest of Lodi wines: Jessie's Grove's Ancient Vine Tokay. Flame Tokay – a Vitis vinifera variety that was more commonly grown and consumed as a table grape – was the leading grape crop in Lodi before seedless varieties eclipsed it over the last quarter-century (I could, and very well may, devote an entire post to this fascinating grape). It's made in a White Port wine style – so it's lightly fortified – and never sits heavily on the palate.

New Culinary Director Bradley Ogden (left) speaks to the group at the end of the evening

It was a beautiful way to close out a great evening, and as the class lingered over the dessert, Wine & Roses proprietor Kathy Munson introduced James Beard Award-winning Chef Bradley Ogden, who joins Executive Chef John Hitchcock as the hotel's new Culinary Director. It's exciting to look forward to what these two great culinary minds will come up with as a team (and also a good time to note that Wine & Roses has several dinners on its summer schedule, each featuring a particular Lodi winery).

A recap of the wines:

(Nonvintage) LVVR, Lodi Sparkling Brut ($20)

(Nonvintage) LVVR, Lodi Blanc de Blancs ($20)

2016 Markus Wine Co., Lodi Nativo (Kerner/Riesling/Bacchus/Gewürztraminer; $22)

2016 Fields Family Wines, Delu Vineyard Lodi Vermentino ($19)

2016 Acquiesce, Lodi Grenache Rosé ($24)

2014 Bokisch Vineyards, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Garnacha ($20)

2014 McCay Cellars, Lodi Grenache ($35)

2011 Jessie's Grove, Lodi Ancient Vine Tokay ($35)

Painting in Wine & Roses Hotel Ballroom

When strolling through the park one day... in the merry merry month of May ...- Ed Haley (The Fountain In the Park)

Lodi’s yearly ZinFest comes up in two weekends (May 19-20, 2017)!

Besides the fact that it happens during the merry month of May (or, as the old English poem goes... so frolic, so gay, and so green, so green!), there are several great reasons why you should be there:

• It’s not just about Zinfandel. Sure, Lodi is known for Zinfandel, but ZinFest is also the opportunity for Lodi wineries (at least 40 of them) to show off wines made from a refreshing variety of grapes (like zingy Albariños and groovy Grenache Blancs, light and lacy red Grenaches and soulful heritage vine Carignans, delectably bone dry rosés and more, so much more!).

Enjoying a view of lush Lodi Lake Park from across Lodi Lake during ZinFest

• There will be live music (including a piano bar, strolling minstrels and big stage bands), lots of food (regional delicacies available for purchase), eclectically “American” barbecue (because it’s its own food group, thus given its own ZinFest demonstration tent, re Why Lodi is a barbecue lover's dream), and the giant, ever-popular ZinFest Cooking School tent.

• It takes place among the towering oaks, cypress trees and plush, green carpets of Lodi Lake Park, surrounded on three sides by Lodi Lake and the rolling Mokelumne River. Think gentle Delta breezes and tingly spring sun. Good times, luscious Lodi wines or not!

• If you wanna geek out, there is a ZinFest Wine School tent (re Fun-tastic Schools), where two guest speakers – Fred Swan (a journalist and multi-accredited educator from San Francisco Wine School) and Deborah Parker Wong (a published wine author who also teaches the WSET courses taken by Master of Wine aspirants) – will be sharing their incredible experence and knowledge.

Enjoying the refreshing white wines of Lodi at ZinFest

• There will be easily over 200 wines to taste – did we mention, a lot more than Zinfandel? – or rather, preferably, to discreetly sip and spit (non-imbibing Designated Driver Tickets are also available for $15).

Here is where you can buy your ZinFest tickets online.

If you’re already signed up, or are planning to, do not forget that at 2 PM the day before (Friday, May 19, 2017), there is a Pre-ZinFest Blind Tasting; where, for just $30, participants can taste 8 Lodi grown wines alongside 8 comparable wines grown elsewhere in the world (in this case, France, Spain, South Africa and Sonoma County). Re Lodi Wines vs. The Best In the World. This extremely educational tasting will be guided by the illustrious Fred Swan and Deborah Parker Wong, along with your own lodiwine.com author.

San Francisco Wine School's Fred Swan at blind tasting of Lodi wines

Finally, speaking of which: Did you know that your lodiwine.com blog was just rated #15 in Feedspot’s Best 100 Wine Blogs on the web? They like us, they really like us.

Oh, what a merry month it is!

And a few more images of ZinFest blasts from past...

Tasting wine at ZinFest Wine School

How to taste wine (without the gobbleygook)

Ready to get into the Lodi ZinFest swing of things?

Tasting wine is not as complicated as you think. It is, in fact, just like tasting food, except it involves a liquid in a glass, and getting accustomed to a five-part process involving

• Seeing
• Swirling
• Smelling
• Sipping
• Spitting

As Yogi Berra might have said, you can see a lot by looking, and so it is just as important to look at a wine before you taste it as it is to look at a dish before you eat it. Mostly because our senses of smell and taste are most definitely connected to our visual sense. If you see a lemon, you expect to taste a fruit that is extremely tart or sour. If you see a grilled steak, you expect something meaty and drippy. Just like if you see a white wine, you expect something cool, fairly light and refreshing. Or if you see a red wine, you expect a a dryer, meaty or richly textured taste.

Then you begin the process of tasting, which you start by swirling wine around in your glass. Swirling wine in a glass is not an affectation. The reason you swirl a wine is to allow it fall down the sides and create the vapors that you smell and perceive as aromas. This is why good wine glasses are usually clear, tulip shaped, come with a stem, and best poured to only a third full at a time – to contain the vapors and keep you from spilling as you swirl.

Start by holding your glass by the stem (always hold wine glasses by the stem, not the bowl), and gently twirl in circular motion. If this feels awkward, you can practice by moving your glass around in a little circle as it sits on the table.

Then it’s time to smell. As you bring your nose to the rim of the glass, open your mind up to what it reminds you of.  Chardonnays, for instance, are often reminiscent of apple or pineapple; often with a touch of vanilla or creaminess (the latter aromas, usually a reflection of the white oak barrels in which Chardonnay is often aged). Cabernet Sauvignons typically smell like dark fruits, such as blackcurrant and blackberry; often with a little bit of green pepper, mint or eucalyptus – all natural characteristics of the grape. Red wines made from Zinfandel grapes typically have raspberry or cherry-like aromas; often with a hint of spice (usually liked cracked black pepper, cinnamon or clove). 

Harney Lane Winery's Kyle Lerner pouring refreshingly dry rosé at ZinFest

The idea is that if you can’t smell wine then you really can’t taste it, since flavor is related directly to smell. Think of days when you have a bad cold and your nose is congested, and almost everything you eat tastes like paper. No smell, no flavor; which goes for food, and especially for wine. That’s why you swirl before you smell your wine – the idea is to enhance the smell, and thus flavor, of every wine you taste.

Finally it’s time to sip, which for wine entails discovering how the natural elements of alcohol, acidity, and (for red wine) tannin come together with the aromas to create a pleasant (hopefully!) flavor as it sits on the tongue just before it is swallowed.

Under normal circumstances – like sitting at a table, enjoying a wine with your meal – you let the wine slide right down your throat. But when you are participating in an event like ZinFest, when you plan to taste dozens upon dozens of different wines, it is most definitely not a great idea to swallow every wine you taste.

Virtually all of us are technically intoxicated when we consume a full bottle of wine, and there are only 25.4 ounces in a bottle. Therefore, if you swallow 1 ounce each of 25 different wines, there is no way you can fully enjoy a big wine tasting event such as ZinFest. But if you practice spitting out your wine (discreetly into a cup, or onto the grass), you can fully enjoy the taste of dozens of wines – and there will be at least 200 different (mostly wonderful) wines to choose from at ZinFest!

ZinFest wine tasting with style

In respect to a wine’s feel on the palate, it is alcohol content that gives a sense of “body,” which is a good word to use when describing whether a wine is light, heavy, or somewhere in-between. Sauvignon Blancs that are around 12%-13% alcohol, for instance, usually taste lighter than Chardonnays, which are typically over 14% in alcohol. Zinfandels over 15% in alcohol taste fuller in body than Zinfandels closer to 13% alcohol.

Red wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, Syrah and Petite Sirah are almost always very full in alcohol (14% or more). Generous levels of tannin – phenolic sensations derived from the skins and seeds of grapes (since red wines are always fermented with skins and seeds) – further accentuate the feel of body. Although red wines made from grapes such as Grenache or Pinot Noir grape can be just as high in alcohol, they may very well taste lighter or softer in body simply because they are thinner skinned grapes, and thus typically lower in tannin than wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Finally, it is time to make a sober quality assessment. Did you enjoy the look, the aroma and taste of a wine, or was it just so-so?  Many people can’t abide by dry wines, which they find bitter or harsh; although most people these days really don’t like wines that are even a little sweet, finding them cloying or annoying. Like most anything in life, taste in wine is, in fact, a matter of taste. And we can all have “good taste” without having exactly the same taste.

At ZinFest Wine School, m2's Layne Montgomery and Turley's Tegan Passalacqua lead tasting

 If you have a democratic, or catholic, taste (in the sense of appreciating just about any wine that is well made or finely crafted), then what you probably look for more than anything is a sense of balance, or a certain harmony or smoothness, whether the wine is dry or a little sweet, light or full bodied, white or red, pink or bubbley.

And if you truly enjoy the taste of a wine? Try to remember it; or better yet, jot down a note. In big events like ZinFest, who can remember everything you taste? Half the joy of fine wine is appreciating it with our minds or intellect, as much as our senses.

Finally, all the words you need to know to talk about wine

Entire books and magazines, of course, are devoted to the description of wines, and the subject can be quite complex, since there is are a seemingly endless number of good wines produced in the world these days.

ZinFest wine lovers

In the everyday setting, however, you need only be able to communicate the taste of wine to guests in basically six ways:

Color or appearance – is it still or sparkling… pink, white or red… deep, almost purplish red… or a lighter, brick toned red?

Aroma (i.e. the wine’s “flavor” once it hits the palate) – what does it remind you of… a certain fruit, a spice, flower, or even mineral?

Dryness/sweetness — some degree of sweetness, or none at all?

Body or weight — is it light, full, or just “medium”?

Acidity (particularly for whites and sparklers) – is it zesty or tart… or the opposite, soft and round?

Tannin level (particularly for reds) – big or hard… light and soft… somewhere in between?

And that’s it; all the words you need. Enjoy your Lodi ZinFest experience!

ZinFest wine enthusiast

Oak Farm Vineyards owner Dan Panella at Vintners Grille with Lodi style bone dry rosé

Over 5,000 wine lovers cannot be wrong! That's how many gathered in Lodi wine country this past weekend to enjoy a Friday Vintners Grille, where they were able to rub shoulders and boogie under the stars with Lodi growers and winemakers, as well as the big, annual Saturday ZinFest Wine Festival bash.

As an indication of how far the reach of Lodi grapes and wines has grown, about a quarter of 2017's ZinFesters counted themselves as out-of-staters; coming from as far flung as Canada, Texas and Tennessee, the East Coast and Hawaii, and seemingly everywhere in between.

Weekend temperatures up and down the state hit the 90s, but Lodi's ZinFest proved to be the place to be, as it takes place in the lush, bucolic setting of Lodi Lake Park, surrounded on three sides by Lodi Lake and the Mokelumne River, with their icy waters flowing down from the Sierra spring snow melt.

Combine that with century-old oaks and towering weeping willows, you have a fairly heat-resistant wine festival; although glasses of the many fine dry, Provençal inspired rosés and light, zesty alternative style whites (can you say Albariño, Kerner, Garnacha Blanca, Vermentino and Verdelho, etc.?) now grown and crafted in the breezy Delta were certainly as welcome as sips of Lodi's ruby red pièce de resistances (from Alicante Bouschet to Tempranillo, Teroldego and, of course, immortal Zinfandel).

But like we said, thousands of thoroughly enthused Lodi wine lovers, from the most casual to the geekiest, cannot be wrong, as these colorful photo-memories will attest...

Colorful wine lovers at the ZinFest Vintners Grille

What it's all about, Lodi Zinfandel

Inviting tables under silky white drapes at ZinFest's Vintners Grille

Keeper of the Zins at Vintners Grille

Entrance to the big Vintners Grille tent

Turquoise and joyfully dry Lodi rosé

Lodi Winegrape Commission Executive Director Wendy Brannen with winemaker Chad Joseph at Vintners Grille

Klinker Brick's head winemaker Joseph Smith (right) with Cellarmaster Chris Rivera

Enjoying dry Lodi rosés by the lake at Vintners Griille

Heritage Oak owner/winemaker Tom Hoffman (left) with PRIE Winery's John and Lisa Gash

Vintners Grille goes into rock 'n roll mode

P.R. mogul Katie Ballou Calhoun with ZinFest speaker/educator Deborah Parker Wong and blogger "Emily the Jetsetting Fashionista" at Vintners Grille

Lodi ZinFest ready to get started

ZinFesters enjoying Michael David Winery's Freakshow reds

The LangeTwins Family's ZinFest tables

Lodi Lake from Lodi Lake Park

Lodi Winegrape Commission staff arrives to get ZinFest rolling

The Fields Family Wines gang

Appropriately parasoled shady ladies

Sipping discreetly at the Maley Brothers table

ZinFesters talking wine and good times

Beautiful clear bottles of Acquiesce wines

Dr. Stephanie Bolton, Lodi Winegrape Commission's Director of Grower Communications, educating ZinFesters on Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing

The educational side of Lodi ZinFest

Wine lover taking in a ZinFest Wine School class on Bechthold Vineyard, Lodi's oldest historic vineyard (planted in 1886!)

San Francisco Wine School educator Fred Swan leading tasting on Bechthold Vineyard Cinsauts

Guest speaker Deborah Parker Wong DWSET taking notes and preparing for her Wine School presentation on Lodi grown Spanish and Portuguese varietals

Ripken Vineyard owner/grower Rip Ripken waiting to speak at ZinFest Wine School

ZinFest Wine School audience

Tasting Bokisch Graciano at ZinFest Wine School

New generation wine lovers at ZinFest Wine School

Celebrity Chef Chad Rosenthal enthralls crowd of barbecue lovers during his "Up In Smoke" demonstrations

Beautiful sight: rich, pungent, velvety smooth Lodi Zinfandel

Curious ZinFest wine lovers at Harney Lane Winery table

Some very serious ZinFest wine lovers

The red haired "ZinFest lady"

At ZinFest Wine School, Lodi winemakers cooling their jets: Bob Colarossi (Estate Crush), Markus Niggli (Markus Wine Co.), Mike McCay (McCay Cellars), and David Phillips (Michael David Winery)

A "Mighty Wind" moment at Lodi ZinFest

Another satisfied ZinFest wine lover

Harney Lane Winery owner/growers Jorja and Kyle Lerner

Another great idea at Lodi ZinFest

Entrance to ZinFest Cooking School beside Lodi Lake

Lodi ZinFest bean bag toss (why not?)

Bottle service under big tent at Lodi ZinFest

Wine lovers gathered under shade at ZinFest Piano Bar

Piano man Joe Spraker at ZinFest Piano Bar

Relaxing in style on the grass at ZinFest Wine Bar

Hanging loose alongside Mokelumne River at Lodi ZinFest

Group shot alongside Mokelumne River at Lodi ZinFest

Feeling good at Lodi ZinFest

Tasting around the barrel head at Lodi ZinFest

All about the wine (and shoes) at Lodi ZinFest

Chilling out under gigantic weeping willow tree in Lodi Lake Park

For this ZinFester, two glasses is definitely better than one

Good times, great wines at Lodi ZinFest

The cool crowd at Riaza Wines table

#RealThingAtLodiZinFest

Korduroy takes the big ZinFest stage with their irresistably rhythmetic Afro/Latin/reggae-funk jazz vibes

Isaac Lopez (front-center) leads San Joaquin Valley's amazing Korduroy

Lodi grape grower Ben Kolber sits in with Korduroy

Korduroy's guitar, bass and rhythm section

Enjoying Korduroy's rocking Latin influenced jazz

Groovin' to the live music under the big tent at Lodi ZinFest

McCay Cellars' Mike and Linda McCay (left and right) with P.R. mogul Katie Ballou Calhoun and her husband Alexander

Time for a ZinFest refill

End of another great ZinFest!

Snap Jackson & the Knock on Wood Players serenading the ZinFesters

Banner along Lodi Lake walkway

At the end of the day, the real "Lodi natives" reclaiming their lake and river

It's a wrap for another memorable Lodi ZinFest

Blind tasting in Lodi's Wine & Roses Hotel Ballroom

How do Lodi wines compare to the best in the world?

That was the question put forth to an audience of 60 wine lovers – nearly half of them, Lodi wine professionals (winemakers, owners, winery managers, et al.), plus consumers – this past Friday, May 19 in a blind tasting comparing 8 Lodi wines with 8 similar wines from France, Spain, South Africa and Sonoma County. This was extra-curricular event taking place during 2017’s Lodi ZinFest weekend at Lodi's resplendent Wine & Roses Hotel & Spa.

Needless to say, there is no such thing as “best” of any category of wine, despite what some popular wine critics may suggest through their 100-point evaluation systems. We only used the term to draw interest to this tasting, which was primarily conducted to demonstrate

1. How Lodi grown wines compare on a sensory basis to wines made from the same grapes grown elsewhere in the world.

2. The fact that many of the more artisanal style Lodi wines do indeed express as much sense of place (or terroir) as any wines in the world.

The blind tasting bottles, following unveiling

Whether or not a consumer or wine professional may consider, say, an Albariño grown in Lodi to be better, worse or equal to an Albariño grown in Spain is neither here nor there. To each their own. What’s more important is the conversation about how they may differ or resemble each other, and celebrating the specialness of each and all.

To help the audience sort through the sensory delineations, we invited two educator/journalists widely known for their extraordinary wine tasting ability and eloquence to lead everyone through the eight rounds of wines:

• Fred Swan DWSET, CSW – Educator at San Francisco Wine School and author of NorCal Wine at fredswan.wine

• Deborah Parker Wong DWSET – Global Wine Editor of The Tasting Panel/The SOMM Journal, Director of Education of Wine and Spirits Education Trust, and Adjunct Professor at Santa Rosa Junior College

Our panelists, Fred Swan DWSET, CSW (center) and Deborah Parker Wong DWSET with the author

Both our panelists and participants were aware of the grape variety tasted in each round, but were not told the names of the producers of any of the bottlings, nor the exact origins of the wines being compared to the Lodi wines.

The identity of the wines (plus pertinent information) revealed at the end of the tasting:

Round 1 - Piquepoul

• 2016 Acquiesce Winery, Lodi Picpoul Blanc ($22); Mokelumne River AVA (east side)                 

• 2015 Cave de Pomerols, HB Picpoul de Pinet ($13.99); Languedoc-Rousillon, France; wine.com

Round 2 – Albariño

• 2015 Palacio de Fefinanes Albarino ($26.99); Rías Baixas, Spain; Kysela Père et Fils; wine.com                                                                                                           

• 2015 Bokisch Vineyards, Terra Alta Vineyard Clements Hills-Lodi Albariño ($18)

Round 3 - Vermentino

• 2015 PRIE Winery, Delu Vineyard Lodi Vermentino ($21); Alta Mesa-Lodi AVA

• 2014 Antoine Arena, Patrimonio Blanc “Carco” ($45); Corsica, France; Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant

Round 4 – Cinsaut

• 2014 Waterkloof, “Seriously Cool” Cinsault ($24.99); Stellenbosch, South Africa; wine.com

• 2012 Onesta Wines, Bechthold Vineyard Lodi Cinsault ($29); vines planted in 1886; Mokelumne River AVA (west side)

Round 5 – Grenache

• 2013 McCay Cellars, Lodi Grenache ($35); Abba Vineyard; Mokelumne River AVA (east side)

• 2014 Domaine Gramenon, Côtes-du-Rhône Rouge “La Sagesse” ($39); 60-year old vines; 100% Grenache; Southern Rhône Valley, France; Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant

Round 6 – Carignan                                                 

• 2015 Domaine Maxime Magnon, Corbières Rouge “Campagnès” ($47); +100-year old vines; field crush; 95% Carignan (plus Grenache, Syrah, Grenache Gris, Macabou and Terret); Languedoc-Rousillon, France; Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant   

• 2014 Klinker Brick Winery, Lodi Carignane ($25); Rauser Vineyard; Mokelumne River AVA (east side); vines planted in 1909

"Lodi Natives" during blind tasting

Round 7 – Zinfandel

• 2014 Lodi Native, Maley’s Lucas Rd. Vineyard Mokelumne River-Lodi Zinfandel ($35); by Macchia Wines (west side of Mokelumne River AVA)

• 2015 Ridge Geyserville; vines up to +130 years old; field crush; 70% Zinfandel, 15% Carignan, 12% Petite Sirah, 3% Alicante Bouschet; Alexander Valley

Round 8 – Syrah

• 2015 Domaine Faury, Saint-Joseph Rouge ($36); 100% Syrah; “younger” vines cuvée (planted between 1979 and 2007); Northern Rhône Valley, France; Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant

• 2014 Fields Family Wines, Estate Mokelumne River-Lodi Syrah ($25)

Fred Swan (center) making a point during blind tasting

So how did the comparisons fare? Here are some post-event comments furnished by some of the winemakers in attendance, plus our two panelists:

Fred Swan:

All of the wines showed very well, and the Lodi wines were on an equal footing with those from other regions. The tasting showed Lodi’s versatility – so many varieties can thrive there – and the flexibility that the climate and soils gives to winemakers. Lodi producers offer compelling wines, red and white, at varying levels of fruit intensity, savoriness, acidity and alcohol.

Deborah Parker Wong:

I was truly awed by the exercise! Using deductive tasting and an understanding of the terroir factors, I had to work to differentiate most of the wines – something that reflected very well on the Lodi winemakers in terms of communicating varietal typicity and terroir.

First, the Lodi wines proved themselves to be varietally correct in that they expressed the grape very much as it would be found in one of its home meso-terroirs; and by that I mean one of the sub-region or vineyard terroirs at the variety’s point of origin. All the Lodi wines in this tasting met or exceeded my expectations, especially for the quality at their price points.

Bagged bottles waiting to be unveiled

For example, the Acquiesce Picpoul with its pear-golden apple aromas and ripe green apple palate and mineral expression tasted like a wine from the dry, gentle meso-climate of the warmer plateau terroir of Picpoul de Pinet AOP. Picpoul can be a blend of the AOP’s three different terroirs. The French wine turned out to be greener and more citrus dominant, which pointed me to the cooler Thau Basin coastal vineyards of chalk and clay.
 
The Lodi Native Zinfandel from the  Maley’s Lucas Rd. Vineyard was an example of winemaking that completely changed my attitude about this variety when I first started tasting in Lodi. Perfectly balanced with just the right amount of extraction and very focused mid-palate, its stylistic difference made it immediately distinguishable from its Sonoma counterpart, the Ridge Geyserville. Recognizing style is one thing, but the light-handed touch used in making this wine was masterful.
 
Each of the varieties showcased – Picpoul, Albariño, Vermentino, Cinsaut, Grenache, Carginan, Zinfandel and Syrah – had something to say about what’s possible in Lodi. I found the wines all exceeded my expectations for quality at their price point, and gave the point of origin wines a real run for their money. Not something that can always be said when running domestic small lot wines up against imports.
 
Thanks to the selection of wines chosen for this tasting, it was truly challenging to differentiate the wines without having some level of exposure to both the Lodi wines and the point of origin wines. Even then, making the right call was a matter of an educated guess, and a little bit of luck!

Markus Niggli (owner/winemaker, Markus Wine Co./Borra Vineyards): 

My white wine of the afternoon was the Bokisch Terra Alta Vineyard Albariño. What a surprise; tasting completely like wine from Rías Baixas, but actually grown and produced in Lodi! This playful, totally light and refreshing white wine showed beautiful aromas of stone fruit, flint, and citrus. Picture the ocean and cool climate growing, but where is the ocean in Lodi? By comparison, the Albariño from Spain was actually much heavier in body, orange peel and lemon flavor. I didn’t expect this, but was happily surprised to find a Lodi white to be so attractive.
 
My red wine of the afternoon: Klinker Brick’s Carignan. What a great fruit explosion in the glass. Deep black berry flavors, a solid oak program, with an incredible intensity – what a wine for $25! Coming in a very close second place, I have to say, was the French counterpart Domaine Maxime Magnon Corbières Rouge for $47 – a great wine as well, with a great portion of funk and upfront richness in the mouth.
 
Onesta’s 2012 Cinsault from the Bechthold Vineyard was also a beautiful bottle of wine; and for me, clearly winning the test against the 2014 Waterkloof Cinsault from South Africa.
 
Field Family’s Syrah had a very hard competitor with the 2015 Domaine Faury Saint-Joseph Rouge from the Northern Rhône, but both wines showed great complexity in their own ways.
 
It is so good to see, that Lodi has these special vineyards which produce these fantastic grapes for these styles of wine. This is how Lodi should present itself against other wine regions. The first step to success starts in the vineyards.

Winemaker Markus Niggli (right) evaluating reds during blind tasting

Jillian Johnson DeLeon (owner/winemaker, Onesta Wines):

The focus of the tasting was to compare Lodi wines to the best wines of the world. I’m not sure Lodi wines are ready to go up against the “best” wines of the world. Maybe a tasting comparing Lodi varietal wines to the “typical” wines from the varietal origin. I found a couple of the comparisons to be very mismatched.

The Northern Rhône Syrah with high percentage of whole cluster fermentation, rich in violet and lavender, was nothing like the Syrah that comes from Lodi. Grenache from California is always going to look feeble when tasted next to a French Grenache or Spanish Garnacha. We just don’t have what it takes to get the rich texture and dark color in European grown Grenache.

While the reds were easy to pick the Lodi wine, I found the whites much more difficult to discern. The Albariño and Vermentino wines coming out of Lodi are excellent – bright acidity, big citrus fruit and a mineral core that tricks my palate into thinking “European” for sure. I was really impressed with the white flights in this tasting.

Ryan Sherman (winemaker/co-owner, Fields Family Wines):

Of course I loved the South African Cinsault – that’s my wheelhouse, for sure (Fields Family also produces Lodi grown Bechthold Vineyard Cinsault). The Grenache from McCay was pretty; almost too pretty by comparison – definitely Californian, but very nice.

The surprise for me – and most enjoyable wine of the tasting (except maybe for the South African Cinsault) as well as, a few of my fellow industry peoples – was no question the Albariño by Bokisch. It was outstanding – no way anyone pegs that as “Lodi,” let alone California Albariño. Outstanding job by Elyse Perry (Bokisch Vineyards winemaker), and the finest iteration yet in my humble opinion.
        
The 2014 Lodi Native Zinfandel from Maley’s Lucas Rd. was great – super pretty and delicate. The 2015 Ridge Geyserville was a bit more rustic- more ripe but in a good way – just a bit too young now.

Finally, the Syrahs: I buy a lot of Northern Rhône Syrah, and the Domaine Faury from Kermit Lynch has always been one of my favorites. Saint-Joseph is very elegant and full of energy; at the same time more on the delicate side – typical of the appellation. I like our Syrah with a bit more bottle age – our 2014 definitely shows great character and liveliness, but is still a bit young. For instance, our 2013 now with two years’ bottle age is just remarkable – pretty and elegant.

Lisa Gash (owner, PRIE Vineyards):

I would say that this tasting shows Lodi in positive light. Wines from Lodi can be made similar to or even better than their old world counterparts. In some cases, Lodi wines  can express a specific varietal better than where the varietal originated!

Between us, I think our Vermentino had Mr. (Fred) Swan convinced that it was Italian version; as after it was revealed and placed on the table, he poured himself another taste and reconsidered it. He did that with one of the reds as well. So if we can impress some of the experts, we are headed in the right direction. (Our own note: We don’t think Mr. Swan was actually “fooled” – but he did enjoy going back to re-taste the wines after they were unveiled).

I liked most of the Lodi versions for their fruit forwardness as well as their complexity and varietal steadfastness. After trying to figure out which was which, I also noted which of each pairing I liked best, and invariably it was the Lodi wines!

SPECIAL THANKS

We’d like to express our gratitude to the following for helping to put this edifying blind tasting together:

♦ Anthony Lynch, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant; who personally recommended all the French wines (apart from the Picpoul de Pinet) in the tasting

♦ Nikki Scott DWS, CSW – wine.com’s Recommendations Specialist & Merchandising Coordinator, who ably suggested the Picpoul de Pinet, Waterkloof Cinsault and Palacio de Fefinanes Albariño precisely per our stylistic requests

♦ David Amadia, President of Ridge Vineyards; who generously donated bottles of the all-time classic Ridge Geyserville to help us discern basic differences between Sonoma County and Lodi grown Zinfandel

STOCKTON RECORD ON "HOW DO LODI WINES STACK UP?"

Earlier this week Stockton Record’s resident wine (and sports) scribe Bob Highfill published his report on this blind tasting; sharing his wine notes as well as that of our two expert panelists, Mr. Swan and Ms. Parker Wong: How Do Lodi Wines Stack Up?

Delicato Family Vineyards viticulturist Bud Bradley, with 1940s-era head trained, extended spur pruned Zinfandel in Lodi's Kramer Vineyard (the original inspiration behind their Gnarly Head program)

Although the Lodi Viticultural Area is becoming increasingly well known for its wide range of grapes and varietal wine types, the region’s single most important ambassador remains the classic Zinfandel grape, now produced primarily as a red wine (as the popularity of fruity, pink colored “White Zinfandel” continues to wane).

Lodi grown Zinfandel, of course, is also associated with the region’s thousands of acres of “old vine” plantings – largely planted between the 1890s (the oldest) and 1970s. The best selling bottling by Delicato Family Vineyards (i.e. DFV) – sold under their Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel label – is based upon the meager yet intensely flavorful fruits of these phenomenally wizened, gnarled, head trained, spur pruned vines; most of them planted on their own rootstocks in the rich yet porous (Tokay) sandy loam soils defining the historic Mokelumne River AVA, surrounding the City of Lodi.

DFV’s current vintage – labeled as the 2015 Gnarly Head Lodi “Old Vine Zin” – is opulent in black cherry and black tea-like aromas, harmonized with faintly smoky, pepper and cigar-like spice. The feel is round and svelte, full without being “big” (at an industry-standard 14.5% alcohol), meaty without being drying, rough or tumble. A sip almost compels you to fire up the barbecue grill and get cookin’.

One of the nation’s fastest growing, the yearly production of Gnarly Head label Zinfandel is currently up to about 150,000 cases. The wine is sold in all 50 states, although a good 70% of the total production is actually exported internationally; particularly to Canada and Europe. Says Elizabeth Rice, DFV’s Director of International Marketing & Operations, “Most of our European customers want old vine Zinfandel because it is ‘unique’ to California, and has the taste profile they prefer. Sales of all our Gnarly Head bottlings are up 11% year-to-date, which is due to our new label launches and increased distribution.”

According to Bud Bradley, Gnarly Head’s longtime viticulturist, “There is no question that head trained old vines produce Zinfandel superior to younger vines trained on trellises. You may ask why there is a difference, and I’ll tell you straight up – older, mature head trained vines do not over-crop themselves like trellised vines.

5-year old head trained Lodi Zinfandel on stakes, held together on a single top wire to allow for mechanical harvesting

"It’s only after these vines reach a certain level of maturity – usually after about 35 years in the ground – that their arms (or spurs) become ‘gnarly,’ and more importantly, long enough to open up their (leaf) canopies so they have the exact right amount of shade and exposure to sunlight to ripen fruit without burning the Zinfandel fruit’s delicate skin, and enough air movement to resist rot during the later stages of ripening. That’s when a vine has settled into a perfect balance of moderate yield and superior quality.

“With younger vines on trellis, on the other hand, you have to do much more leaf thinning, dropping of fruit, shoot removal, and careful monitoring of irrigation just to achieve a balance of yield and quality that an older, head trained vines can produce naturally. Gnarly Head may retail for under $15, but we’re not willing to compromise on the standards quality that have made it so popular to begin with.”

Gnarly Head winemaker Scott Jones (left) and viticulturist Bud Bradley touching wires in young head trained Lodi Zinfandel planting

Achievement of that perfect level of ripeness, according to Gnarly Head winemaker Scott Jones, is a matter of waiting for the right moment, and being able to pick that very moment. Explains Mr. Jones: “I live in the heart of old vine Zinfandel country on Lodi’s west side, and so every morning before driving to the winery (in Manteca, just south of Stockton), I’m able to spend a couple of hours just going through the vineyards, monitoring the progress, tasting the fruit. We look for the moment the grapes attain a jammy yet fresh, zesty blackberry flavor. If we wait too long, the grapes become raisiny, producing wines that taste more like Port.

“The challenge is that we source from close to 100 vineyards, and no two are exactly alike. The sites are different, and each grower’s viticultural practices are different. Some are 30 or 35 years old, some closer to 90 or over 100. Some are dry farmed, some are drip irrigated, and some are furrow irrigated, and they don’t mature at the exact same time – sometimes a month apart. Still, timing is everything when it comes to consistently good Zinfandel.”

Classic +100-year-old head trained, spur pruned Lodi Zinfandel in Van Ruiten Family Vineyard contracted by Delicato Family Vineyards

But therein lies a serious conundrum: How does a region like Lodi keep up with the growing world-wide demand for old vine Zinfandel when, in fact, the number of unique old vine plantings is finite? Although the designation is not regulated by label laws, most of the industry do not consider a vineyard to be “old vine” until it is at least 40 to 50 years old. You cannot instantly expand by planting more “old vines.” Vines planted over the past five years will not become “old” until at least the 2050s.

Another major factor looming over the Lodi wine grape industry like a dangling sword is the question of labor. With the prospect of tighter reins on the movement and immigration of migrant workers, who will do the work of cultivating and picking free-standing, head trained vines which, unlike trellised vines, cannot be mechanically groomed and harvested? The Lodi wine grape industry is growing so fast, the region needs more laborers, not fewer.

Gnarly Head winemaker Scott Jones among century-old Lodi Zinfandel vines

According to Bradley, “One of the ways that we have begun planning for a possible shortage of labor and vineyard sources has been through newer plantings of head trained vines that are trained up on sturdy stakes, which are connected by wires. This way they’ll be able to mature like classic old, head trained vines, but the wires will make it possible to mechanically harvest. We only began working with a few of these new plantings five years ago.

“Of course, it will be years and years before these new head trained plantings staked out on wires will come anywhere near the quality we look for in our Gnarly Head program. In the meantime, the fruit from these new plantings will go into our lower tier blends, and we will need to continue relying on our older plantings on long-term contracts. Such as the Van Ruiten Family Vineyard on Turner Rd. – classic, small vines planted in the early 1900s, now over 100 years old. Or one of my favorites, the Kramer Vineyard, also planted on the west side, during the 1940s. Kenny Kramer’s vineyard has those long, twisting arms bearing the perfect quality fruit that originally inspired the Gnarly Head label.

“But there will never be a substitute for true old vine Zinfandel, and you still have to come to Lodi to find them!”

Classic old vine Zinfandel architecture (extended spurs and open canopy shading and protecting fruit zones) in Gnarly Head's Kramer Vineyard (planted in the 1940s)

Riaza Wines winemaker/co-owner Rick Taylor

First things first: Riaza Wines is different from other Lodi based wineries.

The back-story, perhaps, may not be so different: A young couple sharing a love of wine travel to Spain (finding a little town called Riaza, as it were), fall in love with the culture and gastronomy, and come home determined to produce their own Spanish inspired wines.

That was just nine years ago. Fortuitously, the couple – Rick and Erin Taylor – happen to live in Lodi, where Spanish grape pioneers Markus and Liz Bokisch have also set up shop, prompting several other Lodi growers to follow suit with their own plantings of Tempranillo, Graciano, Albariño, et al. And so by 2010, the Taylors were able to burst out of the gates with their first commercial bottlings, sold under their colorful Riaza label.

This is where the story veers off the usual course: From the beginning the Taylors have been crafting small lot wines expressing sensory qualities unique to their own sensibilities. Riaza label wines, for one, are not chubby with pure fruit qualities like those of most Lodi producers. Instead, by and large, they are lean and lanky to the point of sharpness. If you prefer your wines zesty and edgy rather than soft and mushy, Riaza Wines is for you.

Riaza tasting room

Although their average alcohol levels are about 14%, the wines of Riaza fall on the lighter side of “medium” in body. Red wine tannins tend to be smooth and rounded, and oak qualities are underplayed to the point of being barely noticeable. Again, if this is your style, Riaza is for you.

But most of all, Riaza wines are more tart than “fruity.” On top of having his fruit harvested earlier than most producers – when natural acidity in the grapes are on the higher side – Mr. Taylor even prefers to leave tinges of sweet/sharp acid sensations in his wines, which is like adding little drops of winey balsamic vinegar in your cooking.

Consequently, the Taylors have developed their own, almost fanatical, following of people of like mind and tastes. In fact, says Mr. Taylor, this is what has made the entire “long strange trip” worthwhile for them; telling us earlier in the month: “2017 will mark our ninth harvest, and we’re up to about 1,600 cases in yearly production.

“We are glad we took the leap because we’re having a sh—load of fun, getting to hang out with a lot of cool people. Erin and I talk about the people in our wine club as being more like folks riding on our bus.  We couldn’t have picked better ones if we picked them organically – people who are invested in this, who want to have fun with us and explore the whole relation-side of the business.

“We have attracted a lot of cool, different types of people because we started out with Spanish varieties, which are a little different. Even when we began to produce Zinfandel, just to be able to offer something a little more familiar to people walking into our tasting room, we are still producing Zinfandel in a style that is a little outside the box.

“Stylistically, we want our reds to be on the lighter, lean side of things. We think that by dialing back on the fruit, this style pulls out a different kind of layering and complexity. People tell us they love our wines precisely because they are different. We wouldn’t trade those people for anyone else!”

Sound good? Then I would drop into the Riaza Wines tasting room (open Fridays through Sundays, and on Thursday nights during Lodi’s Farmers Market season) on Elm St. in Downtown Lodi to find out for yourself what the growing crowd of Riaza-fanatics are excited about.

A sampling:

2014 Riaza, “The O.G.” Clements Hills-Lodi Graciano ($30) – Sweet toned, black, plummy fruit aroma with an almost mole-like chocolaty richness in the nose; but on the palate, sharply dry with zesty acidity and velvet textured and moderate tannin, packed into a medium-full body. Grown by Bokisch Ranches.

2014 Riaza, “Soul” Mokelumne River-Lodi Carignane ($26) – The red cherry nose is true to the varietal; but the rest of the wine is emblematic of the house style in its lean, lanky, tart/edgy dryness, combining with soft tannin and a light-feeling body to taste almost like a zesty white wine rather than a red. Sourced from a 75-year old block of ancient vines farmed by Keith Bussman.

2015 Riaza, “Crux” Mokelumne River-Lodi Carignane ($26) – An almost Old World (i.e. old vine European) style of the grape, from a tiny, approximately 60-year-old planting owned by Chris Storm. Compared to the “Soul” Carignane, a little deeper, black cherry aroma tinged with the high-acid Riaza touch (like a deepening drop of balsamic vinegar). Firm yet rounded tannin holding up the tightly wound, palate prickling, zesty medium-full body.

2015 Riaza, “Unorthodox” Mokelumne River-Lodi Syrah ($26) – If you’ve been looking for a lean, zesty, moderately weighted style of Syrah (as opposed to the fat, hunky, sweetly fruited style more typical of California), look no further. The nose is low-key yet floral; and on the palate, moderate tannin and slightly sharp acidity brace the palate with an edgy yet savory feel. From Fields Family Vineyard.

2014 Riaza, “The Standard” Mokelumne River-Lodi Zinfandel ($26) – This wine is “standard” only in the sense that there are lots of other Lodi Zinfandels to choose from. But if you prefer a lighter weight, almost bony, acid-driven style, you’ve come to the right place. There is, however, a sense of lushness in the red cherry/cranberry perfume; but on the palate, zingy acid and moderate tannin emphasize the lanky feel. Sourced from Aaron Shinn’s Cemetery Vineyard on Lodi’s east side.

Glasses and glasses of Lodi rosé (image courtesy of Robin Black Photography)

Oh, it’s that time of year again – when red balls of mercury are shooting up to alarming notches above 100.

Lodi wine country’s sea of vines, if you haven’t noticed, has also been growing at a rampant pace this past spring. Out in the fields, curly tendriled canes seem to be striving for elephant eye heights, with lobed leaves looking downright tropical in size and, well, greenness. Biblical winter rains will do that to a wine region.

But what happens when a real heat is on? All vines close up shop – or rather, their leaf stomata, which engineer the process of photosynthesis and, ultimately, grape ripening – when temperatures exceed 90° Fahrenheit.

Yes, there is distinct danger of vine and crop damage when temperatures threaten to top 106° F. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. But since grape clusters are still in their hardened green stage (change in berry skin color, or veraison, does not usually happen until July), in all likelihood the vines will simply roll their leaves slightly to protect the undersides (where the stomata pores are located) from the direct sun, and soldier their way through the (hopefully) fleeting spell of frightful heat, protecting the integrity of their swelling fruit like proverbial mama bears.

Picture of 2017: almost tropical sized Tempranillo leaf/cluster (left) next to the usual scraggly, shot berried Zinfandel in McCay's Lot 13 Vineyard

And in this particular vintage, it is a good thing the vines have stored more than usual amounts of water – further allowing stomata to transpire H2O, thus keeping the leaves cool, and the plants healthy.

If this sounds like vines are just like people and other animals, well, it’s because like all living things, we are  physically constituted to adapt accordingly when thermometers pop their bulbs. That is, we hydrate and perspire, hydrate some more, and generally do the sensible things you need to do to fend off bouts of dizziness and, of course, possible danger.

We also tend to reach for the most chill-able, light and breezy adult beverages to help us stay hydrated – such as the dry, pink colored wines known as rosé!

Looking for the latest good read while you’re sitting in the shade, under poolside umbrellas or in your tricked-out man-cave? We recommend the latest book on dry pink wines called Rosé All Day; sagely penned by Katherine Cole, one of the wine world’s hot, new scribes.

In her book, Ms. Cole documents the long history and leading regions known for dry rosé production – particularly Southern France’s prodigious Provence. How is this pertinent to Lodi?

Two words: Mediterranean climate. This is the type of weather – characterized by moderately hot, dry summers and moderately cold, wet winters – that is most conducive to fine wine grapes. Especially black skinned varieties commonly used to produce rosé. Even more so, these conditions sound like Lodi, vintage 2017 (with all its wetness and heat).

Still, all through the usual variables, from drought to flooding, Lodi is very much like France’s Provence; except for the fact that most of Provence’s vineyards are located in slightly closer proximity to the sea: The Mediterranean Sea in the case of France, and the Pacific Ocean – with its cooling North Pacific water current rolling down the coast from Alaska – in the case of California.

Therefore, the average peak-summer high/low temperatures in Provence is usually around 84°/64° F., whereas in Lodi it’s 90°/55° F. Although like most of the California coast, Lodi experiences wider diurnal swings than Southern France, the overall climatic pattern is similar enough to result in strikingly similar styles of dry rosés.

That is to say, Lodi grapes develop slightly more fruit intensity in the region’s warmer and wider summer temperature swings; whereas in Provence, the typical rosé fruit expressions are tinged with a little more non-fruit aromas (particularly sensations suggesting minerals, lavender, wild scrub and/or kitchen herbs which, not coincidentally, reflect the native flora surrounding vineyards throughout Southern France).

Lodi's Jean Rauser in her ancient vine Carignan (planted 1909) vineyard

All the same, earlier this week we stood next to one of Klinker Brick Winery’s ancient vine Carignan growths (Jeannie Rauser’s vineyard, planted in 1909), where owner/grower Steve Felten and winemaker Joseph Smith poured us a sip of their 2016 Klinker Brick “Bricks & Roses” Lodi Rosé ($15). This bone dry, rosy-brick colored wine positively oozed with sensations of cherry, strawberry, and blood orange; tinged ever-so-slightly with sweetly herby (like the parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme of song) notes strikingly reminiscent of many a dry rosé from France!

Klinker Brick’s rosé is fashioned from the classic grapes of Southern France – Carignan, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache. Which brings up the question: Is it the grapes going into the Klinker Brick or the climate where they are grown that makes this rosé so Provence-like?

Well, here is what we also found earlier this week while standing in the historic Bechthold Vineyard, consisting exclusively of Cinsaut vines planted way back in 1886 (!). There, we tasted the 2015 Michael David Ancient Vine Cinsault Lodi Rosé ($25), which has a little more of a gentle, caressing quality than the Klinker Brick, yet just as much mouth-tingling natural acidity. The perfume of Michael David’s rosé was redolent of cranberry-strawberry pie, pulled straight from the oven; but in the backdrop, almost teasing the nose's sensory neurons, was also a vaguely minerally, sweetly herby, Provence-like note. Different grape, similar result!

Sunset Magazine Wine Editor Sara Schneider among 131-year-old Cinsaut vines in Lodi's Bechthold Vineyard; with Phillips Farms Viticulturist Michael Klouda

The more we look at the variety of wonderfully dry, pungent, Lodi grown rosés being produced today, the more we are convinced that it is Lodi’s Mediterranean climate that accounts for the consistency of pure fruit freshness and herb or mineral complexity found in the best, artisanal style bottlings. No matter what the grape.

The 2016 Acquiesce Lodi Grenache Rosé ($24) is another single-varietal example; exuding high season strawberries and drippy watermelon in the nose, with subtle yet distinctive notes suggesting sprigs of lavender. If not for the slightly more exuberant expression of red fruit, you would think you were lying on a beach in Nice or Monte Carlo sipping the local pink wares rather than Acquiesce’s pale colored, bone dry wine, made 100% from the black skinned Grenache grape.

Similar to the Acquiesce, the 2016 McCay Lodi Rosé ($18) is made almost entirely from the Grenache grape (plus just a drop of ancient vine Carignan). Here, the nose leans towards perfumey Bing cherry, with a bone dry zestiness on the palate suggesting grippy ruby red grapefruit in one sense, and airy strawberry panna cotta in another. But again, behind the high wire fruit expression you also find faint whiffs of dried herbs, mingling with sun parched grass. Proving once again that Lodi's dry rosés are not simple, blonde haired fruit bombs (in fact, the opposite).

The 2016 Harney Lane Lodi Rosé ($18) stands out because it is crafted in very un-Provence-like fashion from Zinfandel, Tempranilo and Petite Sirah. The feel of this dry rosé may be slightly fuller and creamier than the McCay and Klinker Brick bottlings; but its profile is redolent of red fruit (particularly raspberry, black cherry and tea), tinted by a slightly earthy/spicy (almost rosemary-ish) kitchen herbiness.

One of Lodi’s more unique dry rosés is the 2016 LangeTwins Family Lodi Sangiovese Rosé ($15). Here, the overriding sensation is strawberries upon strawberries, and even more strawberries; along with sweet tea and the touch of a stemmed red rose, punctuated by good, prickly acidity and mild Campari-like bitterness. In its own way, a snappy ginger; unconciously bold and original.

Bottom line: Across the board, Lodi’s craftier producers of dry rosé are demonstrating a light and deft touch, and uncanny feel for the type of subtle, non-fruit nuances once believed to be found only in the best rosés of Southern France. Blame it on the Delta's Mediterranean-ish terroir...

And thank goodness – just in time for the season’s first serious heat wave!

Ancient, noble oak and vines (Jessie's Grove Carignan, planted in 1890s) memorialized by Lodi's Dena Marquez

My heart is drenched in wine...
- Norah Jones

To see the world of Lodi wine country through the lens of Lodi photographer Dena Marquez is to experience an unbridled enthusiasm and ardor for the natural elements that make Lodi Lodi.

Consequently, the colors in Ms. Marquez’s particular style of photography seem to spring from their surfaces like the fragrances of fruit driven wines (Lodi style wines) leaping from the glass. White clouds in blue skies become irrepressible, somersaulting acrobats. Sonorous sunsets are like dramatic endings to musical scores. Yellows in wild mustard chirp like newborn chicks. Lichen crusted old vines are like old men with wizened, wine stained hands, sitting in dark rooms, murmuring about vintages long past or forgotten.

Lodi photographer Dena Marquez

While taking up her first DSLR camera only about five years ago, Marquez attributes her explosive imagery to an instinctive passion for nature nurtured at an early age in Oregon; something also inherited from her father’s love of the outdoors – hiking through forests, boating, fishing and frequent camping. She moved to Lodi at the age of 12; graduated from Lodi High School, and settled permanently into the Lodi community with her husband of 20 years and three children.

Says Ms. Marquez, “I shoot a variety of photographs in Lodi. However, since Lodi is the heart of wine country, I feel that capturing vineyards best expresses my vision of home – especially for visitors coming from around the world, looking to experience the wine country we know. Lodi is the friendliest community, and the wine speaks for itself!

Dena Marquez's portrait of the historic Lodi Arch in mid-morning, capturing what she calls "cotton ball clouds"

“My Lodi photography comes from the heart, and makes me feel grounded. Therefore, I have bold style at times. My photography is a representation of who I am and how I would like others to see Lodi. The bold colors express my artistic style. It may not be for everyone, but it is the way I like to show the beauty of the valley, blessed as we are in such a bountiful agricultural region.”

Welcome to Dena Marquez’s world! Her images and thoughts:

According to Marquez: "I took this photo this past June 12th... beautiful orange glow peaking out from the horizon, showing off newly planted vineyards... summer sunsets are the best in Lodi wine country!"

"This is my 'Crimsom and Clover'... the cover crop in this vineyard (Michael David Winery's Bare Ranch) really makes the shot... I wanted to show the colors that drew me into this vineyard, even from a distance."

"I saw these painted train cars, sitting off Vicitor Rd. alongside a vineyard, and thought to myself, 'That's Lodi!'"

"I happened to get lucky with this shot of Lodi Lake, capturing a reflection on a bright morning after a rain, when even the sky looks bluer than normal."

"I like to make my colors pop, if only to share the moments I'm experiencing, like this golden sunset behind all those majestic old oak trees in Bokisch's vineyard."

"I like the relaxed country feeling of Lodi... it's different from other wine regions, especially around the old barn at Jessie's Grove."

"Spring mustard and promising new plantings along Peltier Rd. are also a very 'Lodi' scene"

"When taking the Nature Trail in Lodi Lake Park one foggy December morning, I couldn't help feeling like I was in the middle of a scary movie... pretty cool!"

I took this shot of this old oak surrounded by old vines in Bob Bishofberger's vineyard at sunset, with purplish sky and ominous looking clouds, just before one of our heavy rains this past winter."

"I just love Lodi's red barns with all those old trucks that no longer run, sitting in the front, looking like they will always belong."

"This rusted out tractor on Sargent Rd. with a big blue sky in the background represents, to me, Lodi's long agricultural history... a reminder of why Lodi has survived as the biggest wine region in the country."

"Macro-shot of wild mustard between the vines with a nice broken effect in the background... I took this picture this past February 1st... to me, mustard is one of our first signs of spring each year!"

"Blossoming almonds, like these on Peltier Rd., are as much a sign of Lodi spring as mustards and bud break in the vineyards."

"I call this 'Painted Sky on Lodi Lake'... the orange and purple backdrop just turned out looking that way, like a painting on a canvas, when I took this shot of a couple standing at the end of the dock, enjoying a very quiet moment."

:

"The vineyards along Turner Rd. are always among my favorite spots in early spring."

"Year-round, I always seem to come back to this particular old oak, surrounded by these crusted old vines (Jessie's Grove Carignan, dating back to the 1890s)."

One of the reasons I took up photography was because Lodi attracted so many visitors, I thought it would be a good idea to capture the scenic views of Lodi wine country... this winery sign points to many of my own favorite wineries!"

This past February 2017, International Wine Review's Mike Potashnik (third from left) and Don Winkler (fifth from left) meet with Lodi Native growers and winemakers; including (from left) Jeff Perlegos, Ryan Sherman, Chad Joseph, Layne Montgomery (with dog), Stuart Spencer, Tin Holdener, Mike McCay and John Perlegos

Zinfandel is not the only grape in which the Lodi Viticultural Area excels. But it has always remained the region's signature grape.

It is also a measure of Lodi’s standing in the world of Zinfandel that out of the seven days that the editors of the widely read International Wine Review spent in California this past February 2017, gathering material for a double-issue (released earlier this month) devoted completely to California Zinfandel, they set aside a full two days to research Zinfandel in Lodi. Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (a.k.a. ZAP) also played a major part in organizing the magazine's California visit.

If anything, Lodi is important because of its sheer productivity; easily the most significant in California. According to 2017 USDA National Agricultural Statistics, Lodi’s Zinfandel acreage (17,680) is 38% of the total number of Zinfandel acres in California (46,411). By comparison, there are 5,164 acres of Zinfandel planted in Sonoma/Marin Counties. And year after year, Lodi crushes at least 40% of the state’s total Zinfandel production.

Close-up of bodacious, noble 101-year-old Zinfandel in Soucie Vineyard on Lodi's far west side

Much of it, of course, is for soft, fruity White Zinfandel production; although according to recent Nielsen reports, sales of White Zinfandel (2.7% of the total table wine market in the U.S.) has been on a steady decline over the past ten years, whereas classic red Zinfandel has been growing or holding on to a steady market share (hovering around 1.9%).

As it were, this month’s 63-page report by International Wine Review – reflecting the labors of two men, Mike Potashnik (Publisher) and Don Winkler (Editor) – is by far the most thorough evaluation of California Zinfandel ever done by a magazine, either in print or online.  Among the many interesting things they had to say about the state of California Zinfandel today:

Most of today’s Zinfandel producers are crafting high quality wines that are improvements over the past. They are managing the vineyard to get more uniform ripening, picking grapes at lower Brix (i.e. grape sugar readings) to avoid over-ripeness and retain acidity, using a higher percentage of French oak, and, in general, crafting wines that are lively and fresh. While alcohol levels will always be high relative to some varieties, the wines are balanced and rarely show alcoholic heat.

One of the more puzzling, or inconsistent, aspects of California Zinfandel is the common use of the term “old vine.” Potashnik and Winkler remark that “ancient vine” and “heritage vine” monikers are now also appearing on a few labels, although none of these distinctions are regulated or truly meaningful. They write,

There seems to be the greatest consensus around the term “old vines” as being 50+ years of age... Looking around for guidance on defining old vines, Australia’s Barossa Old Vine Charter, adopted in 2009, registers vineyards by age: old vine (35+ years), survivor vine (70+ years), centenarian vine (100+ years), and ancestor vine (125+ years)... Can you imagine California’s independent winemakers agreeing on a common term...?

With one of their majestic old vines (planted in 1940s), Stampede Vineyard's Jeff and John Perlegos

What makes Lodi Zinfandel different (or special)

In respect to Lodi, the International Wine Review editors divvy up credit where credit is due:

Lodi has the largest concentrations of old vines in California. Some are century-old head-trained, own-rooted Zinfandel vines that managed to escape destructkon from phylloxera due to their sandy soils (i.e. Lodi's Tokay sandy loam). The old vineyards are mainly located on the banks of the Mokelumne River around the city of Lodi, although some can also be found in the Clements Hills.

In their description of Lodi’s terroir, Potashnik and Winkler deliver a good, thorough rendering; going into far more detail on Lodi’s topographical distinctions than what is usually found in mainstream wine articles:

The Lodi AVA is a vast region... located in the northern portion of California’s Central Valley near the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta... The region has warm summer days, but its flat terrain give breezes from the San Francisco Bay an unimpeded pathway to Lodi’s vineyards, resulting in cooler evenings and large diurnal swings during the growing season... an average high (90°) and low (54.4°) during the month of August.

Lodi soils are rich and loamy on the west side, close to the Delta, becoming deeper and sandier with lower water tables in the east. The eastern side of Lodi is slightly warmer and can produce deep-rooted vines with smaller berries, higher acidity and firmer tannins. The dividing line is often given as Highway 99, west of which the soils are richer and darker and east of which they’re sandier and less fertile.

In Lodi's ancient Royal Tee Vineyard: International Wine Review's Mike Potashnik, Greg Burns (Jessie's Grove), Don Winkler (IWR) and Greg La Follette (Alquimista Cellars)

Lodi is, admittedly, a recent entry into the premium or super-premium Zinfandel market. With the exception of less than a handful of wineries bonded in the 1980s and ‘90s, virtually all of Lodi’s top brands have appeared only within the past 17 past years; many of them longtime growers-turned-producers. Potashnik and Winkler remark on Lodi’s Johnny-come-lately status:

In recent decades Michael David and several other Lodi growes have transformed themselves into grower-producers. (Michael David Director of Operations) Kevin Phillips reports that in 1998 Michael David was selling 95 percent of the crop from its 800 acres of vines; today it makes wines from all of its estate vineyards.... They are one of the largest wineries in Lodi... selling almost 1 million cases/year, about half of it Zinfandel.

Growers like Kyle Lerner of Harney Lane Winery continue to sell most of their fruit but make small quantities of Zinfandel from their best parcels. Lerner farms 600 acres but makes only 5 thousand cases of wine to sell under the Harney Lane label, including a single vineyard Zinfandel made from his 110+ year old Lizzy James Vineyard.

Some of Lodi's top old vine plantings

In a special section on “Old Zinfandel Vineyards of California,” the International Wine Review editors endeavor to single out what they consider the “best known, old Zinfandel vineyards in the state.” Among Lodi’s vineyards of merit, they mention:

Dogtown Vineyard (Clements Hills AVA) – ... Planted in 1944 on clay and volcanic soils of Clements Hills.

Ancient vines (planted in 1909) in Lodi's Rous Vineyard

Royal Tee Vineyard/Jessie’s Grove (Mokelumne River AVA; west side Lodi) - ... Lodi’s oldest continuously farmed Zinfandel and mixed blacks parcel... planted in 1889 by German immigrant Joseph Spenker... today owned and farmed by his descendants... now provides fruit for Greg La Follette's Ancient Vine Zinfandel (under Alquimista label)

Katusha Vineyard (Mokelumne River AVA; east side Lodi) - ...  planted between 1915 and 1920... owned and farmed by Morgan Twain-Peterson of Bedrock.

Kirschenmann Vineyard (Mokelumne River AVA; east side Lodi) - ... ungrafted vines planted in 1915... owned and farmed by Tegan Passalacqua, winemaker for Turley.

Lizzy James Vineyard (Mokelumne River AVA; east side Lodi) - ... planted in 1904 and interplanted in the 1970s.

Marian’s Vineyard (Mokelumne River AVA; west/south side Lodi) - ... 8.3 acres self-rooted vineyard parcel originally planted in 1901... part of the much larger Mohr-Fry Ranches vineyard holdings... Stuart Spencer’s St. Amant Winery has made a single vineyard Marian’s Zinfandel since 2001.

Rous Vineyard (Mokelumne River AVA; east side Lodi) - ... planted on St. George rootstock (i.e. Vitis rupestris) in 1909... one of the first grafted vneyards in Lodi... Owned by Craig Rous, including the ones Steve Millier makes for Ironstone, Tim Holdener for Macchia, and Mike McCay’s McCay Cellars.

IWR's Don Winkler talking old vine viticulture with Soucie Vineyard's Kevin Soucie

Soucie Vineyard (Mokelumne River; far west side Lodi) - ... self rooted vines planted in 1916... Cool breezes from the Sacramento Delta area... near Delta sloughs where the sandy soil is shallow and richer in organic matter... said to give the Zinfandels here an earthy, terroir character... owned and farmed by Kevin Soucie (for) Layne Montgomery’s m2 Wines.

Stampede Vineyard (Clements Hills AVA) - ... originally planted in the 1920s... self rooted with 10 x 10 spacing... now owned by Jeff and John Perlegos... (sourced by) Ryan Sherman’s Fields Family Wines.

Lodi Native

While they do not go into detail on recent bottlings, the International Wine Review editors do make mention of the ground-breaking Lodi Native project:

In 2012 several of Lodi’s new generation vintners... agreed to a set of rules for making Lodi Native Zinfandel, including the use of old vines from single vineyards, native yeast, used oak barrels, and nonn-interventionist winemaking, including no watering to reduce alcohol levels, no acidification, no fining or filtration. The best six Zinfandels made using the Lodi Native criteria are sold as a special six-pack.

In Rous Vineyard, Lodi winemakers Mike McCay (McCay Cellars), Tim Holdener (Macchia), and Steve Millier (Ironstone)

Review of Lodi bottlings

Finally, like many of today’s wine periodicals, International Wine Review furnishes notes and scores based upon a 100-point scale. All the California bottlings cited in their report scored somewhere between 89 and 95 points. Abbreviated notes (plus scores in parenthesis) on some of the Lodi grown Zinfandels put to the test:

2013 Harney Lane, Lodi Zinfandel (89) - ... 5% Petite Sirah... easy drinking wine... sweet briary black raspberry fruit... brown spices... aged 18 months in American oak.

2014 Harney Lane, Lizzy James Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel (91) - ... soft textured and integrated flavors of brambly black cherry and hint of tobacco... aged 16 months in French oak, 30% new.

2014 Harney Lane, Scottsdale Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel (90) – ... aged 18 months in neutral oak... sweet fruit, brown spice and a tobacco note... big and concentrated on the palate with excellent balance and structure.

2015 Ironstone, Lodi Zinfandel (88) - ... inviting entry-level Zinfandel offering aromas of plum and sweet vanilla... lush mouth feel, round tannins.

2014 Ironstone, (Rous Vineyard) Reserve Lodi Zinfandel (91) - ... amazingly complex on the nose, very refined and interesting to dwell over... good density of dark plum and raspberry... beautifully balanced.

2014 Ironstone, Reserve Lodi Zinfandel (89) - ... fruit focused... aromas of blackberry and plum... medium-bodied, well balanced... long finish

2014 Klinker Brick, Lodi Zinfandel (90+) - ... briary red and blackberry fruit and a hint of black pepper... lush dark fruit flavors with good acidity, firm round tannins and a long finish.

In barrel room, Michael David Winery's David Phillips (left) and Kevin Phillips (second from right) with International Wine Review's Don Winkler and Mike Potashnik

2014 Klinker Brick, Marisa Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel (91) - ... single block of 89 year old vines... youthful, exuberant fruitiness... ripe red berries with dark fruit flavors and hint of American toasted oak and spices... lovely... mouth filling.

2014 Klinker Brick, Old Ghost Lodi Zinfandel (93) - ... ripe and delicious brambly fruit... good depth of red and black fruit flavors... hints of baking spices... round firm tannins and persistent finish... French and American oak... beautifully balanced.

2014 LangeTwins Family, Lodi Estate Zinfandel (90) - ... gorgeous wine... very refined... soft texture.

2011 LangeTwins Family, Centennial Lodi Zinfandel (91+) - ... silky smooth rich... spicy black cherry... excellent balance... (from the) historic Lewis Family Vineyard planted in 1903.

2014 m2 Wines, Soucie Vineyard Select Block Lodi Zinfandel (92) - ... perfectly integrated... silky mouth feel, pure fruit... dark red cherry, pomegranate and plum aromas with scents of loam.

2013 McCay Cellars, TruLux Lodi Zinfandel (90) - ... 100% Zinfandel offering of black berries and boysenberries with a hint of pepper and dried tobacco... suave palate... earthy character exemplary of Lodi’s west side.

2015 McCay Cellars, Bonotto Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel (91) - ... (first) planted in the early 1940s... richness and complexity... inky, balsamic, forest floor nose... meaty, soft, cola, forest floor with hints of eucalyptus.

Klinker Brick winemaker Joseph Smith

2013 McCay Cellars, Faith Lot 13 Lodi Zinfandel (93) - ... cherry and blackberry with spicy hints of cinnamon... gentle tannins and long finish.

2014 Michael David, Lodi 7 Deadly Zins (89) - ... wonderful introducton to Lodi Zinfandel at highly affordable price ($16)... lovely dark cherry and raspberry aromas... soft, round... excellent balance, good acidity and overall freshness.

2014 Michael David, Earthquake Lodi Zinfandel (90) - ... ripe, flavorful dark berry... good intensity... rather lush tasting and velvety smooth... perfectly balanced (at) 15.5% alcohol.

2013 Michael David, Lust Lodi Zinfandel (90+) - ... rich ripe dark red and black fruit with hints of loam... baking spices... earthiness... firm, dry tannins on the finish.

2015 St. Amant, Mohr-Fry Ranch Lodi Zinfandel (91) - ... lovely fresh black raspberry... medium weight... touch of green herbs in the finish.

2015 St. Amant, Marian's Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel (93) - ... aromas of fresh red berry... silky attack... hint of herbs... aged in French oak and nicely structured.

2015 Turley, Kirschenmann Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel (94) - ... fruit forward and lush... dark plum aromas... mouth filling... pure and a little light on the mid-palate... red berry jam and black raspberry flavors (in) soft finish.

2005 Turley, Dogtown Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel (93) - ... big and lush with ripe black raspberry... baking spices... complex... beautifully textured.

m2's Layne Montgomery strolling between winter rain among 101-year-old vines in Lodi's Soucie Vineyard

Hawaiian hukilau, or "pull" fishing (classic S.S. Lurline menu cover by Eugene Savage)

Lodi may be somewhat of an old fashioned farming community; but one thing everyone here knows: Lodi folks get out. Many of our successful farmers and vintners, in fact, are out and about every summer – exploring every nook and cranny of the world.

When in Rome, as they say, we do as Romans do – including eat, and drink, and hang around outdoor cafés from early afternoons to the wee hours of the morning.

When in Rome, especially in the summer, you enjoy light, dry white wines like Frascati. But if you happen to be in Florence – cycling up and down the green hills of Tuscany, or just getting lost in narrow, maze-like cobblestoned streets of hilltop towns – you’re more likely to enjoying light yet fleshy, dry white wines like Orvieto, or the deeper, regionally grown Vernaccia, if not easier drinking styles of red Chianti.

In Pamplona, in between running with the bulls or staying up past midnight rubbing elbows with the natives in noisy bars or restaurantes, you’re probably drinking either a cheap Rioja red, or one of the many rosados (dry pinks) now being made from the Tempranillo grape.

Hawaiian sommelier Ivy Nagayama (center) helping to sort 2015 Zinfandel harvest in Lodi's Mohr-Fry Ranches

In Strasbourg, you are sipping elegantly dry Alsatian Rieslings bewildering arrays of pâtés or sausages. In Perpignan, surrounded by hundreds of oyster beds, it’s all about the lemony tart Picpoul de Pinet. In Nice further down the Mediterranean coast, it’s Cassis rosé or blanc; and in Paris, Chinon, Saumur-Champigny or Beaujolais, all light and perky enough to drink like water.

Why drink the local, or native, wines wherever you go? Because it’s cultural, it’s tried-and-true, and why blow against the wind? Man gotta eat, after all; and as Woody Allen once said (about cavemen), “frequently there must be a beverage.”

Of course, during frightful Delta summers, a frequent (or at least ideal) destination for almost everyone and their uncle in Lodi is Hawaii. Besides the paradisiacal setting, the Hawaiian Islands has evolved its own cuisine; representing a global melting pot of cultures, just like its local residents, who call themselves kamaaina ("children of the land). Tomatoes grow as refreshingly sweet as tropical fruit in Hawaii; and there is abounding flaky white fish that melt in the mouth with sensations of the sea or the sizzling white foam rolling up silky smooth beaches, practically screaming for smooth, light and refined wines that tingle the nose and freshen the palate.

Classic Hawaiian cookbook

Because Hawaii is so thoroughly cosmopolitan, Island foods are effortlessly and endlessly varied. There is an everywhere-ness about the people, culture and culinary identity of the Islands, which naturally extends to the types of wines that taste best in this context: Wines made from a globally inspired diversity of grapes from around the world... just like what you find in Lodi, by dint of the region's mild, friendly Mediterranean climate!

Lodi grown wines are a natural for the variations of regional Hawaiian cuisine because of their own “everywhere-ness.” There is, simply, no other wine region in the U.S. with nearly as varied a production of grapes and fine wines; mostly because most of the American wine industry is dominated, almost by economic necessity, by the need to produce wines strictly from the same few commercial grapes grown everywhere – namely, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, and smaller amounts of Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio (a.k.a. Pinot Gris).

Instead, when visitors come to Lodi, they find wineries offering those same varietals, and so much more: Albariño and Tempranillo, Vermentino and Aglianico, Grenache reds and Grenache whites, and that’s just a start. They also find varietal bottlings of Picpoul, Verdelho, Verdejo, Barbera, Petite Sirah, Pinotage, Teroldego, Dolcetto, Carignan, Kerner, Souzão, Touriga, Dornfelder, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Alicante Bouschet, Cabernet Franc, Viognier, Gewürztraminer, Graciano, Tannat, Torrontés, Vermentino, Cinsaut... and the list of goes on and on.

Lodi grown Grenache - soft tannin and peppery spices ideal for multi-cultural Hawaiian cuisine

Like many wine regions, Lodi is now excelling in bone dry rosés; and here, these seriously food-friendly pink wines are made from everything from Grenache to Zinfandel, Sangiovese to Barbera, Carignan to Cinsaut, Merlot to Cabernet Sauvignon.

What this means is an entire range of wines that can handle the most diverse cuisines – like what you find in Hawaii.

Insofar as the Hawaii market for Lodi grown wines: Admittedly, as in the rest of the U.S., the market presence of Lodi wines is still predominantly in retail stores. However, in recent years this has been changing. More established Lodi wineries like Michael David and Mettler Family have been making headway in both restaurants and retail stores in Honolulu for years. More recently, smaller brands, such as Uvaggio, Bokisch Vineyards and McCay Cellars, have been finding success in the middle of the Pacific.

McCay Cellars’ Mike McCay recently reported: “We’re doing well in stores, but we mush be in at least two dozen restaurants in Honolulu alone – notably at the Halekulani Hotel and Michel’s (two of Honolulu’s most prestigious destinations) – as well as all around the rest of the Islands.

“The wines that the Hawaii sommeliers are responding to most are the lighter, leaner, more elegant varietals, which we are told go great with the Polynesian/Hawaiian/Asian/fusion style foods they are cooking. Our Grenache red and Grenache blanc has been especially successful, but they’re also loving our Cinsaut, our Tempranillo, as well as our rosé and the red and white blends made from alternative grapes. It’s the connection with the food that’s making the difference.”

Halekulani Hotel Wine Director Kevin Toyama harvesting 2015 Zinfandel in Lodi's Mohr-Fry Ranches

Bokisch Vineyards co-owner Liz Bokisch spells out why Lodi their wines made from Spanish grapes are so appealing to both restaurateurs and retailers in the Islands: “People easily identify with wines from smaller wineries made by real people with farming backgrounds. There is a strong movement in the Islands for locally grown produce and foods, and our Lodi wines have that similarity. We are told that buyers are inundated with wines from big producers and imports from all over the world.  We do great in small markets like Tamura's Fine Wine, precisely because we are a small family run business like theirs.”

Adds Bokisch, “Our Albariño as well as Garnacha Rosado does very well by the glass at Merriman's on Maui” – one of the Islands’ most popular restaurants. “Albariño has a nice crisp quality, perfect for all the seafood served in Hawaii restaurants. The trendy Honolulu restaurants – like Lucky Belly, Livestock Tavern and Signature Prime Steak – serve our Tempranillo, Graciano and Garnacha. So does Oasis on the Beach on Kauai. JNJ Food & Beverage store does great with our Verdejo as well as our Tizona Zinfandel.

“In food and wine demonstrations, we’ve seen how our Spanish style whites pair well with seafood as well as Hawaiian fruits, like guava and lilikoi (passionfruit). Even our reds fit right in because they are very balanced, not overpowering.”

So if you happen to find yourself in the Hawaiian Islands anytime soon, think about some of the following tried-and-true wine and food matches when you order up some of the local delicacies. The idea being: Unlike other American wine regions, Lodi grows a great variety of food-versatile style grape. Hence the extraordinary food versatility of Lodi wines – even with the global style, exotic foods of Hawaii!

Classic 'ahi tuna poke in Honolulu's Tamashiro Market (photo by Naomi Bishom, eatyourworld.com)

Our wine suggestions for some of the more classic Hawaiian dishes:

Poke style raw tuna (with soy, sesame oil, sweet Maui onions, fresh chopped seaweed and chili pepper) – Look for either an ultra-dry, Champagne style sparkler (Lodi’s LVVR Brut is a great example) that thoroughly freshens the palate with the briny taste of this red colored fish; although mineral, floral and dried kitchen herb sensations of Lodi’s many dry rosés also make an ideal match.

Flash seared rare tuna in wasabi mustard sauces – This is another great match for Champagne style sparklers (like Lodi’s sleek, creamy LVVR Blanc de Blancs); although lighter style peppery spiced driven reds such as Grenache, Pinot Noir, Lemberger or Zweigelt all have some degrees of the soft tannin and spice qualities to match the meatiness of the fish and peppery taste of mustard sauces, ofen in combination with blackened seasonings on the fish.

Lomi lomi salmon (chopped salted salmon with tomato, sweet onion and green onion) – This is where good, bone dry rosé works really well; although crisp, dry, yet fruit scented whites such as Grenache Blanc and Albariño also play nice with the sweet, fresh taste of Hawaii grown tomatoes and onions (the latter known as Maui onion, purported to be the sweetest in the nation).

Spam musubi & Sushi – Virtually any Provençal style dry rosé (a Lodi specialty) will do; although softer, gentle cherry/raspberry/strawberry fruit driven styles of Zinfandel as well as Carignan for which Lodi is known are also ideal with the briny tastes of sushi, as well as the salted pork taste of musubi (a thin slice of Spam and rice soaked in a sweet/salty sauce made from soy sauce, Mirin and sugar, tied together with a strip of nori, or dried seaweed).

Hawaiian style huli-huli chicken (photo by Revecca Crump, ezrapoundcake.com)

Huli-huli chicken (half-a-bird - marinated, rock salted and charcoal grilled) – Here, mildly toasty/smoky qualities of barrel fermented whites – such as Chardonnay and some Sauvignon Blancs – are actually ideal; although, for different reasons, the lemon/lime, silky taste of Verdelho, the citrusy/mineral taste of Albariño, as well as the herby/tart taste of Sauvignon Blanc or pure lemon zestiness of Picpoul all make ideal matches with this style of chicken, with its natural juices sealed in by the brined skins when coming into contact with the high heat of charcoal grills.

Kalua pig (roasted, smoke flavored, rock salted pork) – Dry or off-dry varietals of German and/or Austrian lineage (such as the combinations of Kerner, Bacchus and Gewürztraminer produced by Lodi’s Markus Wine Co.) take to fork-tender kalua pork like fish to water. But since kalua is also essentially a smokier, saltier, even more mouth-melting version of pulled pork, lighter, soft tannin reds that see a little bit of smoky oak – such as Tempranillo, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, and rounder, medium bodied styles of Zinfandel – are also perfectly delicious with this Hawaiian delicacy.

Hawaiian beef stew (a.k.a. pipi stew – slow cooked stew meet in a winey broth of tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery and onions) – Soft, velvety Merlots, Cabernet Francs or Cabernet Sauvignons (Lodi grown red Bordeaux varietals tend to be so round in tannin, they are often blended with Petite Sirah to get “beefed up”) are naturals with this Island style dish; although we would also recommended red Italian varietals (particularly Dolcetto, Sangiovese, Barbera, or Primitivo) have even more of a natural grape acidity to balance the taste of tomatoes in Hawaiian style beef stew.

Mahi-mahi (dolphinfish), often served in French style lemon butter sauces – Hard to go wrong with virtually any type of crisp, medium bodied whites – Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio being the predictable choices, but the mandarin orange crispness of Verdejo, the zingy mineral notes of Albariño, the flinty/floral taste of Kerner, or the pert, pear and melon crispness of Grenache Blanc may take you to culinary realms you have never been before with this all-time classic Hawaiian fish.

Sunset at Merriman's Kapalua, where Lodi wines are served by the glass (photo courtesy of merrimanshawaii.com)

Misoyaki butterfish (marinated black cod) – A more challenging seafood dish due to the natural oiliness of this fish, soaked in a slightly sweet, earthy marinade made from miso, sugar, sake and Mirin. But if you can get the wine right, oh boy! Off-dry Torronté or yeasty, méthode Champenoise sparklers (like many of the rosés and blanc de blancs styles), will usually do the trick; although dryer white wines with minerally or flinty, lemon-drop edges – such as Albariño, Kerner, Verdelho or Verdejo – work to freshen the palate, and lighten the aggressive sweet/earthy sensations of the marinated fish.

Grilled or broiled salmon with ponzu sauces – To balance the sweet/tart/salty taste of ponzu, you really need the highest acid white wines such as Sauvignon Blanc, dry style Chenin Blanc, dry Rieslings, or Picpoul; although red wine lovers would just as soon enjoy softer, fruitier styles of Zinfandel or Grenache with this countrified Japanese style dish.

Lodi's Jon Bjork grilling Hawaiian style kalbi

Korean style short ribs of beef (a.k.a. kalbi - soy/garlic/ sugar/sesame seed marinades) – Sweetly spiced and perfumed, beefy varietal reds such as Syrah, Petite Sirah, and fuller bodied Zinfandels all do the trick with Korean ribs, which are usually hot iron or charcoal grilled to take on additional notes of char – all the better with red wines aged in toasty/smoky oak.

Teriyaki beef or pork (sweet soy sauce/ginger marinades) – The more exotic taste of ginger (as opposed to the garlic flavored taste of Korean marinades) in Hawaiian style teriyaki meats love the jammy berry taste of rich Zinfandels, more intense Syrahs, and Petite Sirahs laden with peppercorn and blueberry sensations. This, in fact, is a case where dry-ish Bordeaux style varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Malbec) generally do not gel quite as well when beef is inundated with sweet soy marinades; although a smooth, oak aged, raspberry liqueur-like Cabernet Franc – particularly the fruit driven (as opposed to green/herbaceous) styles typical of Lodi – also likes a good teriyaki.

Surf's up!

Lodi on fire: ancient oak and vines during early summer sunset of 2017

When you come to a fork in the road, take it. - Yogi Berra

The Lodi wine region, along with American wine consumers, have recently reached another crossroad; at least according to several industry observers speaking at the Second Annual Lodi Vineyard & Wine Economics Symposium, held last week at Lodi’s Wine & Roses Hotel, and attended by about 150 industry professionals.

Brian Tognotti, Assistant Client Director at The Nielsen Company, spoke about how wine consumption across the country is still growing; currently at a healthy 3.7% clip. The U.S., in fact, is the #1 wine market in the world, despite the fact that Americans are #42 in per capita wine consumption. “There’s lots of room to grow,” said Tognotti.

The significant factors cited by Tognotti is that

• Premium wine categories are growing in volume – consumers trading up to $10-$15 price ranges, saying “taste,” “quality” and preference for “new things” are becoming primary motivating factors.

• Access to wine is expanding – beyond grocery stores and direct-to-consumer sites to car washes, movie theaters, etc.

• The growth of smaller brands (as opposed to products of the 25 largest wine producers) is leading to increased "fragmentation" in the market, which is a good thing.

Bottles that say "Lodi"

• The three wine categories most “on fire” are red wine blends (utilizing mixes of wine grape varieties), dry rosés (the U.S. has recently surpassed France in this sales category), and Sauvignon Blanc.

• 44% of wine sales in dollars are sold to households with incomes of $100,000 or more (although this group is just 24% of wine consumers).

• The biggest growth is expected to be among consumers in the 35 to 49-year-old category (the long maligned Gen Xers – not older Millennials, as some forecasters would have us believe).

In respect to Lodi, Tognotti reported that Lodi appellation wines are up 8% in dollar sales, and up 6% in total volume of sales. Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel make up 44% of Lodi wine sales – reflecting significantly more positive rate of growth than other American regions, such as Napa Valley.

And while the average bottle price of Lodi wines sold is between $10 and $11, Nielsen studies show that a significant percentage of consumers buying Lodi appellation wines are

• Affluent suburbanites making $100,000 or more
• College graduates
• Living in cosmopolitan centers
• Employed as professionals (doctors, lawyers, corporate manages, etc.)
• Upscale, older consumers

Old Lodi water tower against early summer sunset

According to Tognotti, this is a “very positive” consumer profile, boding well for the Lodi wine region.

Delving deeper into the subject of “Lodi’s Stake in the World of Wine,” Allied Grape Growers Vice President of Operations Jeff Bitter commented, “We can be kind of Cali-centric... insulated from the realities of the bigger wine world.”

According to Bitter, the 4 million tons of wine grapes crushed in California each year represents only about 10% of what is crushed in the entire world (about 40 million tons total). Lodi crushes about 20% of the California wine grape crop, which is only 2% of the entire world’s.

Yet, says Bitter, “The Old World is shrinking, whereas the New World is expanding... but are we positioned for success?” Mr. Bitter told the grape growers in the audience that the key will be understanding the challenges of “fungibility of the wine business” – the fact that Zinfandel is used in blends, Merlot in Cabernet Sauvignon, etc.

Faces of today's "old time" Lodi: cousins Joe Bishofberger and David Phillips, whose famiies has been farming in Lodi since the 1860s

Bitter also cited the realities of the American wine market; where 53% of the wine sold is still $7 and under, 21% is $7-$10, and 26% $10 and up. The market’s fungibility also entails the fact that average per ton prices of Zinfandel ($734) in Lodi is higher than grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon ($683), Pinot Noir ($701), Merlot ($555), Chardonnay ($516), Pinot Grigio ($615), and Sauvignon Blanc ($539), but that’s because of the “increased expense of picking Lodi Zinfandel,” which are largely grown on head trained, spur pruned vines.

According to Bitter, “What holds Lodi from higher grape prices is the estimated volume of wines in the $7-$10 range,” which is projected to grow to as much as 45% as consumers continue to trade up from the minus-$7 category. Bitter says, “The $7-$10 retail price range is very competitive, but the most stable, and Lodi is in the best position to supply this market.”

The continuing “premiumization” of the wine market, says Bitter, is dependent upon the economy: “There is a direct correlation between a healthy economy and a healthy wine business.” What helps the wine industry plan its plantings based upon projected increases by region and grape variety is “reliable and stable market trends... it’s economy, economy, economy.

Recently in Bechthold Vineyard (ancient vine Cinsaut, planted in 1886), Sunset Magazine Editor Sara Schneider chats with Phillips Farms Viticulturist Michael Klouda

“Lodi is uniquely positioned to supply quality grapes for $10-plus bottles... if demand for grapes like Sauvignon Blanc continues to grow, the supply will land here.”

Judging from the observations of the two aforementioned Wine Economics Symposium speakers, one may conclude that Lodi grows grapes strictly for the $7 to $11/bottle retail market. A report delivered by Michael David Winery Marketing Director Mike Stroh, however, presented another side: detailing the remarkable rise of a thoroughly "Lodi" based winery (owners, the Phillips family, have been farming in Lodi since the 1860s) producing barely 2,000 cases in 2000, but nearing the 1 million-case mark as we speak.

Nearly half of Michael David’s sales has been their eponymous 7 Deadly Zins varietal Zinfandel, which retails for a healthy $16 (or more) across the country, and around the world. Michael David’s other rapidly growing labels have been their Freakshow Cabernet Sauvignon (retailing for $20 or more), Petite Petit (an $18 Petite Sirah/Petit Verdot blend), and an Earthquake varietal line-up of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon retailing for $26 or more.

Meanwhile, wines like Michael David’s Inkblot labels (Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Tannat retailing about $35) and Rapture Cabernet Sauvignon (about $59) go toe-to-toe against ultra-premium varietals from other regions; taking in just as many golds, double golds and “”Best of Show” awards as labels retailing for anywhere from $30 to $300/bottle.

Still Lodi's bread and butter: head trained ancient vine Zinfandel in Soucie Vineyrd (planted 1916)

The Lodi of today clearly competes with wines from the rest of California as well as all around the world in terms of sheer quality, not just quantity or value pricing.

Lodi, in this sense, finds itself at similar juncture faced by the California wine industry as a whole during the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Robert Mondavi – a Lodi High School graduate, as it were – was boldly proclaiming that California can, and will, produce wines comparable in quality to the finest in the world.

In the late 1970s, when Robert Mondavi’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon became the first widely distributed American wine to retail in the $25-$35 price range, Mr. Mondavi explained that it is just as important for California wines to not only be as good as the best European wines, but also to be priced nearly the same. Mondavi well understood the importance of image, or perception, for bourgeoning wine regions.

Then, in 1979, Mr. Mondavi came full circle by returning to his hometown to found Woodbridge Winery; with the stated purpose of producing “the finest everyday wines in the world” – with, of course, the use of Lodi grown grapes.

38 years later, Lodi is finally transitioning into the ranks of the “finest,” even if the region’s bread and butter continues to be value priced wines. Why not both? This, in fact, is precisely the reason why Lodi is easily the most widely planted premium wine grape region in the U.S. Larger than Napa Valley and Sonoma County put together. Heck, 30% larger than all of Washington and Oregon put together.

As an industry leader, no American wine region is positioned as favorably. Lodi's time is now!

The original Mondavi home, near the center of Lodi