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Conversations with an English writer about the golden rule when telling the...
Lodi winemaker Mike McCay in Bonotto Vineyard—originally planted in the 1930s and, up until recently, producing Zinfandel that disappeared into anonymous vats of "jug" wines, but now recognized as a...
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Haarmeyer's Lodi wines express sense of place, even when made from the most...
Haarmeyer Wine Cellars winemaker/owner Craig Haarmeyer in his cellar filled with puncheons (double-size barrels) An orchestra contained in a wine Let's start by talking about a single Lodi grown wine,...
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Lodi's spring Wine Festival is your yearly opportunity to taste the latest...
Inside the historic, barrel-shaped Ole Mettler Grape Pavilion at the Lodi Grape Festival. Each spring since 1980, the Lodi Grape Festival has been holding an early April wine festival on its...
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At the spring Lodi Wine Festival, wines were showing off the appellation...
Burlington Chandler proprietor Mark Chandler (middle) and his son Dave (right) pouring at the 2024 Lodi Wine Festival. Lodi wines are better than ever. That's the happy thought I walked away with...
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Is appreciation of wine as varietals becoming passé? Part 1, history,...
Harney Lane Vineyards Zinfandel sources (from top): Home Ranch, Scottsdale Vineyard and Lizzy James Vineyard. First, let's taste three different Lodi Zinfandels, all made by the same local winery,...
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Is appreciation of wine as varietals becoming passé? Part 2, pain and...
Contrasting Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards: (Top) high cordon machine pruned trellis on single wire in Jahant-Lodi AVA; (bottom) vertical shoot position trellising (usually cultivated by hand) in...
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LODI RULES is a viticultural celebration of Earth Day all year round
The first Earth Day Today, April 22, marks Earth Day all around the world. Did you know that the first Earth Day was touched off by activists mobilized in California, following an oil spill off of...
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Albariño—the state of Lodi's most important varietal white
Silvaspoons Vineyards owner/grower Ron Silva with his Alvarinho, a Portuguese clonal variant of Albariño. Why Albariño is such a natural in Lodi Albariño—a grape variety native to Spain's Rías Baixas...
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Nero d'Avola is a poster child for today's taste for zestier, lighter weight...
Nero d'Avola in LangeTwins Family's Redtail Vineyard in the Jahant AVA of Lodi. One of California winemaker Randall Grahm’s favorite ways of referring to the under-appreciated wine grapes of the world...
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Monte Rio's Patrick Cappiello gets things off his chest while producing an...
Monte Rio Cellars owner/winemaker Patrick Cappiello. Leigh-Ann Beverley. This past mid-December I was walking along a beach in Hawaii, toes squishing along in wet silky sand, when the phone in my...
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The latest wines sourced from Mokelumne Glen Vineyards fulfill a heroic story...
Among the multiple clones of Riesling cultivated in Lodi's Mokelumne Glen Vineyards. The heroic tale Let's talk about the continuing saga—and it really is a story of heroic proportions—of the Lodi...
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LangeTwins Family's newly released Redtail Vineyard is based upon an...
Ancellotta, a native Italian grape grown in LangeTwins Family's Redtail Vineyard, Jahant-Lodi AVA. LangeTwins Family Winery and Vineyards has done it again. This industry leading family winery and...
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Wines reflecting Vino Farms' push towards organic, biodynamic farming and...
Vino Farms' The Bench Vineyard; biodynamically farmed Vermentino alongside the Mokelumne River in Lodi's Clements Hills AVA. Since 2018, Vino Farms has been farming a good chunk of its 4,500 or so...
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Winemakers and journalists taste and talk about aged Lodi wines, up to 27...
Zinfandel from Turley's 2010 Dogtown Vineyard harvest, going into a bottling tasted and discussed this past week, nearly 14 years later. Last week (May 14, 2024) a most unusual Lodi tasting (even for...
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Stonum Vineyards is a little Lodi handcraft winery that could
Stonum Vineyards' tasting room and trelliised Zinfandel fronted by an organic vegetable and flower garden (the latter, also cultivated as a beneficial insectory). Teeny-tiny Stonum Vineyards, located...
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Putting to bed the myth that light and crisply balanced whites can't be grown...
Clements Hills-Lodi harvesting of Assyrtiko, a Mediterranean grape of Greek origin known for retaining a refreshingly high acidity grown in even the hottest, dryest climate. Albariño, Assyrtiko,...
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Why Lodi produces delicate, fragrant styles of red wine contradicting...
Harvest morning in Zinfandel block over 100 years old on east side of Lodi's Mokelumne River appellation. When a rose is but a rose In our previous post we addressed the matter of Putting to bed the...
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Artistic colors bring new meaning to our favorite images of Lodi wine country
Artistic rendering of a caravan of Zinfandel pickers—ushered through the old vines like triumphant troops—on a colorful early autumn morning in Lodi wine country. I spend a lot of time going over my...
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Finding ideal wines for foods is as easy as putting together ingredients in a...
No-brainer of a food and wine match: Spicy, meaty, smoky, savory baby back ribs (in this photo, cooked by Lodi winemaker Mike McCay) with spicy, meaty, smoky, savory Petite Sirah (poured by Lodi...
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Factors explaining Zinfandel's spectacular food-versatility
Cellar dinner at St. Amant Winery, a Lodi Zinfandel specialist. The environmental factor It's time to talk about Zinfandel. Oh, I admit, for me it's always time to talk about Zinfandel. That is...
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