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The science behind common sense wine and food combinations
Common sense match: powerful reds with aged Portuguese cheese at Silvaspoons Vineyards Wine has often been called a combination of art and science; and in our culinary schools, cooking is accurately...
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The latest, greatest award winning white wine grown in Lodi (Torrontés!)
Lodi’s most celebrated wine at the moment is not a Zinfandel; nor is it a fashionable Albariño or Tempranillo. It is a (drum roll, please…) a varietal white wine made from the Torrontés grape!...
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New to cellardoor: the dangerously delicious Onesta Wines
Onesta’s Jillian Johnson in Bechthold Vineyard Jillian Johnson is in love. There’s not much that her husband (Yuri DeLeon) can do about it, since this is an affair that dates back to 2004 – some nine...
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Sonoma’s Morgan Twain-Peterson talks about his new Katusha Vineyard in Lodi
Morgan Twain-Peterson in his newly acquired Katusha Vineyard You see it in films, fiction, music, reality television, and even in the wine world: everybody loves the scruffy character with the...
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Lodi’s Bechthold Vineyard is named California’s “Vineyard of the Year”
Autumn in Lodi’s acclaimed Bechthold Vineyard I can’t quite put words to why I am profoundly comforted by the fact that a wine can also be a place, that mere fermented grapes can coalesce into a...
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Brave new grapes and winemakers discovering Lodi’s Mokelumne Glen
Mokelumne Glen Vineyards’ Brett and Bob Koth at gathering of their winemakers last May Who’d have thunk? That a planting by a retired Lodi schoolteacher and longtime home winemaker would become the...
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Michael David’s commitments lead to top honors at California State Fair
Michael David GM/head winemaker Adam Mettler in his Clements barrel facility This past June 14, 2014, when the California State Fair announced the top awards resulting from its famously rigorous wine...
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John Fogerty never slept here (101 grapes & other lesser known facts about Lodi)
“Lodi” was also on Creedance Clearwater Revival’s 1969 Green River album Oh, lord… Although it was the “B” side of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 single record, “Bad Moon Rising” (which peaked at...
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Barbecue & wine: Van Ruiten Family’s Matt Ridge tests a tried-and-true theory
Richard Berardi smoking up a storm outside his Tin Roof BBQ restaurant At Lodi’s Tin Roof BBQ it’s all about barbecue. Gloriously meaty, outdoor-smoky, not-too-fatty and not-too-sweetie barbecue,...
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Old vine, old time Six Hands Chenin Blanc from Cresci Vineyard
Six Hands’ desert dry Chenin Blanc with rocks from Cresci Vineyard Six Hands Winery has just released a 2013 Six Hands Cresci Vineyard Lodi Chenin Blanc ($16) that is as dry as a desert, yet gushy in...
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Appreciating Zinfandels (especially from Lodi) like a sommelier
Majestic, own rooted “old man” Lodi Zinfandel (planted in 1901) in Mohr-Fry Ranches’ Marian’s Vineyard In seminars at the 2014 Zinfandel Advocates & Producers Experience (i.e. ZAP) in San Francisco...
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Mettler Family’s Aglianico is a harbinger of many great wine grapes to come
Mettler Family Vineyards’ 2012 Lodi Aglianico The latest Mettler Family Vineyards release is the 2012 Mettler Family Lodi Aglianico ($25); an estate grown red wine of vivid purplish cast, teeming with...
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The Downtown Lodi harvest menu, and becoming the 2014 SIP SAVOR Wine Tasting...
WHO WANTS TO BE THE 2014 SIP SAVOR LODI WINE TASTING CHAMPION? One of the two events taking place under the SIP SAVOR LODI Grand Tasting tent at Wine & Roses Hotel on Sunday, September 28, 2014...
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The last of Lodi’s rare ancient vine Alicante Bouschet
The blindingly scarlet colors of Mohr-Fry Ranches Alicante Bouschet in 2012, just before being uprooted Harmony Wynelands has recently released the last of its wines from one of the Lodi AVA’s most...
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Snapshots of Lodi’s 2014 harvest: coming in fast and furious
Daybreak, September 6: consulting winemaker Heather Pyle (left) sorting through Acquiesce Vineyards Piquepoul Blanc pick The second week of September is usually when the California grape harvest is...
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Can we stop talking about Zinfandel being too high in alcohol?
Picking knife resting on macro-bin of 2014 Schulenburg Vineyard Zinfandel (west side of Lodi’s Mokelumne River AVA) In a post that popped up on the multiple “Best Wine Blog” Award winning Terroirist...
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A history of Lodi winegrowing, part 1
Pre-19th century Lodi: at Jessie’s Grove Winery, you can still see native grasses and ancient valley oak trees (several hundred years old) in a 32-acre grove preserved by founder Joseph Spenker and his...
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A history of Lodi winegrowing, part 2
San Francisco artist John Garth’s 1960 mural in the Lodi Grape Festival hall, depicting Lodi seasons of yesteryear. Prohibition’s unexpected bounty It would seem that Prohibition – technically...
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What makes today’s Lodi wines special?
Four reasons why Lodi wines are so special: !ZaZin and REDS winemakers Ray Kaufmann and Patrick Campbell (left & center), Klinker Brick owner/grower Steve Felten, and ancient, gnarly 109-year old...
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Concrete Zinfandel merges old school with space age technology
Joseph Smith (left) and Tyson Rippey among the concrete fermentors at The Lodi Vintners Group winery Beneath the low key, grayish, mild mannered label of the newly released 2012 Concrete Lodi Zinfandel...
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