Perlegos Family grown Assyrtiko, tailor made for Lodi's Mediterranean climate and sun. A white wine of the (near) future Prediction: In about 25 years time, Assyrtiko will become a major grape of the Lodi wine region.  Not "major," mind you, in the same way as high-demand wine industry grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. According to the most recent California Grape Acreage Report (April 2024), there are currently 14,102 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and 12,191 acres of Chardonnay cultivated in the Lodi appellation (classified as District 11 by the USDA). But "major," perhaps ..read more

The line-up of minimal intervention, small, independent winemakers working out of Lodi Crush: from left, Adam Saake (Perch Wine Co.), Adam Sabelli-Frisch (Sabelli-Frisch), Rose Nemet (Kareen Wine), Terah Bajjalieh (Terah Wine Co.), Greg Nemet (Kareen Wine) and Gerardo Espinosa (Lodi Crush and Anaya Vineyards). Lodi Crush has become a magnet for small, independent wine brands⏤primarily one- or two-person operations⏤who, almost as a rule, prefer minimal intervention, alternative style wines appealing to the growing minority of oenophiles who prefer less commercialized, almost raw tasting wines ..read more

The Ole Mettler Pavilion on the grounds of the Lodi Grape Festival during last weekend's 2024 Lodi Grape Festival, festooned by a dramatic mural depicting the labors of the Lodi grape growing industry. In 1934 Lodi was in the mood to celebrate. Naturally, local farmers and city organizers felt that it should also be a celebration publicizing the region's number one commodity: Grapes. Not that there was much else to celebrate. The entire country was still in the throes of the Great Depression, affecting Lodi as much as any community in America. The year before (in 1933) Lodi farmers fought too ..read more

2024 Lodi Zinfandel harvest at Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard, first planted in the 1920s, being packed for shipping to home winemakers across the country by Lodi's M & R Company. A legacy of longtime Lodi families There is nothing like the sight of ancient vine Lodi Zinfandel being picked and packed, right in the vineyard, for fresh fruit shipping directly to stores catering to home winemakers clear across the country and to our neighbors in Canada. If you recall, many of Lodi's longtime winegrowing families got their start doing exactly that during the 1920s, when wine production (except ..read more

\ Old vine Carignan harvest in Lodi' s Mokelumne River AVA, September 2, 2024. For most of Lodi's smaller, handcraft wineries, the 2024 wine grape harvest began in mid-August. The pace of the picking of old vine blocks, which are generally lower yielding than younger trellised vineyards, picked up during the last week of August and first week of September. A big question for much of the industry has been how much of an impact 2024's extraordinary heat waves, which began in June, will have on grape quality and yield. One initial impression shared by Markus Wine Co. owner/grower/winemaker Markus ..read more

Two Gen Z Lodi wine professionals, Anna Delgado (left) and Elvira "Elvi" Fonz-Gutiérrez. Co-written with Anna Delgado and Elvira Fonz-Gutiérrez Just a few years ago the wine industry talk was all about Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996). What do Millennials want? What are Millennials thinking? Especially, what are Millennials buying? Nowadays, or so it seems, it's more about Generation Z (born 1997-2012), the latest generation to reach adult beverage drinking age. However, never in my nearly 50 years in wine-related businesses have I ever seen a generation more castigated. The ge ..read more

West Sacramento's Craig Haarmeyer of Haarmeyer Wine Cellars celebrating his Lodi Chenin blanc harvest. In recent years, the roll call of winemakers  based outside the Lodi appellation who are producing wines from Lodi grown grapes has been getting bigger and bigger.  This, if anything, is a far cry from just twenty or thirty years ago when many vintners openly ridiculed the very idea of making wines from Lodi grapes. Many winemakers, magnanimously, used to dismiss the region without comment⏤they simply didn't buy grapes from Lodi.  One example of both a journalist and vintner w ..read more

Mokelumne River-Lodi appellation Grenache—the black-skinned grape most commonly used for dry style rosés—in the early morning light. So far the summer of 2024 has been... let's just say, ugh. A little hot. Besides well-chilled whites or sparklers, the perfect wines for weather like this are refreshingly dry rosés, which are made by more wineries than ever because this style of wine is, simply, more popular than ever. Lodi produces such a wide range of dry rosés, that a wine lover could, theoretically, enjoy a new bottle of Lodi rosé every day of the week for an entire month, yet never consume ..read more

Barrel tasting California Cabernet Sauvignon. Over the past four or five years the wine industry in California has been dealing with the serious issue of overplanting of grapes⏤a crisis that has been challenging wine industries in virtually every wine producing country in the world over the past twenty years (see our previous post, While wine consumption in the U.S. slumps, American appreciation of wine grows unabated)..  This has led to quite a bit of hand-wringing, particularly in mainstream press. The oversupply of grapes, combined with recent statistics demonstrating a leveling off o ..read more

Just-harvested cork tree on UC Davis campus. Cork Supply USA. It may be time to rethink your choice of bottle closures. This was the overriding message, this past May 2024, when for the first time in the entire United States, there was a harvesting of cork trees⏤on UC Davis campus.  The cork tree harvest was actually a demonstration conducted by Cork Supply USA for the benefit of students in the school's renowned Viticulture and Enology department, first established in 1880.  Demo table at UC Davis: Cork bark, partially cut corks and potted Quercus suber plants. Cork Supply USA, or ..read more