Lodi is one of our favorite lesser- known and very comfortably visited California wine regions. No $30 dollar tasting fees and getting jostled at crowded wine tasting bars here. Great B&B’s too our favorite is Wine and Roses, and the summer Downtown Lodi street scene is entertaining.
Shared below is SF Chronicle’s Karola Saekel article on Lodi
Lodi: Markus Bokisch sees potential for Lodi in Spanish varietals
Lodi wines get a chance to shine
Karola Saekel
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/28/WIF21939NQ.DTL&type=wine
Friday, August 28, 2009
When fourth-generation grape grower Lance Randolph decided in 1992 to make his own wine, it was not unusual for him to be asked by potential customers, “Lodi where?”
The owner of Peirano Estate would patiently respond with a brief history of his San Joaquin Valley city and extol its potential to produce wines of excellent quality at competitive prices.
More than competitive, in fact. When you don’t have the draw of a name like Napa or Valley of the Moon, he says, you have to entice customers with exceptional value.
Today, not even two decades later, those questions about Lodi’s location are far less likely. With their newfound dedication to not just growing great grapes, which in many instances their grandfathers and great-grandfathers already did, but to also making wines that do the fruit justice, today’s Lodi winegrowers display true pride of place: They put the name Lodi prominently on their labels, a tribute to their thriving little town.
For the record, it’s a city of about 60,000 roughly halfway between Sacramento and Stockton, and the 550,000-acre winegrowing area around it produces more grapes than Napa and Sonoma combined.
At the very least, people in the wine business now are familiar with old-vine Zinfandel from the Lodi appellation, established in 1986. And many know Lodi Rules, a particularly stringent regulation of sustainable practices. As Markus Bokisch of Bokisch Ranches points out, certification is handled by a third-party nonprofit panel, Protective Harvest – not the growers themselves, as is customary in most areas.
Not only do the grapes have to be grown and handled properly, but the farmer has to commit to preserving the environment, from water quality, oak growth and bird habitat to the utilization of human resources.
Bokisch and wife Liz have found their own special niche on the Lodi wine map. Drawing on his heritage – from what is now the Czech Republic on his father’s side, to Spain’s Catalonia on his mother’s – he specializes in Spanish varietals like Albarino. Bokisch produces about 2,000 cases annually, retailing between $16 and $26 per bottle.
That’s a typical price range for local wines, and there are some very drinkable bottles that sell for less. Randolph makes 60,000 cases of 14 different varietals under the Peirano label, retailing for $10 to $15 per bottle.
None of the 70 or so wineries, mostly smaller operations, tries to go head to head with one of the San Joaquin Valley’s biggies, Bronco Wine Co. and its famous Two-Buck Chuck. Other nearby mega-producers are Woodbridge, the bargain Mondavi spin-off (Robert Mondavi grew up in Lodi), now owned by Constellation, and still family-owned Gallo in Modesto.
Despite its long history of growing grapes that made some prominent wineries their loyal customers, Lodi growers have gotten little public recognition. The growers-turned-winemakers of the last 20 or so years aim to get a little respect. Organizations like the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission bolster individual growers’ efforts.
A burgeoning hospitality industry – restaurants, B&Bs and other accommodations – aid the change. It offers wine touring at a price well below what glamour spots like St. Helena or Healdsburg might cost.
Lodi’s economy looks relatively bright. Unlike many prominent wine regions, it doesn’t have a monoculture. The area still supports extensive orchards and grows some of California’s best asparagus. This versatility stood Lodi in good stead during Prohibition, when it also supplied grapes for home winemaking, which was legal. Lodi shipped ton after ton of fruit to the East Coast.
In an odd twist, even the current recession has had a silver lining. Pressure to convert agricultural land to subdivisions for Sacramento and Stockton has eased. It has made life easier for people like Bill Stokes of Benson Ferry Vineyards, another third-generation grape grower, who also plants alfalfa. Stokes says the climate of Lodi’s seven distinct subregions, approved in 2006, allow great flexibility.
He is a major advocate of old-vine Zin, which is distinguished by open growth – no trellises, no wires in these vineyards. It is, he says, an extremely food friendly wine for both fancy and simple dishes. With a laugh, he compares it to a pair of khakis: “You can dress it up or down; it’s always great.” –
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