Very Lodi wines.Īugust 2020: Golden, luscious Ribolla Gialla grapes in Clements Hills-Lodi's Mio Vigneto Vineyard this past week, just about ready to come off the vine Each vineyard - each block, row, or vine - now finds individual expressions in the bottle simply because, at its roots, it can't be duplicated. typical practices leading to wines more likely to achieve sensory qualities that remind you that every region is utterly unique. Native yeast ferments, picking earlier to avoid acid "adjustments," aging in neutral-tasting oak or with no oak at all.
More and more Lodi-grown wines, however, are being handcrafted - many of them au naturel, or with minimal manipulation. These, admittedly, are wines that are more like "products" reflecting consumers' expectations of varietals or brands, often with eye-catching labels. The bottlings you see on the grocery store or volume retail shelves, land in the shopping cart. Lodi is the largest because most of its wine grapes go into wines that most Americans actually drink. At least in Lodi, America's largest wine-growing region. Especially at the start of each year's harvest, which is the height - the culmination - of all seasons.
August 2020: moments before dawn this past week in Lodi's Vino Farms, a mechanical harvester gets maintenance work after a night of grape picking