Markus and Liz Bokisch hold bottles of their wine while outside in the vineyards where they grow different kinds of grapes in Victor on Wednesday afternoon. (Angelina Gervasi/News-Sentinel)

Bokisch Winery owners focus on Spanish grapes

In the Lodi appellation known for zinfandel, Bokisch Winery owners Markus and Liz Bokisch are growing grape varietals like albariño, graciano and tempranillo.

In 2000, the couple planted budwood of these Spanish varietals on a three-acre lot in their backyard. Now they are using these varietals in their own wine and sourcing these grapes to other wineries.

Their current lineup consists of three reds (graciano, tempranillo, garnacha) and one white (albariño). They are also adding a dry rosé (rosado) this year. They produce less than 1,000 cases of wine each year.

Markus and Liz Bokisch also own Bokisch Ranches, an 1,100-acre farm management company, which grows and sells four white and seven red grape varieties for clients including Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge Winery, Starry Night, Twisted Oak and Artesa.

Q: Tell me about your Spanish wines.

MB: Garnacha is a variety known as grenache in French. It's a great introductory wine. Very fruit forward and fun.

LB: Tempranillo is more sophisticated. It ages well and has a great tannic structure.

MB: Graciano is in a world of its own. With Graciano, we're the only producers in California, actually in the New World, but it's attracting more interest. It's a really big, luscious red. There are only 200 acres left in the world. It's usually used as a blender with tempranillo, but it's a fun wine. Albariño is our white wine. It's from the northwest part of Spain and the area gets a lot of rainfall. The skin is thick and really waxy on the outside.

Q: Have you visited Spain?

MB: My mom's family are from Spain in the Barcelona area. We lived two hours south of there in the region where they make Spanish Cava and we worked with these varietals.

Q: Which wine sells best?

MB: It's regional. Graciano sells well on the West Coast. It's most ideally suited to Americans. It's a very bold, flavorful wine, like a petit syrah or zinfandel. It would pair well with flavorful sausages, wild game, lamb. With the Alburiño, the East Coast loves it. They're more seasonal drinkers and this is a great summer wine.

Q: What are some challenges of growing Spanish varietals?

MB: The graciano is the oldest varietal known in Spain, but it's hard to grow. Farmers don't like growing it. It doesn't graft well in the nursery and it has an erratic growth pattern so you have to thin dramatically if you want every cluster to be as uniform as the next. Yield is low.

LB: You spend more time on it, with less return.

MB: That's why all of the gracianos in the world are winery controlled and produced.

Q: What is the price range of your wines?

LB: The range is about $16 to $26.

Q: How did you get into this business?

MB: We both graduated from UC Davis in 1989. I graduated in plant science and plant pathology and always thought it would be fun to work in a winery. I worked at Joseph Phelps Vineyards in the Napa Valley as their viticulturist and grower relations manager and was sourcing Rhone varietals. Then I was a consultant for Duarte Nursery. But with our experience and connections, we thought we had a great opportunity to start our own Spanish wines and in Lodi, the climate is similar to Spain.

Q: What have you harvested this year?

MB: We harvested the Albariño a month ago, but none of the reds yet. The summer was hot but the fall has been unseasonably cool. The grapes are taking longer to reach optimal maturity. We're just waiting and tasting.

Q: What is your favorite varietal?

MB: I love all wines. That's a tough one. I'm a seasonal drinker. I only drink whites in the summer so I like the Albariño. In the winter, I like the graciano.

LB: I'm also a seasonal drinker and I like the tempranillo.

MB: For the first time this year, we have also done a dry rosé. We're going to do about 50 cases for next year because we love a dry rosé in the summer.

Q: Have you tried selling your wines in Spain?

MB: Not yet. But we have distribution in the East Coast, all of California, the West Coast, Idaho and Michigan. We don't know what the capacity of the Spanish wine market is yet but we are expanding, as the market is pulling us into producing more product. Our goal in two years is to produce 1,500 cases.

Contact Lodi Living Editor Tricia Tomiyoshi at triciat@lodinews.com.