Chandler a champion of local grape, wine industry

Today, Lodi is a respected and very prosperous player in the world of varietal wines. Grapes from Lodi can be found in 150 vintages. More than 75,000 acres are in grape production. Lodi wines, especially zinfandels and cabernets, consistently earn awards in major wine competitions.

Yet only 15 years ago, Lodi was a viticultural step-child.

Mark Chandler

Its reputation was for quantity, not quality. Local grapes were considered ordinary at best. They were adequate for wine coolers and jug wines, and certainly not worthy of acclaim. Lodi was seen as part of the San Joaquin Valley's vast and generally drab wine production machine.

The sharp shift in perception has meant more than gold medals and new, bigger homes for area vintners and growers. It has meant a strong and steady updraft for the entire area's economy.

While numerous individuals have contributed to this economic ascent, many local grape growers give a large measure of credit to Mark Chandler, the former Visalia farmboy widely regarded as a marketing magician who serves as executive director of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission.

Chandler, after all, has written every word of advertising copy touting the region's wines over the last decade, helped found the Wine Integrity Award, pushed for the creation of the stylish Wine Visitors Center on Turner Road and was pivotal to the creation of the Lodi Visitors and Conference Bureau.

Perhaps more than anyone, Chandler has held the red pen that has put Lodi on the wine-producing map.

For his contributions to Lodi's wine community, Chandler has been selected as an inductee into the Lodi Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Lodi Boys and Girls Club. Other inductees are John Borelli, downtown merchant and community leader; Ted Heinrich, retired Lodi High School drafting instructor; Charlene Lange, former director of Hutchins Street Square; and Joe Serna Jr., the late mayor of Sacramento.

Chandler was nominated for the honor by John Ledbetter, a leading area grape grower, who described Chandler as part marketing whiz, part wine educator and part high-energy organizer.

"He is the ultimate ambassador of Lodi," Ledbetter wrote in his nomination of Chandler.

Chandler took the commission job in Lodi in 1990, a few years after Lodi won federal designation as a wine appellation.

The position is a demanding mix of word, marketing, winemaking, managerial and people skills. Chandler came to it with a diverse and yet strikingly relevant portfolio of credentials.

Raised on a ranch in Visalia, Chandler is the seventh generation of his family involved in California agriculture. As a boy, he spent many hours irrigating, pruning and harvesting crops.

He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in agricultural business and marketing, then took a job as a broker with a top national grain company.

After a couple of years, though, Chandler decided on a switch. "Working with the grain company, I had exposure to a commodity. But I wanted to be involved with something that had a higher, more interesting profile."

Grains gave way to grapes.

Chandler moved to Canada and worked as a cellarmaster for a large winery near Vancouver. After five years, he returned to California and worked as a winemaker on the Central Coast and then as general manager for the Stevenot Winery in Murphys.

Along with managing the winery in Murphys, he helped operate a bed and breakfast inn.

When the Lodi commission job opened up, Chandler presented unique qualifications: He knew agriculture from the roots up; he knew management and marketing; he knew grapes and winemaking and he knew hospitality.

"It just seemed like an amazing fit," he said.

Lodi's low-brow image grew in part from its linkage with other San Joaquin Valley wine producing areas. Chandler set out to change that image, unhooking Lodi from the valley and stressing its connection to the Delta and coast.

"Our breezes and cool nights allow grapes to ripen more slowing, giving our grapes better flavor and quality," he said. "We needed to get the message out that we were not Madera, Fresno or Bakersfield."

Over time, and linked with efforts to further improve the area's grape and wine production, Chandler's marketing campaign succeeded. Lodi now produces varietals of good and even exceptional quality, drawing higher prices for both grapes and the finished liquid product.

Chandler gives credit to local growers who established the commission and made sure its executive director had the resources to do things right. He recalled traveling to Sacramento with a local grower-commissioner to visit a graphic artist whose work was stunning -- but far from inexpensive.

"As we were driving back, I mused whether we should spend the money. (The grower) said, 'Mark, we are not going to send you out with second-class marketing materials.'"

Ultimately, the artist was hired. The first-class marketing effort continues to this day.

Reflecting on his career, Chandler says a defining experience was his participation in the California Agricultural Leadership Program, which exposes participants to topics ranging from leadership training to political and economic studies. It was by networking with other program graduates that he first learned of the position in Lodi. (Chandler and his wife Jan have two children, David, 21, and Laura, 18.)

Though his job is centered on marketing and managerial duties, Chandler remains true to his Visalia roots. He grows wine grapes himself on acreage near Lodi.

"Growing grapes helps me relate to our members," he said. "If the prices go down, I feel the pain, too."

Those interested in attending the Hall of Fame dinner Sept. 25 may contact the Boys and Girls Club at 334-2697.