Zinfandel: The grape that made Lodi great
Many a fine wine has been produced using the fruit of Lodi’s vines, from buttery Chardonnays to smooth Merlots to rich Cabernet Sauvignons. Local vineyards and wineries have also produced award-winning Syrahs, Sauvignon Blancs and Viogniers, as well as a host of other varieties, from grapes grown in Lodi.
But if there’s one grape variety that’s fast becoming synonymous with the Lodi Appellation, however, it’s the Zinfandel.
The area’s abundance of older vines — which produce a more complex and flavorful grape — combined with its soil and climate makes Lodi the ideal place to grow and bottle Zinfandel, a wine that has exploded in popularity over the past decade.
“It is our leading wine product,” said Mark Chandler, executive director of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission. “(Zinfandels) are just now coming into their own in terms of production.”Of the 525,000 tons of winegrapes crushed in the Lodi district in 2003, 131,000, or approximately 25 percent, were Zinfandels. Local growers produce more than eight times the amount of Zinfandel grapes as Sonoma and Napa combined.
“We are over a third of the state’s production of Zinfandel,” Chandler said.
Zinfandel grapes can be used to make both a rich, peppery red wine and the popular White Zinfandel, a light-pink, fruity wine that’s typically served chilled. Red Zins also include an Old Vine variety — meaning the grapes grew from vines that are at least 35 years old.
Lodi features an abundance of these older vines, Chandler said. One vineyard owned by Jessie’s Grove Winery near Turner Road was growing Zinfandel grapes from as far back as the 1880s, and several others were planted in the early 1900s.
“We’re very fortunate to have as many old vines that are productive as we do,” said Michael Phillips, co-owner of Michael-David Vineyards. “Michael-David’s signature product is its Seven Deadly Zins variety of Old Vine Zinfandel. The label is only one of more than 100 Zinfandel labels made with Lodi grapes, but it’s become so popular that it’s “driving the winery,” Phillips said.
“Once people taste it the first time, they found out how good the wine is and they come back and try it again,” he said.
Zinfandel has always been a grape that has prospered in Lodi, but for a long time it shared the limelight with the Flame Tokay, the main grape used in the table wines the area once specialized in, Chandler said. To see how important the Flame Tokay was to the local wine industry, one need look no further than the local schools.
Lodi High School’s mascot is the Flames. It’s cross-town rival is Tokay High School.
“The Flame Tokay was something that was really unique,” Chandler said. “This was the only region that it ripened to the unique color it had.”When the focus of Lodi’s wine industry shifted away from table grapes and more toward higher-quality wines, the vintners began working more with the fruits blossoming from the older Zinfandel vines. In the 1980s, the popularity of White Zins exploded, increasing the price of the grapes and allowing growers to continue farming the less-productive old vines.
“People could afford to keep them in the ground,” said Tim Spencer, whose St. Amant Winery produces the award-winning Marian’s Vineyard Zinfandel. “Later on, the red Zinfandels gained in popularity. Consequently, the prices went up, and people could continue to farm them.”Lodi Zinfandels are now starting to open eyes — as well as other senses — across the country. Since the grapes have been grown in the area since the 1870s, and still has a good number of older vines that produce a more complex fruit, the area was in perfect position to take advantage of the variety’s recent rise in popularity, Chandler said.
Which is why the Zinfandel remains the region’s most identifiable variety, Spencer said.
“Our Zinfandels are unique,” Spencer said. “A Zin from here tastes different from Dry Creek or Mendocino County. They’re all good, but they’re all different.
“It really shows that the Lodi Zins show off the uniqueness of the Lodi Appellation,” he said.