Lodi an Eden for Zinners

The sprawling vineyards surrounding Lodi produce all kinds of grapes, from Chardonnays to Merlots to Cabernet Sauvignons and everything else in between.

But the region’s soil, climate and abundance of older vines make it the perfect place to grow one grape in particular. In Lodi, the Zinfandel is king.

The region has become the largest Zinfandel producer in the state. More than 42 percent of the Zin grapes crushed in California in 2004 came from the Lodi area. Nearly every winery in the region produces the varietal.

Of the 525,000 tons of winegrapes crushed in the Lodi district in 2004, 135,000, or approximately 25 percent, were Zinfandels, said Mark Chandler, executive director of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission. Local growers produce more than eight times the amount of Zinfandel grapes as Sonoma and Napa combined.

Lodi’s dry, hot summer climate and access to winds from the nearby Delta combine to allow the Zinfandel to prosper, said local winemaker David Lucas.

The variety’s grapes are bunched closely together on the vine and tend to burst from the pressure, Lucas added. The heat and Delta breeze dry the burst clusters before they spread rot to the remainder of the grapes.

“You have berries pushing against berries, and when one breaks down in the middle of the cluster it starts to cause spoilage,” Lucas said. “They need those nice, drying winds we get from the Delta.”

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.

“It was really the only winegrape here for a long time,” Chandler added.

For a long time, the Zinfandel shared the limelight with the Flame Tokay, a table grape that once prospered in the area, Chandler said. To see how important the Flame Tokay was to the local grape 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.

When the focus of Lodi’s vineyards 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.

“If it weren’t for White Zinfandel, a lot of those old Zinfandel vineyards would have been pulled out of the ground,” Chandler said.

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.

“It’s the one people know Lodi by. If there’s any notoriety for Lodi in the wine industry, right now it’s for Zinfandel.”.

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