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Mary Lou and Bob Koth, who own Mokelumne Glen vineyards in Victor, stand before one of their vineyards. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

Lodi known as ‘boutique' wine center

By Chris Nichols
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

The Lodi wine region first gained prominence generations ago for its sweet Flame Tokay grapes.

Eventually the area transitioned into growing winegrapes, especially the full-flavored zinfandel.

But while Lodi growers may have been producing quality products, they were shipping it out of the area. Each harvest season, local growers sent their products across the state, supplying some of the world's largest wineries.

And while the Lodi area still grows about 20 percent of the state's winegrapes, dozens of local growers have opened their own wineries in the past twenty years, cultivating an entirely new "boutique winery" image across Lodi's landscape.

"Decades ago, they sold it all to Gallo and you went fishing in the fall," said Mark Chandler, executive director of the Lodi Woodbridge Winegrape Commission.

Now, 65 wineries operate in the Lodi Appellation, the federally recognized wine region that extends south from the Elk Grove area to just east of Stockton.

Most of the regions' small boutique wineries are owned and operated by longtime Lodi-area families, providing visitors with a direct connection to the wine region's heritage.

"A lot of the grape growers have been doing it four or five generations and take pride in what they're doing," said Bruce Fry, of Lodi's Mohr-Fry family, a longtime grape growing clan.

"When you go into the wineries here in Lodi, most of the time you get to talk with the grape grower or the owner," he added. "In some areas of California, that's not true. I think people really enjoy that — the chance to hear the story about how they make the wine and grow the grapes."

Walking into a Lodi winery, you're likely to sip some old vine zinfandel. That varietal remains Lodi's most popular, with some of its vines dating back to the 1860s.

The local zinfandel harvest last year amassed 133,375 tons, 40 percent of the state's total zin crop, according to the local winegrape commission.

Meanwhile, the Flame Tokay — which led to Lodi High School's mascot, the Flames, and the school name for their cross-town rival, Tokay High — has largely been replaced.

Today, less than 1,000 acres of the bright red grape remain in the San Joaquin Valley, according to AppelationAmerica.com, a wine industry publication.

The popularity of well-known varietals, including merlot, chardonnay and cabernet, has driven local growers to replant or graft a staggering 75 percent of their vineyards since 1993, said Chandler, of the wine grape commission.

Changes in the industry are nothing new for long-time growers like Larry Mettler, of the Mettler Family Vineyards in Lodi.

Local growers have always had to keep up with new farming practices and technologies. But now they must learn the intricacies of producing and marketing their own wine, something most don't have experience with, he said. Fortunately for the local industry, many of the families have made the transition from growers to winemakers.

"For the small boutique wineries, the positive thing is people are interested in drinking wine, people are interested in trying new brands," said Mettler, whose family started producing its own brand in 1999, after generations of growing grapes.

Recently, local growers and wine experts developed the Lodi Rules, a collection of winegrowing standards that have been peer reviewed by scientists, academics and environmentalists and are being implemented on a regionwide basis.

Mettler, along with many in the industry, sees a bright future for the local wineries both large and small.

Five major wineries circle Lodi, including Robert Mondavi Woodbridge, Turner Road Vineyards, Sutter Home, Bear Creek and Oak Ridge.

"There's a lot more population in our region, and they're all interested in wine," Mettler said.