Wine drinkers have spoken! What they are saying is they love many of Lodi’s wines, from blends to Zins. At the Consumer Wine Awards Competition in April, Lodi-area winery took home awards given by everyday wine drinkers. The awards include these platinum- and gold-winning wines from the Lodi appelation;

In a portable classroom slated for demolition, 21 teenagers spend an hour a day breaking glass, smashing ceramic plates and mixing miniature batches of cement in repurposed Cool Whip tubs.

The Fifth Annual Consumer Wine Awards Competition, where consumers evaluate entries and wineries get immediate results, is now accepting entries. The program is sponsored by the Lodi Tokay Rotary Club, and proceeds benefit their charitable work.

Longtime San Joaquin Delta College Trustee Dan Parises, who died Saturday, will be remembered for his first two loves: Family and farming. He would have been 76 on Saturday.

Jim Natsis, chairman of the Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi, needed a favor Saturday.

How do you like to drink your coffee? Do you like to play team sports, or are you more of a solo athlete? Or, perhaps, do you like pickle juice?

With hundreds of wines entered into the Consumer Wine Awards Competition in Lodi, all adults are invited to taste the competitors, identify their own palatal preferences with professional assistance and have a light dinner for a $25 cost, with proceeds going to the Lodi Tokay Rotary Foundation. The club, with the Lodi Conference and Visitors Bureau and the Consumer Wine Awards, is co-sponsoring the event.

Michael McCay’s passion is wine. The owner and lead winemaker at McCay Cellars enjoys cultivating and crafting various varietals, and his vision is being embraced by critics and consumers alike. Not only can his wines be found on the menus of upscale restaurants, but wine publications and enthusiasts are raving about his label.

Starting July 1, the Lodi Tokay Rotary Club has a new president.

"You know what it's like working with a million-gallon tank?" asked Chad Joseph, talking about his first job as a winemaker, at E. & J. Gallo in Modesto. "You can't even throw a football across it."

Galleries, murals, statues, you name it. There is no shortage of art in Lodi. 

Four Lodi-area wineries earned special recognition at the 2011 Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi. The March event featured hundreds of wines from around the globe being tasted and rated by a group of consumers.

Consumers from around California spent Saturday afternoon at Hutchins Street Square sampling wines from around the world and giving their frank assessment of what they tasted.

Want a chance to taste from nearly 700 wines for $25? Saturday evening at Hutchins Street Square is the place to be.

The best Sauvignon blanc I'd tasted in a long time wasn't even "professionally" made. It was bottle #8104 at the annual San Joaquin County Fair Home Wine Competition made by Aaron and Linda Kidder.

Have a knack for art, mosaic and tiling? Your mosaic design could become the mosaic trophy for this years Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi, an international wine-judging event.

The Lodi Wine and Visitor Center earned runner-up for Sunset Magazine's "Best Tasting Room in the West" award at the Sunset Magazine Western Wine Awards Gala Dinner ceremony last week. Sunset Magazine operates one of the largest direct-to-consumer wine clubs in the nation. Hundreds of tasting rooms in Washington, Oregon and California were considered for the award.