On Wine: Lodi Whites

For many years, Lodi’s wine reputation has been intertwined almost exclusively with robust and heady, jammy zinfandels. Lodi proudly touts the designation as “Zinfandel Capital of the World.” Producing around 40% of the nation’s premium zins and being home to some of the oldest zinfandel vines in the country—dating as far back as the 1880s—Lodi and zinfandel are nearly synonymous in consumers’ minds. As a wine professional for 20+ years, I have often dismissed wine from Lodi unless it was zinfandel, believing the region was too hot and too broadly similar to produce anything more nuanced.

In recent years, however, I’ve discovered that Lodi has a few tricks up its sleeve, that it’s a far more diverse wine region than its “Zinfandel Capital” title might suggest. In my quest to know and experience more of Lodi’s subtler self, I took part…Read More