Wine Tours

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

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Wine Tours

Journeys of Discovery: Culinary star crafts farm-fresh cuisine in Lodi

Chef Bradley Ogden’s stellar career includes more than fifteen international culinary awards including 2004 Restaurant of the Year for his Bradley Ogden at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas, and “Best California Chef” bestowed by the James Beard Foundation. Even though Ogden remains involved in the management of Marin’s Lark Creek Inn and One Market Street in San Francisco, Ogden is now based in Lodi, where he is culinary director at Wine & Roses Inn and Resort.
Wine Tours

We’ve gotten it all wrong about Lodi wine

Before I moved to California to begin my job with The Chronicle, I didn’t know much about Lodi wine — and I honestly didn’t think there was much to know. My only real exposure to the region came while working at an East Coast wine shop; the Lodi wines we sold there were cheap, jammy and sickly sweet. Oh, but how wrong I was. Discovering the wines of Lodi has truly been one of the great pleasures of my job over the last few years.