WTN: Excellent Mount Veeder Cab...from Lodi?

Fields Family is a small independent winery located north of Lodi (Woodbridge) that specializes in more elegant, restrained wines. The winemaker and winery owner came across a small vineyard on Mount Veeder in Napa that they loved, and they persuaded the owner to sell grapes to them. The 2009 Dr. Konrad's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is certainly rich enough, but it also has delicious purity of flavors, fine acid, a great grainy tannic structure. Delicious anise and currant fruit. Good stuff! https://fieldsfamilywines.com/wines/


Also: With Thai Food in Davis (Ket Mo Ree on G Street is great!), had a 2011 Clos Du Val white blend with Rhone varietals and a good slug of Sauvignon Blanc!!!!! for acidity. Sounds weird, but I really liked the textural character of this wine!

[Jenise]

Must be hard to be a maker of that style in Lodi. I know that I personally turn off the second I see 'Lodi' on a bottle, and I'm sure many others do too.

Must be hard to be a maker of that style in Lodi. I know that I personally turn off the second I see 'Lodi' on a bottle, and I'm sure many others do too.

I was being somewhat facetious in my title. The winery is located in Lodi but the cabernet is made from Mount Veeder (Napa Valley) grapes above Napa city.

Sorry for being confusing!

As to your broader issue, I always had that impression of Lodi as well. Partly because some of the most visible ambassadors for the region (Michael David) ARE made in a massively fruity, almost sweet style. I find Fields Family wines different. They still produce Zins (which are relatively restrained) but also make a killer Syrah and a Tempranillo that was showing really nice red fruit, plenty of acidity, and good tannic structure. And, this cab is delicious.

[Jenise]

Must be hard to be a maker of that style in Lodi. I know that I personally turn off the second I see 'Lodi' on a bottle, and I'm sure many others do too.

I was being somewhat facetious in my title. The winery is located in Lodi but the cabernet is made from Mount Veeder (Napa Valley) grapes above Napa city.

Sorry for being confusing!

As to your broader issue, I always had that impression of Lodi as well. Partly because some of the most visible ambassadors for the region (Michael David) ARE made in a massively fruity, almost sweet style. I find Fields Family wines different. They still produce Zins (which are relatively restrained) but also make a killer Syrah and a Tempranillo that was showing really nice red fruit, plenty of acidity, and good tannic structure. And, this cab is delicious.

Oh, you didn't mislead. I understood that the maker was in Lodi, but not the grapes. Still, were I to pick up a bottle that look to see who this new producer I've not tasted a wine before was from, I'd put it back when I saw the Lodi address.

Oh, you didn't mislead. I understood that the maker was in Lodi, but not the grapes. Still, were I to pick up a bottle that look to see who this new producer I've not tasted a wine before was from, I'd put it back when I saw the Lodi address.

As with wine from the foothills, this can be a mistake. I am becoming surprised at the good wine coming from Lodi (or the foothills, for that matter...or even, I am forced to admit, Paso Robles, which I always dismissed as "cough syrup).

I've had a few Fields Family wines. They are good! And I agree, Brian, tossing out the baby with the bathwater isn't always the best idea. I don't know of a place that doesn't have both hidden gems and DNPIM shlockhouses.

[Jenise]

I've had a few Fields Family wines. They are good! And I agree, Brian, tossing out the baby with the bathwater isn't always the best idea. I don't know of a place that doesn't have both hidden gems and DNPIM shlockhouses.

Exceptions are possible--I understand that. But there's no point in my looking for them up here when there's so much good wine from the areas I love available. And Brian, re Paso? Went there a few years ago with friends armed with a list of the places that were the exceptions, not the rule. Brought nine or ten of them home with me. And where there they showed as exceptions, once I got back home and drank them within the context of the wines I usually drink? They tasted as goopy as everything else in Paso Robles had.

Hmmm...Interesting experience, Jenise.

But there are exceptions to the exceptions.

A friend brought to dinner a "natural wine" (biodynamic and everything) Rhone blend from Paso that clocked in at 12.7% abv and tasted like a wine made by an unhaven 29 year old skateboarder from France!

And...this may be heresy, but I actually liked the J. Lohr....yes J. Lohr..."Pau" Bordeaux blend. It was quite restrained and even elegant.

But...your mileage, and palate, may vary!

[Jenise]

So we no sooner had this conversation and there I was at a friend's last night and another couple brought a Lodi zinfandel. Called Gen5 and under screwcap, it was totally unspoofed and fresh and light/zippy/balanced like the kind of zins I remember tasting on my first trip to Sonoma/Healdsberg when I was 20. They apologized for it being light but I said no that was exactly what I loved about it, and I do mean loved. Couldn't read the abv in the available light but it had to have been no more than 13.5. I know nothing else about it except that it came from BevMo.

Just in case you need yet another reason to love Lodi, Jenise...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0VDnQv-rLA

Just to throw in another data point, my pal Nilo and I ended up on a tasting tour of downtown Lodi a few months ago. While we did run into a number of places with red wines that fit the Lodi stereotype to a painful T, we had some white wines that were wonderful. There are some people in that area making wines from white grenache, albarino, verdelho, and other varieties that are lean, crisp, flavorful, and really delicious. Bokisch Vineyards is an example. Their whites are restrained in their alcohol content and possess some pretty impressive minerality that I never would have expected from a Lodi wine.

That said, I don't buy Lodi wines unless I've had a chance to taste them first. Ever.

That said, I don't buy Lodi wines unless I've had a chance to taste them first. Ever.

But isn't that true of many Napa and Sonoma wines as well? There are an awful lot of awful Napa fruit bombs floating around out there. Even from wineries that can make good wines but need to cater to the big and sweet palates that still dominate the market. No judgements, just observation.

I did find a Lodi winery near Fields Family that was producing amazingly crisp and minerally whites. They even had a Picpoul!

http://www.lodiwine.com/blog/acquiesce- ... wine-image

That said, I don't buy Lodi wines unless I've had a chance to taste them first. Ever.

But isn't that true of many Napa and Sonoma wines as well? There are an awful lot of awful Napa fruit bombs floating around out there. Even from wineries that can make good wines but need to cater to the big and sweet palates that still dominate the market. No judgements, just observation.

I did find a Lodi winery near Fields Family that was producing amazingly crisp and minerally whites. They even had a Picpoul!

http://www.lodiwine.com/blog/acquiesce- ... wine-image

Well, I guess that's true - although we rarely buy any California wine that we haven't tasted. It's not that we don't trust them, it's just that we don't buy that much wine and so most of it comes from places we've been to on tasting trips. That said, I'd still be more willing to trust Napa or Sonoma over Lodi for a wine I'd be ok with.

Must be hard to be a maker of that style in Lodi. I know that I personally turn off the second I see 'Lodi' on a bottle, and I'm sure many others do too.

You need to put some Bokisch, St. Amant, Harney Lane or Lange Twins wines in your rotation.