SacBee: Dunne on LodiNative Project

MikeDunne has a very interesting article in today's SacBee on the LodiNative Zin project:
SacBee:LodiNative

Think I'll order that 6-pack to try myself. Nice to see Lodi doing some good self-promotion work.
Tom

[David M. Bueker]

Meg Maker on the project as well:

http://www.makerstable.com/2016/02/lodi ... vines.html

Hi Tom,
Thanks for sharing! I think a comparison tasting of the “Native” labeled wines and their “counterparts” (the “normal” winery labeled wines) would be of some interest to you.

Salute

Hi Tom,
Thanks for sharing! I think a comparison tasting of the “Native” labeled wines and their “counterparts” (the “normal” winery labeled wines) would be of some interest to you.
Salute

Yup, Victor....right up my (weird) alley. Order in & we'll taste w/ some others.
Tom

Thanks for posting this -- a very neat project. I think I may try these too.

A laudable project in every way, and one I would like to have a chance to sample through, but probably won't. (I haz sad.)

Can't help compare it to Mendocino's once robust, now languishing "Coro" project. It too was based on zinfandel,but the Mendo consortium apporached their project entirely differently...certainly not repressing the influence or fingerprint or personality of the winemaker but setting the requirements so that within a loose framework (far too loose a framework, many critics thought, myself included, with strange things like allowing Pinot Noir in a Zinfandel blend) the wines could attempt to showcase variety, terroir and the winemaker's style.

Also can't help but comment that although Lodi is the epicenter for zinfandel these days---that's not necessarily a good thing in my book. I still question the location/terroir of Lodi for zinfandel as being the best possible. How about some of those "old vineyard" Mendos, those traditional Dry Creek and Sonoma and even Russian River zins from colder climates? You know, the ones they tried to make with a little restraint, with a touch less alcohol and less jam and milkshake?

Due props for the success of Lodi and the grower-winemakers, and as I said, I'd be eager to try the results---but I still like to keep things in perspective.

The fact alone that these “old vines” of California survived this long (by long I mean 90, 100, possibly 150 years), either because generation after generation of winemakers thought it would be worthy to keep these vines sustainable in a particular site, or the vines themselves survived and endured on their own accord in a particular patch of dirt has to mean something.

Salute

The fact alone that these “old vines” of California survived this long (by long I mean 90, 100, possibly 150 years), either because generation after generation of winemakers thought it would be worthy to keep these vines sustainable in a particular site, or the vines themselves survived and endured on their own accord in a particular patch of dirt has to mean something.

Salute

Couldn't agree more, Victor!

Those precious 'ancient vine' patches that remain, scattered here and there, are a remarkable statement, a living museum, and testament to what the original settlers thought of grape and wine culture. Just as grits/polenta/macaroni and other humble lower-class/working man's food became haute cuisine, some of those basics of 'dago red' eventually became high class cult wines.

And those remaining vines area admirable in all ways. I remember visiting some rugged, gnarled, head pruned ancients, subsisting on harsh, poor, soil, dry and non-irrigated,"organic" and pesticide-free and "sustainable" because no one could afford fertilizer or week killer. There was a hard-won majesty to the thick, twisted trunks and the clustered bunches of grapes hanging, slowly and stubbornly ripening, providing less and less fruit each year, but good, solid, intense, almost feral fruit rendering dark, intense, brooding wine.

Mendocino, Lake County, Sonoma, Lodi, Sierra Foothills---those places in particular have some grapevines that deserve to be classed as state and national treasures, just as they do buildings and landmarks.