by Patricia Freer

Created on: July 14, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again.
I had long heard of the joys of the emerging Lodi wine country. One hot summer day I began my journey to discover what the buzz was about. Sandwiched between the San Francisco Bay Delta, and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, is the small town of Lodi that is emerging as the "Zinfandel Capital of the World." Lodi's reputation is evolving but has a long history of grape growing. Lodi has been a major wine grape growing region since the 1850's. Today over 75,000 acres farmed by 750 growers, account for 18% of the total production of grapes in California. That is more that Napa and Sonoma combined.

Lodi already had an abundance of wild vines growig on the river's edge when the first Zinfandel grapes were planted in 1850. In the 1880's the first Tokay grapes were planted. The Tokay Flame was a popular table grape and loved for its flame red color. It was also sturdy and held up well on long journeys to the east.

The Tokay and the Zinfandel grapes prospered with the combination of the soil and the climate. Lodi soil is sandy, allowing the vines to deeply root and slowly draw water down over the course of the summer. The soil also makes the grapes resistant to phylloxera, the tiny pale yellow sap-sucking insect that feeds on the roots of vines, eventually destroying them, Add to that a Mediterranean climate of dry summers and cool moist winters and you have a recipe for success.

Throughout the next century, Lodi continued to build its wine-growing empire. Surviving tumultuous weather, wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression, farmers in Lodi continued to harvest quality grapes.

Napa and Sonoma flourished in the 1980's and 1990's using Lodi grapes. During that time Lodi was quietly improving their quality and spreading the word on their historic old vine Zinfandels. In 1986 they were approved by the Federal government as the own appellation, allowing the Lodi name to appear on wine labels.

The recenty deceased visionary wine maker, Robert Mondavi, grew up in Lodi. His Mondavi Woodbridge winery is one of five major wineries, along with Turner Road Vintners, Sutter Home, Bear Creek, and Oak Ridge. Sixty leading California wineries buy grapes from Lodi, including E & J Gallo, Glen Ellen, Fetzer, Kenwood, and Beringer.

In 1991 growers in Lodi formed the Lodi-Woodbridge Wine Grape Commission. The commission was created for research and education, and the development of the "Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing." This program,

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