Lodi winery wins award for its aid to tourism

Michael David Winery was awarded the California Travel Winery of the Year award at the 35th annual California Travel Summit, which was held from Tuesday to Thursday in Newport Beach.

“We were very excited. My wife and I went down to the awards dinner and accepted the award, and it was kind of a big deal. Lots of people from the travel industry all over California were there,” said David Phillips, who owns the winery with his brother, Michael.

The award is a recognition of the winery’s contribution to developing California’s tourism brand, as well as the winery’s innovation, success and commitment to the travel industry, CalTravel said. The statewide organization advocates for California’s tourism industry throughout the U.S. and the world.

“I guess they liked what we’re doing as far as promoting our wines all over the world and bringing tourism to the Central Valley — and Lodi specifically,” Phillips said. “They realized that in 20 years we’ve gone from having very little tourism to thousands of people coming weekly to Lodi.”

The winery produces wines that are sold in all 50 states and 30 different countries, he said.

“People who try the wines fall in love with them, and they want to come see where they are made, so they come to Lodi,” he said.

Brothers David and Michael Phillips are both fifth generation grape growers, and their family has been farming the same land in Lodi since 1865. In 1984, the two established Michael David Winery.

“We had the grapes, so we started making a little wine and then things just kind of took off,” David Phillips said.

It wasn’t until the late ’90s that the Phillips brothers started to expand their wine production. The pair came up with fun labels for their wines, including 7 Deadly Zins, which propelled the winery to national prominence.

Visit Lodi! President and CEO Nancy Beckman nominated the winery for the prestigious honor.

“Michael David Winery is a trendsetter among California wineries,” she said. “They went from a small family winery to now producing over 600,000 cases a year with distribution in numerous countries.”

In November 2015, Michael David Winery nabbed the No. 2 spot on Wine Enthusiast magazine’s Top 100 wines in the world with their Petite-Petite Petite Syrah, Beckman said.

In 2016, the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium named Michael David Winery of the Year, calling them a “Great California success story,” she added.

Beckman also pointed to the winery’s cycling team, Delta Velo, which competes in nearly 100 events in California and across the country every year. Michael David played a role in bringing the AMGEN Tour of California to Lodi in 2015 and 2016 and served as sponsors for the event, she said.

Now, the sixth generation of the Phillips family is working the winery, showing a longstanding commitment to California agriculture and the California wine industry, Beckman said.

Family members work every aspect of the business from farming to the winery to distribution, she added.

Phillips had no idea that Beckman had nominated the winery.

“When we found out, it was big surprise. We were thrilled by it,” he said. “I want to thank Nancy for nominating us and CalTravel for providing us with the award.”

In addition to their topranked Zinfandels, Michael David Winery produces Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and several other varietals. Their Freakshow and PetitePetit wines have quickly grown in popularity.

Last year Michael David Winery crushed approximately 15,000 tons of Lodi grapes, and they produce a million cases of wine annually.

The Phillips brothers travel all over the world to promote their wines and the Lodi region, and are in the process of expanding the production as well as their production facilities. The family is also expanding their sales reach around the world.

“We just want to keep it going because our children are coming into the business,” David Phillips said.