Lodi natives stand the taste of time
LODI — Think about this: Marian’s Vineyard was planted in 1901.
That predates the vacuum cleaner, air conditioning, powered flight, plastic, radio and the electric washing machine.
Yet the 8.3-acre parcel of headtrained Zinfandel at Mohr-Fry Ranches in Lodi still is producing amazing, quality fruit.
So much history is locked into those vines. If they could speak, what tales would they tell?
In essence, the Lodi Native project, now in its third vintage, allows some of Lodi’s old vine plantings to tell their story. Six winegrowers of like mind, living and working in the Lodi American Viticultural Area, have agreed to put the spotlight on the region’s heritage plantings through sensible growing and minimal winemaking practices.
The result is six distinct wines from “old vine” plantings 35 to more than 100 years old that are true to their terroir. Each year, the winegrowers agree to a protocol that includes native fermentations only, no use of oak chips, dust or similar amendments, no acidification or deacidification, no new oak, no water or tannin additions and no use of Mega-Purple or other concentrates, to name several rules.
The winegrowers have taken themselves out of the equation to a large degree. Lodi Native is about the vineyard, not the winemaker.
The 2014 Lodi Native follows the wildly successful 2012 and 2013 vintages. Stuart Spencer, winemaker at St. Amant Winery, has been a part of the project from its inception and believes the 2014 Lodi Native is every bit on par if not better than the previous releases.
“Those wines are as compelling as any of the previous years we’ve done,” he said. “They are delicious wines, very interesting.”
Spencer said 2014 was a good year for Zinfandel. The harvest came early and the yields were as light as they had been in many years, thanks to the drought, no doubt.
“So there’s a great deal of concentration in the wines,” he said. “Those of us that have been working with it from the beginning are getting better each subsequent vintage at dialing it in a little more clearly.”
Spencer’s Lodi Native comes from Marian’s Vineyard, grown by Jerry and Bruce Fry at Mohr-Fry Ranches.
Grower Todd Maley’s Lucas Road Vineyard, planted in the late 1970s, went into the Lodi Native made by Tim Holdener of Macchia Wines.
Layne Montgomery of m2 Wines sources the oldest block of the 101year-old Soucie Vineyard, grown by Kevin Soucie, for his Lodi Native.
The Stampede Vineyard, planted in 1920 with a second planting in the early 1940s, grown by Jeff and John Perlegos goes into Ryan Sherman’s Lodi Native by Fields Family Wines.
Michael McCay grows the 102-yearold Lot 13 Vineyard and uses the fruit for his McCay Cellars’ Lodi Native.
And fruit from the 21-acre, 60-yearold Wegat Vineyard grown by Todd Maley has been crafted by Chad Joseph into the Maley Brothers’ Lodi Native. Each vineyard but the Stampede Vineyard is located in the Mokelumne River sub-AVA on the southern and western sides of the Lodi AVA. The Stampede Vineyard is east of Lodi inside the Clements Hills sub-AVA.
“As always, the set of six is a fascinating tasting,” Spencer said. “They are quite remarkable and distinct.”
Spencer said some of the wines are more delicate with delicious up-front fruit flavors, while others are more earthy and spicy.
“There really is distinction across six wines,” Spencer said. “They’re all Zinfandel, they’re all Lodi but they distinctly speak of the individual vineyard sites.”
The 2014 Lodi Native is available in six-bottle cases for $180 at the Lodi Wine and Visitor Center (2545 W. Turner Road).