David Lucas ‘honored’ by Visit Lodi’s Winery of the Year award
Despite Lucas Winery being named Visit Lodi’s winery of the year, owner David Lucas modestly gives the credit to all the local wineries and vineyards for making Lodi a tourist destination.
“It’s really all about Lodi,” Lucas said on Friday. “Lodi is just on fire in terms of having wineries and tasting rooms. And people come from all over the globe, so I’m just a small part of all that. I feel honored that they would pick my winery because there are so many to pick from.”
An innovative trailblazer on the Lodi wine scene, Lucas has been in the industry since the 1970s and his efforts helped set the stage for Lodi’s winery explosion.
After living overseas for a number of years during his early adult years, Lucas purchased a vineyard in Lodi and began experimenting with wine. He would get together with others in the area who were passionate about the craft and they would make wine together.
“We would make wine and a lot of the growers would get together at the end of harvest and have a barbecue and bring the wines that they made,” he recalled of those early days.
Soon after Lucas began making wine, someone suggested that he open a legal operation. At that time, Lucas said federal agents were located in Lodi and were able to assist him in the process of becoming a bonded winery.
“Some people thought it was interesting. Some people really supported it, and some people thought it was the silliest idea they’ve ever heard of, and the rest was history,” Lucas said.
In addition to running his own winery, Lucas also had the opportunity to work for the iconic Robert Mondavi during a long tenure with Woodbridge Winery, where he was exposed to winemaking on a worldwide scale.
“It really got me excited because I wasn’t making anything close to that and with that experience I really started to understand that wines have to start out at great vineyards,” Lucas said.
Working with the Mondavi family, Lucas was able to learn how vineyard activities and cultural influences impacted wine quality. It was also during this time that he met his wife, esteemed winemaker Heather Pyle-Lucas.
As his personal and business life have flourished over the decades, so too has the Lodi wine scene.
“What really makes Lodi great is that we have growers that are interested in producing grapes that will create world-class wines,” Lucas said. “Lodi growers are really unique in their ability to work together. They’re up against the economics of their business but if you pay them enough money they produce grapes for wines that can sit in the company of the grapes of the world. It’s the growers here that are really the important aspect.”
One of the biggest changes that Lucas has seen over the years is that more growers are involved with their own wineries. He said the best thing that can happen to a grower is to see his grapes turn into wine and then be able to go back to the vineyard and determine what improvements can be made to produce a better quality of wine.
“Making those vineyard decisions are really important,” Lucas said. “Of course, if they have their own winery, then they are geared in that direction because most of Lodi’s grapes still go to large wineries where the identity of Lodi — and especially any particular vineyard — is lost. The small producers are the ones that are really starting to shine the light on Lodi.”
Lucas says the smaller wineries are like starfighters, the ones that protect the image and the mothership, and the large wineries are like the mothership because they work to protect small wineries by advocating for legislation and conducting research on issues that affect grape growers.
“We’re both in this together,” Lucas said.
Lucas noted that when he first started out, there was no Wine Grape Commission or tourism department to promote Lodi wines. Now that those groups have formed, they have played a major role in bringing visitors to the area, Lucas said. The Mondavi family also played a vital role in increasing tourism in Lodi, Lucas said, recalling that 25 years ago they invited several chefs and wine writers to take in the Lodi experience.
He said that helped set the stage for advocates like the commission and Visit Lodi!, which continue to promote local wineries.
“We have people coming to our winery from all over the world. It’s just remarkable,” Lucas said. “When I first started, I had to sell my wines out into the marketplace through distributors because we didn’t have the visitor traffic coming to Lodi that we have now because of the work of the commission, the visitor and conference center and the chamber of commerce.”
Now, Lucas’ wines are not out on the market like they used to be. They only sell to subscribers and those who visit the winery. There is now enough interest in Lodi that he doesn’t have to travel to sell his wines, which is a huge change, he said.
In the future, Lucas said the winery will focus on making world-class wines and contribute towards getting Lodi recognized as a high wine-producing region.
“Lodi is at the cutting edge,” Lucas said. “We are just at the beginning of this.”