The Lodi Native Project: One More Taste

Written by Published on

The Lodi Native Project is a brilliantly conceived project, designed to highlight Lodi’s heritage Zinfandel vineyards by producing low-intervention wines reflective of the site and not the winemaker’s style. Pre-1962 plantings of Zinfandel (or field mixes) with native yeast fermentation, no inoculation to initiate malolactic fermentation, no acidification or de-acidification, no additives, no new oak and no fining or filtering. Did I forget anything? These are the high points. Anyway, you get the idea, the point is to taste what the site contributes to the fruit.

The wines of the Lodi Native Project were introduced to the public at a seminar and tasting on March 29. The event was held at Wine & Roses  in Lodi and sponsored by Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP) and LoCA (Lodi Winegrape Commission). We attended the event and wrote about the wines in a prior post where you can also find all of the details about the winemaking process.

As part of the continuing promotion, we were invited recently by Charles Communications Associates and LoCA (Lodi Winegrape Commission) to participate in an online tasting of the 2012 Lodi Native Zinfandel with a group of wine bloggers. We were all sent the six Lodi Native Project Zinfandels to taste along with the discussion.

Using the Brandlive platform we were connected to a live video stream that included all six winemakers of the Lodi Native wines: Layne Montgomery of m2 Wines, Tim Holdener of Macchia, Michael McCay of McCay Cellars, Todd Maley (grower) of Maley Brothers, Chad Joseph of Maley Brothers, Ryan Sherman of Fields Family Wines. The discussion was moderated by Stuart Spencer from St. Amant Winery, the sixth winemaker of the group. We all had a chance to ask questions, make comments and talk about the wines.

Part of the conversation took place on Twitter and we thought, since we have already shared our impression of the wines, it would be fun to share with you a sampling of what the other participants thought about the Lodi Native wines via their Tweets. So, here is a selection of Tweets describing each wine. Reading through them will give you an abridged version of the tasting.

If you are interested in the details of the tasting, you can view the recorded video stream at the Brandlive link. It lasts an hour and is full of information. In the mean time, here is the speed dating version of the tasting.

https://twitter.com/Hawk_Wakawaka/status/458761008496926720

https://twitter.com/Hawk_Wakawaka/status/458761844467847168

It wasn’t all serious wine tasting. There was plenty of joking going on and everyone had a great time.

https://twitter.com/Hawk_Wakawaka/status/458768219763769344

In summary:

https://twitter.com/Hawk_Wakawaka/status/458762538901983232

There you have it. A collection of six well-made Zinfandels that are a unique reflection of place. They will challenge your expectation of a Lodi Zinfandel. Each of these wines changes with time in the glass, becoming more complex. We were unable to appreciate this change in the original tasting in March, simply because of time constraints. That was part of the fun of this tasting, being able to spend time with these wines. We followed the online tasting with dinner and were able to sample all of the wines over several hours with food. Very instructive.  All were exceptional the next day as well. Always a good thing.

And yes, the project is continuing. 2013 wines are progressing and all winemakers are planning a 2014 vintage as well. The wines are available in six-pack boxes for $180 at the Lodi Wine & Visitor Center.

The Zinfest Wine Festival is happening in Lodi May 16-18, 2014. The Lodi Native wines will be part of the Zinfest Wine School series of seminars. If you are curious to taste these unique and delicious Zinfandels, this is your opportunity. You can find information about Zinfest Wine Festival on their website.

Many thanks to Charles Communications Associates and LoCA for including PullThatCork in this tasting. We enjoyed the samples and as a result have put our money where our mouth is. We made the short trip to the Lodi Wine & Visitor Center and purchased our own box of the 2012 Lodi Native wines. We will keep it, I don’t know how long. Eventually we will open the bottles and enjoy the evolution of flavors.

Lodi Native Wines
We look forward to the future vintages of Lodi Native as well. This is truly an exciting and interesting winemaking project from Lodi.

Cheers!

Comments are closed.