Hi Fellow Guild Members,

We are in the midst of the wonderful wine region of Northern California claiming Napa & Sonoma Valleys, and Lodi as well as some far flung estates on the banks of the Sacramento River.  We thought you might enjoy reading about some of the experiences we are having, and it may give you some ideas about where to go on your next vacation.

We were sorry to miss the wine tasting at the Guild, but are trying to make up for it out here.  After this region we're going to the Oregon, Washington and British Columbia wine areas to see how they compare.

Extracts from our Journal:

We had a wonderful day traveling to Lodi and stopping in about 5 tasting rooms.  Marjean says when she lived here in the 80's, there were about 10 wineries in Lodi, and that number is now about 60.  There are miles, and miles, and miles of vineyards that you can see from the highway, and who knows how many more miles that you can't see.  One of the owners at a vineyard said there were 900 members of the wine growers association in Lodi now!  And, we
also discovered that about 70% of the Zinfandel produced world-wide comes from right here.  Even Napa and Sonoma buy Zinfandel grapes from the Lodi region.  We found out too, that to qualify as an "old vine", it has to be at least
60 years old.  There are vineyards in the area that have vines over 125 years old as well.  Now I know the background of the wine I make in Lazy Spirits that's called "Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel"   One of the vintners debunked the myth of the best wine coming from the oldest vines.  He said everyone agrees that the most flavorful grapes come from vines about 15 years old.  At the Olde Lockeford Winery we were privileged to meet the vintner and taster from over 50 years ago.  The gentleman was impressed with the changes in technology that had occurred since his tenure, but said the wines weren't that much different.

We set about the serious business of sampling their offerings, and discovered that real commercialism has not yet reached the small family owned wineries.  They don't charge anything for their samples (unlike Napa and Sonoma), and
the owner/vintner is the one who is conducting the sampling.   They are very friendly and willing to talk about the whole process.  We stopped in one in particular called Berghold that had a beautiful building filled with the most spectacular antique furniture you could imagine.   Turns out the owner comes from a family of antique dealers in the Philadelphia  area, and had a refinishing business as well.  Most of their pieces dated from the 1800's and were stunning.  He said they only processes about 20%  of their grape output, and sold the remaining 80% to wine producers in Napa and  Sonoma. 

The wines we tasted are all top shelf!  Our problem is to limit ourselves to what we can consume before we cross into Canada in early August.  Buying only a couple of bottles at each winery makes us select only the very best.  The
wineries we have visited so far are all of the smaller, family owned type that only produce a limited amount of wine each year, and all of it is purchased locally.  I can understand now why some wine  afficianados make a special trip to California several times a year to sample  and order their personal favorites.

Next day we decided to make a shorter trip of it, and only go to Napa Valley, visit some of the wineries and of course, taste their best offerings. We went to the upper end of the valley to start at the Sterling winery which is situated high on top of a hill overlooking miles upon miles of vineyards.  It looks like a fortress, and is accessible only by a cable car that tests your resolve (and your financial resources since it cost $25.00 each just to get to the winery).  We tried to take lots of pictures, but as usual they just won't do the place justice.  We made it to the tasting room which was full to capacity and this was in the middle of a workday!  They had selected 4 wines to be tasted , two white and two red.  After the tasting we were shunted off to the retail store to purchase our selections and be funneled back to the cable car....... all very business like and perfunctory.  Marjean and I both agreed that the quality of their wines fell short of what we had sampled in Lodi, so we only got one bottle of a new wine we had not yet experienced called "Malvasia".  It is a popular white from Italy and Spain and not very common in the US.  On the order of a Pinot Grigio and it was quite good.  From Sterling we went into Calistoga to find a bite of lunch and some more wineries.  We made the requisite stops at Beringer and Sutter Home, both of which are among the older wineries in the valley.  Our favorite, which was the old Christian Brothers, has been converted into a CIA holding (that's the Culinary Institute of America).  We found a wonderful (although outrageously expensive) bottle of Trinchero Reserve Moscato.  Realizing we had a way to go to get home, we started out to discover that the Route 29 through Napa Valley must be the evacuation route or something.  A two lane, narrow and winding road bumper to bumper.  Yep, you guessed it!  Several hours later we got to I-80 which as usual looked like a parking lot.  You just can't imagine the highway congestion out here.  It makes I-95 look like an on-ramp.  The overall experience in Napa was disappointing when compared to Lodi.  Napa is much more commercialized, lots more crowded, and in our opinion, not as good.  It has completely outgrown itself, and just getting around is a real chore!

The next trip we made along the Sacramento River to a small cross road town called Clarksburg.  It was a beautiful drive along the levee of the river where we could see, not acres and acres, but miles upon miles of orchards and vineyards.  From the elevated access of the levee we had an unobstructed view of what they call the Delta.  First we found a restored sugar mill that dated from the 1800s where they processed the sugar beets.  The mill had been restored to meet earthquake code and additions built to house the winery.  It was a beautifully done reconstruction, but for out of towners a little difficult to find.  Their signage leaves a lot to the imagination.  They had a good selection of wines at the Old Sugar Mill winery, but none that met our exacting taste standards.  We went off in search of the elusive Bogle Winery and after some time wandering around the Delta basin we found it well hidden, but well worth the search.  They have produced a wildly popular blend of Petite Sirah, Old Vine Zinfandel, and Old Vine Mourvedre into an offering called "Phantom".  Although our preferences generally run to the pure varietals, this blend is unusually good.  They produced limited quantities of it, and limit the sales as well.  It ranked well in the Wine Spectator (a 94 I believe), and met our standards as well.  That and some 2003 Petite Sirah was all we could fit in for now.

Going for Broke....
One Gallon at a time!!!

Tom & Marjean Hull