Settled at the northern tip of the San Joaquin Valley just east of the San Francisco Bay, where the fertile and diverse soils begin to make their gentle ascent to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, Lodi boasts a classic Mediterranean climate consisting of warm days and cool evenings accented by a gentle maritime wind from the Sacramento River Delta. This delta breeze makes Lodi unique among other areas of the San Joaquin valley as the lower temperatures allow the ripening fruit to retain natural acidity.

Lodi is also remarkable in the diversity of its soils, though they can generally be characterized as deep and composed of sandy loam, sometimes spotted with the large stones reminiscent of the famed ‘galets’ of the Chateuneuf-de-Pape region in southern France. The Lodi appellation covers 551,500 acres, beginning at the Delta and running south and east, ending where the Sierra Foothills begin. The eight-hundred growers in Lodi farm over 90,000 acres of winegrapes and produce more of the top five California varietals - Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel – than any other wine district in California! While Lodi is known for its capacity for varietal diversity, Zinfandel is the reigning king without rival, as more of it is grown in Lodi than anywhere else in the world. Old Vine Zin is Lodi’s specialty, with the same families tending vines over 120 years old for five generations. Lodi Wine Country is host to roughly sixty wineries, five of those being major producers including Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, Sutter Home, Delicato, and Turner Road Vintners.

~ Dave Chandler, Lodi Regional Correspondent