The SOMM Journal

August / September 2016

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{ SOMMjournal.com }  37 years, we've started to see "Lodi" popping up more frequently on the wine scene—and acknowledged as Wine Region of the Year in 2015 by Wine Enthusiast. Once a region synonymous with bulk wine production, local farmers and wineries are working to dispel the idea that Lodi is just an unnamed source for affordable grapes. Brad and Randall Lange, owners of LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards, believe it's Lodi's turn to shine. The Lange family has a long history of grape growing and farming the Lodi valley floor since the 1870s, when Johann and Maria Lange first settled in the area. Originally watermelon farmers until the Great Depression, the Langes and their son, Grandpa Albert, purchased their first vineyard in 1916 (planting water - melons in between the rows until they learned how to manage grapes). In 1947, their father, Harold Lange, planted own-rooted Zinfandel vines that the family continues to farm today. Lodi's Coming of Age In 1979, Robert Mondavi returned home to Lodi to start his Woodbridge win- ery and help shift the mindset of the grape farmers in Lodi. At that time, Lodi farmers cultivated grapes that would find their way into generic table wines. The fruit from all the growers went into the same bins with no differentiation of the source. Mondavi encouraged the growers to plant "true varieties" and focus on quality "wine growing." The Woodbridge brand created a quality enhancement team that worked with the growers to improve the fruit at the simplest level. David Akiyoshi, for - mer winemaker for Woodbridge from 1980–2006 and now the winemaker for LangeTwins, reflects on their work with the growers: "We started with the basics; we showed them how to taste wine. This was to help them discern the basic qualities and then give them more and more vocabulary to describe wine." In doing so, they established the same form of communication between the grow - ers and winemakers, to understand how to adjust their methods in the vineyard to produce a higher quality grape. Each of the grower lots was vinified separately and made into a finished wine. They were tasted blind as a group and critiqued among the 15 growers and winemakers. "So, not only did you taste the wines from your vineyard, you tasted the wines from your peers in the district," says Randall Lange. This instilled a sense of pride and comradery in the farmers, who had for so long lost their identity after the grapes left their land. They worked together to create better techniques and challenged one another to do more. "Before Mondavi, we were wine grape growers; the Mondavi organization created wine growers," says Lange. in recent David Akiyoshi is winemaker for LangeTwins and assisted in designing the winery, which was built in 2006. Old-vine Lodi Zinfandel.

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