The latest wines sourced from Mokelumne Glen Vineyards fulfill a heroic story of an exotic grape obsession

Among the multiple clones of Riesling cultivated in Lodi's Mokelumne Glen Vineyards.

The heroic tale

Let's talk about the continuing saga—and it really is a story of heroic proportions—of the Lodi appellation's Mokelumne Glen Vineyards.

First, a summary of the story up until today: It started when a serious grape bug took an extra-big bite out of Bob Koth, a Lodi educator and grape farmer, in the early 1990s when he and his wife Mary Lou Koth visited Germany where their daughter Ann-Marie was studying on a Fulbright scholarship. After tasting a number of outstanding German wines, they found a new obsession.

Soon after returning home to Lodi, the Koths removed the blocks of Flame Tokay and Zinfandel cultivated on their property, tucked into an oxbow-corner of the Mokelumne River, on the east side of the appellation of that same name. Within a few years, the old plantings were replaced by what grew to be no less than over 50 different cultivars of German as well as Austrian origin...

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Monte Rio's Patrick Cappiello gets things off his chest while producing an astounding range of Lodi grown wines

Monte Rio Cellars owner/winemaker Patrick Cappiello. Leigh-Ann Beverley.

This past mid-December I was walking along a beach in Hawaii, toes squishing along in wet silky sand, when the phone in my board shorts rang. It was Patrick Cappiello, owner/winemaker of Monte Rio Cellars, a Sonoma County-based brand that has been making quite a name for itself for naturalistic style wine—most of it sourced from either super-old vines or regeneratively or biodynamic farmed grapes here in Lodi.

Monte Rio, Cappiello called to say, was reaching an impasse. The brand was satisfactorily established in key markets, and the wines better and more mulitfaceted than ever. But for whatever reason—primarily, no doubt, because of an overall market malaise—sales had recently stagnated. Monte Rio seemed to be fulfilling an old industry adage, that is is a lot easier to make great wine than it is to sell it...

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Nero d'Avola is a poster child for today's taste for zestier, lighter weight yet deeply flavorful reds

Nero d'Avola in LangeTwins Family's Redtail Vineyard in the Jahant AVA of Lodi.

One of California winemaker Randall Grahm’s favorite ways of referring to the under-appreciated wine grapes of the world is "ugly ducklings." Or, if you prefer a more esoteric word, "heterodoxical." That is, unorthodox or contrarian to the point of making a point.  

The point of Nero d'Avola is that it is one of those grapes that challenges the presumed orthodoxy of today's hierarchy of varietals considered to be the "greatest" in the world: starting with Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay—the “king” and “queen” of wine grapes—as well as Pinot noir, Merlot and Sauvignon blanc, among the rest of the current aristocracy...

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