Zinfandel from Turley’s 2010 Dogtown Vineyard harvest, going into a bottling tasted and discussed this past week, nearly 14 years later.
Last week (May 14, 2024) a most unusual Lodi tasting (even for us!) was conducted, per the request of four visiting journalists representing Wine Enthusiast magazine: Tonya Pitts (Contributor, Wine Reviewer), Anna Christina Cabrales (Tasting Director), Sara Ventiera (Senior Digital Editor) and Anthony Eyzaguirre (West Coast Advertising Account Manager).
We tasted 14 Lodi-grown wines from vintages going back as far as 1997 (coming up on 27 years old).
The visiting editors were curious about two things: 1) do Lodi wines age well?, and 2) if so, how?
Presenting all the wines were four winemakers associated with the brands in question:
• Heather Pyle and Eliza Hess, The Lucas Winery
• Stuart Spencer, St. Amant Winery
• Tegan Passalacqua, Turley Wine Cellars
Needless to say, much of the commentary proffered by our esteemed panel of vintners are worth documenting and pondering for future reference, which we will share in this post following my own notes on each wine.
The short answer to the visitors’ question, to begin with, is this: Yes, Lodi wines do age well, probably in ways that may surprise even the most experienced wine lovers or connoisseurs.
We’re not saying all Lodi wines can gracefully mature and improve in the bottle for longer than 10 or 20 years, but there are those, grown and crafted under special circumstances, that seem to do exactly that, and
