Celebrating 25 years of the Lodi Winegrape Commission
Last night (Wednesday November 15) the Lodi Winegrape Commission (LWC) celebrated their 25th anniversary with a social event at Hutchins Street Square.
Stuart Spencer put together a retrospective video showing how 25 years ago, Lodi winegrape growers knew they had a special viticultural area but were largely growing winegrape varietals falling out of favor, such as Tokay, French Colombard, and Chenin Blanc, while consumers were demanding wines made from popular varietals such as Cabernet, Chardonnay, and Zinfandel. The growers knew they had the right climate but needed collective leadership to make this transition. 25 years later, we see how far we've come - Lodi grows a huge amount of the popular varietals consumers across the country are drinking, whether these wines claim the Lodi appellation or not.
The Lodi News Sentinel published a story on this, which can be seen here:
Be sure to check the images tab, William is seen signing a big bottle commemorating this event, I've got my nose in a wine glass, and we are enjoying the wines from Riaza downtown.
Also this was a big moment for two new key members of the Lodi wine industry - Dr. Stephanie Boulton who is the Grower Director and Wendy Brannen, the Executive Director taking over for Camron King - got to meet many industry members for the first time. We welcome Stephanie and Wendy and really are excited to work with them and keep moving Lodi forward as a premium winegrape producing region and wine tourism destination. Na zdravje!
Here's a picture of myself and Wendy.
