Vino Through the Ages:
A history of Lodi wine country

BY LAUREN LABELLE | photos courtesy of lodi wine and visitor center,
haggin museum, SJ Historical Society, and woodbridge winery

With each passing harvest season, the Lodi Appellation grows; more vineyards are planted, more jobs are created, and there are even more reasons for visitors to come here, be it new festivals or new tasting rooms. We all enjoy the bounties that Lodi provides, but where, in the past, was this seed planted? How did we become the thriving wine industry that we are today?

We will begin our history at the point when human hands helped the growing of grapes in our area. We could begin before that, with the forming of our unique natural resources, the Central Valley itself and the Delta that provides the perfect cool breezes for grape growing, but for brevity’s sake, we’ll start with Captain Charles M. Weber.
The gold rush brought many newcomers through our valley in the mid 1800s. Weber acquired 49,000 acres of land through a Spanish land grant, and developed a community around selling goods to the gold-seekers flooding into the area. It was a supply center for the southern mines of the Mother Lode. Thus the city of Stockton was formed, and the surrounding area became populated.

As Weber settled into his new home in 1850, he planted grapes in his yard, a fruit that had been growing wild in the area. It was when another man, George West, came to visit his friend Weber two years later that the wheels were set into motion. West took cuttings from Weber’s vines, and planted them, along with forty varieties from Boston, to form the first vineyard in the area, in what is now the southern part of the Lodi Appellation. Around this same time, in 1851, Agoston Haraszthy, also known as the grandfather of California Viticulture, planted the first Zinfandel grapes in the state.

West’s vineyards turned into profit in 1858, when he became the region’s first commercial vintner with the opening of his winery, El Pinal. West and his family later became one of the main controllers of local wine production, which lead to the formation of co-operative wineries. It was these grower-owned co-ops that started shipping out millions of gallons of bulk wine throughout the country.

The main grapes grown in Lodi in the late 1800s were Tokay (the first Tokay vineyard in California had been planted in 1857, but the first farmers to bring the crop to Lodi in 1890 is still an object of controversy today) and Zinfandel, although several varieties also did well in the area’s soil. The Tokay variety was favored among farmers, because it was with this crop that the grapes developed their special “flame” color.

All was going well for the commercial wine industry in Lodi until 1918, when California enacted Prohibition two years before the rest of the United States. Some farmers pulled up their roots, and some remained. The farmers that held their ground found their silver lining under the Volstead Act, which still allowed for home winemaking. Grape growers of the time actually found that the demand for winegrapes across the country went up with the amateur winemaking demand, instead of down as expected. In 1933, with the repeal of Prohibition, Lodi was ripe for opportunity. More wineries opened, new co-ops were formed, and the area began exporting wine to the rest of the country once again. A year later, the first annual Lodi Grape Festival was held.

During Prohibition, an Italian immigrant family, named Mondavi, moved to Lodi to start a company shipping grapes to Italian-American winemakers on the East Coast. They lived in a house on Pine Street, and their youngest son, Robert, later became a football star at Lodi High School. Robert Mondavi grew up to become one of the pioneers in the California wine industry, bringing innovations to the area such as cold fermentation and the use of steel tanks and oak barrels. In 1979, he opened one of the largest operating wineries in the area today, Woodbridge Winery.

Also Lodi wine pioneers, two Lodi High School graduates, Michael Crete and Stuart Bewley, introduced an entirely new alcoholic beverage to the international market in 1980. It was made of a combination of white wine and fruit juice. They called it the California Cooler, and it is said to be the original wine cooler.

A few years later, in 1986, the federal government officially recognized the Lodi Appellation as an American Viticulture Area (AVA). This enabled any wines made using grapes grown in Lodi or the surrounding area to display this fact on their label, which bolstered and cemented Lodi as a contender in the wine world. Today, just twenty-two years later, the region’s annual yield of grapes is approximately sixty thousand tons annually. This amount is valued at over $300 million, and makes up 20 percent of California’s total winegrape production (more than Sonoma and Napa combined).

The 1991 founding of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission was another step toward unifying the Lodi Appellation. The commission, which represents nearly eight hundred winegrape growers, focuses on marketing the appellation, grower education, and viticulture research. Their new facility, the Lodi Wine and Visitor Center, opened in 2000, includes a museum, tasting room, and educational vineyard.

Another recent milestone for the region was the enactment of the Lodi Rules program in 2003, which promotes sustainable agriculture in all aspects of winegrape growing. Promoting eco-friendly practices already in place in many area wineries, the rules thrust Lodi into the international spotlight for progressive thinking.

Today, Lodi is a leader in the wine industry for its sustainable growing practices. The appellation includes over seventy boutique wineries that continually win awards on the national and international market for their vintages. The area has grown from a few vines decorating the landscape of Captain Charles Weber’s home to over 100,000 acres of commercially-grown grapes today. With its continued focus on sustainable growing practices, Lodi is looking toward the future, ensuring that in the years to come, the wine industry, as well as the soil itself, will continue to flourish. Now that’s rich.  SJM