Dunne on wine: After making a name for itself, Lodi can label its wine diversity

Over the past two decades, the grape growers and winemakers of Lodi have worked diligently -- and successfully -- to establish the region as a respected American viticultural area.

Anyone who tours the region's tasting rooms isn't likely to complain about being stuck in Lodi, again.

However, the area's farmers and vintners are about to embark on a risky new chapter in Lodi's winemaking history, one with the potential to dilute all they have worked so hard to establish.

Last week, authorities of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau -- the U.S. Department of Treasury agency responsible for overseeing the nation's wine trade -- approved seven new viticultural areas within the Lodi appellation.

In effect, the 458,000 acres of the original Lodi appellation established in 1986 are being partitioned into these seven new officially sanctioned viticultural districts: Alta Mesa, Borden Ranch, Clements Hills, Cosumnes River, Jahant, Mokelumne River, and Sloughhouse. The seven are in southern Sacramento and northern San Joaquin counties.

In other words, following this year's grape harvest, wine enthusiasts could start to see chardonnay with Cosumnes River on the label as the area where the grapes were grown, or zinfandel with a Borden Ranch appellation.

Where will this leave Lodi as as American viticultural area?

Growers and winemakers not only aren't concerned about the additions, they're embracing them. After all, growers and winemakers were the ones to petition federal officials to approve the new areas.

The seven new regions simply recognize that the large Lodi appellation actually consists of several small districts that differ in soils, climates, exposures and other factors that can affect how grapes grow and the nature of the wine they yield, explains Mark Chandler, executive director of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission.

"As we established more wineries in the Lodi area, and as the (Lodi) appellation became better known, we got more questions about subregions," says Chandler.

Thus, five years ago farmers and vintners began to chat among themselves about microclimate differences within the broad Lodi appellation. These discussions led to the drawing of maps to outline the differences, and ultimately to the petitioning of federal officials to approve the new viticultural areas.

Chandler isn't fretting that the use of Sloughhouse, Clements Hills and the other new appellations on wine labels will lessen the standing of Lodi. The commission will urge the area's producers to use both the umbrella Lodi appellation on labels as well as one of the new subappellations, thereby preserving the profile of the original area.

This, in effect, is what has happened in the Napa Valley, where subdistricts such as Howell Mountain and Stag's Leap customarily are paired with the broader Napa appellation on labels.

"We will need to continue to promote the Lodi American Viticultural Area, while using these (new appellations) as education tools," says Chandler.

About the writer:

• Reach The Bee's Mike Dunne at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne.