Clement Hills AVA

As I was researching the Odisea wines, I stumbled across the Clements Hills AVA. They don't use it on their labels, but they buy grapes from MarkusBokisch, who farms Spanish & Rhone varieties in he area.
Turns out they have 7 Lodi sub-appellation AVA's. For your edification:

Lodi AVAs

I remember back in the (not so) good old days (by crackey), wines from Lodi were relegated to the same status as those from Cucamonga and Bakersfield. But there's no denying that the quality of Lodi wines has increased markedly over the last 10 yrs or so. It's an area that deserves more respect.
In the FWIW category, PaulDraper even made old-vine Lodi Zin back in the early '70's (by crackey), including a LodiEssence that came in a Port/flagon sort of btl. For you old-timers out there.
Tom

[Jenise]

Didn't realize there were individual AVA's there, so thanks for the post. Lodi sure has come a long way from where it used to be, especially with wineries like M2 both doing good work and opening tasting rooms there (I followed them before you did!). But the generalizations about the types of wine that comes from Lodi still applies, don't they? I mean, one's still hard pressed to find any wines there under 15%. I'm thinking the AVA differences might mean more to the grower/producer than the end consumer.

Didn't realize there were individual AVA's there, so thanks for the post. Lodi sure has come a long way from where it used to be, especially with wineries like M2 both doing good work and opening tasting rooms there (I followed them before you did!). But the generalizations about the types of wine that comes from Lodi still applies, don't they? I mean, one's still hard pressed to find any wines there under 15%. I'm thinking the AVA differences might mean more to the grower/producer than the end consumer.

I think you can find plenty of Lodi wines that are < 15%. Some harvested earlier...some RO'd...some watered back musts. But there are plenty of them.
The reds certainly have a distinct character. An earthy/mushroomy character. Not a lot of high-toned/bright fruit. I once did a tasting for my SantaFe
wine group.."Does Terroir Exist", in which I paired the same varieties, one from Lodi, one from somewhere else in Calif. The people were,
by and large, able to identify the commonality in the Lodi wines, though they wern't able to identify those wines as coming from Lodi.
I think the most impressive thing coming out of Lodi these days are the whites. Viognier, Roussanne, GrenacheBlanc, Vermintino...all are
making some pretty interesting wines. Maybe not the best example of those varietals in Calif...but pretty darned good compared to 10 yrs ago.
And I agree. The Lodi sub-AVA's are more important to the producer/grower. At least at this poinmt in time. Maybe that'll change.
Tom