The perfect spring chicken is cooked in white wine

Spring flowers in Michael David Winery's gardens.

Wine
stirs the spring, happiness
bursts through the earth like a plant…
—Pablo Neruda

One month into spring in 2025—finally, nights are less chilly, days are warmer, and the sun is up until past 7:30!

‘Tis also the season of transition at our tables. Our taste for red wines goes from heavier reds, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Petite Sirah, to lighter reds such as Grenache, Cinsaut, Mission or easy drinking Zinfandels. Slowly but surely, we also find ourselves reaching for more cool, refreshing white wines, or maybe rosés...

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Dent de Lion is a new handcraft brand established for the best of all reasons—to save a special old Lodi vineyard

Zinfandel harvest in Dent de Lion Vineyard. Dent de Lion.

There is a brand new, handcraft local wine label here in Lodi, started up for all the right (at least in our book) reasons: To save a special old vineyard.

Make no mistake, old vineyards in Lodi need saving. Many of them are in grave danger of disappearing, mostly because sales of value priced wines are currently down, and big wineries are not renewing contracts with many of the families holding on to old, head trained vineyards planted to heritage grapes such as Zinfandel or Carignan...

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The recent 2025 Wine Market Council conference tackles the domestic wine industry's current setbacks head-on

Dr. Liz Thach, MW, President of the Wine Market Council.

This past April 2 at the 2025 Wine Market Council (WMC) Annual Research Conference and Members Meeting, held in the City of Napa, there was some illuminating discussions on the overall state of the American wine industry.

Some of the burning questions that were addressed included:

• What are the core reasons explaining the current lack of enthusiasm for wine on the part of consumers, reflected in the alarming downward trend in consumption over the past two years?
• How can the wine industry rebuild relevance with modern consumers?
• To what extent will impending tariffs further hamper the health of the domestic wine industry?
• What or where are the potential growth opportunities over the next few years?

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