Intriguing batch of alternative style wines bringing new sensations to the appellation

2024 Charbono harvest in Lodi's WOO GIRL! estate.

Every year it's the same. Fall seeps into your veins like a transfusion. The palate reawakens. Not that it was comatose during the summer months. It's just alerted to new sensations.

Lou Reed once wrote a song about renewed outlooks on life, called "New Sensations"—not so much about a change in seasons as change of scenery. In Reed's song, it's about taking his motorcycle out into the hills where he can feel the icy sting of the air as it slaps the cheeks; where a burger, a coke and a "hillbilly song" coming out of a jukebox in a roadside diner suddenly seems almost revelatory, as he muses...

I want the principles of a timeless muse
I want to eradicate my negative views
And get rid of those people who are always on a down

This year the fall equinox creeped up like chill air from under the stairway on September 22, and so on that Sunday I opened a dozen bottles to gauge 1) the seasonality of recent releases, and 2) what's most interesting coming out of Lodi, right this moment. 

Hence, my notes on a few of these wines that may very well, in fact, come across like "new sensations" to you...

WOO GIRL! owner/winemaker Vivian Valenzuela in her riverside Charbono block.

2023 WOO GIRL!, Lodi Rosé of Charbono ($42)

WOO GIRL! (yes, that is the name of the winery) sits on a historic property nestled up against the Mokelumne River on the east side of the Lodi appellation. The recently launched brand bills itself as a "House of Rosé"⏤its latest, this extremely rare bottling sourced from the winery property's tiny patch of Charbono grapes. This cultivar (synonymous with Douce noir in France and Bonarda in Argentina) is known primarily for producing deep, sturdy, long lived acid-driven red wines, but when vinified as a dry rosé it yields a compellingly flowery scented rusty orange tinted wine, citrusy light and refreshing on the palate, while finishing easy as, well, an autumn berry pie.

Heritage Oak Winery's Tom and Carmela Hoffman.

2023 Heritage Oak Winery, Lodi Syrah Rosé ($21)

Of all the dry rosés crafted by this brand⏤Heritage Oak owner/grower/winemaker Tom Hoffman is currently offering four different varietal rosés (made from Grenache, Sangiovese, Tempranillo and Syrah)⏤this bottling sticks out as the one made in the most old fashioned, roly poly style, more typical of California rosés from the 1980s and '90s when America's "Rhône Rangers" movement first started up. Starting with its vividly reddish pink "blush" color (the vast majority of contemporary rosés are pale, almost translucent in color, if not near-colorless), and a feel that is plump and fleshy, rolling and tumbling in the mouth with the fresh strawberry fruit sensations signaled loud and clear in the nose. Almost like a rosé that thinks it's a red wine, but does rosé type things, like go magnificently with dishes such as charcoal grilled salmon, paprika style chicken, vine ripened tomato pizzas or salads in wine-like vinaigrettes.

Ancient vine Flame Tokay harvest.

2022 Sabelli-Frisch, "Lanterna" Blodgett Vineyard Lodi Flame Tokay ($32)

For all intents and purposes this wine comes across like a dry rosé, despite the fact that it wasn't made to be a rosé. It is meant to be a "Flame Tokay." As it is, Flame Tokay⏤a historic heirloom variety virtually exclusive to the appellation because of that fact that for over 100 years grape growers could only attain the grape's signature "flaming" pink color by growing it in Lodi's ultra-sandy soil⏤produces a wine that is pale orangey pink in color (i.e., rosé-like), even when fermented with skins. Hence this bottling, sourced from a tiny speck of nearly 100-year-old overgrown vines sitting in the front yard of the Blodgett family home on the south side of Lodi's Mokelumne River appellation. The nose is subtle yet lush and fragrant, rising up from a wine glass like a distilled cloud of red berry essences. On the palate, the feel is feathery, somewhat delicate, yet round and fleshy, with a mildly tart/bitter blood orange skin-like sensation giving a long, savory finish. There really is no other wine in the world like this. It is, after all, made from Lodi's one and only Flame Tokay. As Lou Reed would put it, "talking 'bout a new sensation."

Somers Vineyard Mission harvest.

2023 Wine Dive (by Vending Machine Wines), Mokelumne River-Lodi Mission ($26)

Add the serendipitous Vending Machine brand to the list of small, handcraft vintners currently sourcing fruit from Somers Vineyard, located on a low-lying bench alongside the Mokelumne River on the east side of Lodi. The vineyard is almost other-worldly, as many of these grapevines look more like trees, towering over 6 feet; not so much because the vines are super-old (the vineyard dates back to the mid-1970s) as the fact that the plants' roots drink copiously from the neighboring river. However, red wines made from the Mission grape⏤as in Vending Machine's partial whole cluster/carbonic maceration fermented iteration⏤tend to be light and lean, yet oh-so-fragrant with autumnal spice (cinnamon, clove, cardamom, et al.), packaged in tannins so soft that this red wine comes across practically as a white wine, notwithstanding its pale reddish tint. Think of the culinary possibilities⏤earthy tonkatsu ramen, exotic curried chicken or lamb, even tandoori spiced shrimp⏤in this unique red wine, turning what's "old" (before the 1850s, Mission was the only European grape grown in California) into something totally new, and exciting!

2024 Cherryhouse Vineyard Zinfandel cluster. Perlegos Family Wine Co.

2023 Sabelli-Frisch, "Alcott" Cherryhouse Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel ($32)

It's a good bet that even the keenest followers of Lodi Zinfandel are still unfamiliar with wines from Cherryhouse Vineyard, owned and farmed by Perlegos Family on the west side of the Mokelumne River-Lodi appellation. It is not quite "old vine," a designation most locals affix to growths at least 50 years old (Cherryhouse was planted in the late 1970s), and neither is it own-rooted (the plants were grafted on promiscuous rootstocks). Heck, neither is it flanked by namesake cherry orchards, which have recently been uprooted, leaving the surrounding fields bare (for now). All the same, Cherryhouse is a name to remember because it is now producing a few vineyard-designate bottlings that personify west side Lodi Zinfandel⏤ultra-bright in black cherry perfumes floating over mildly earthy (like pungent loam) aromas, coming across as soft, round, fleshy yet silken textured, mildly prickly with acidity. Especially in this bottling, which allows the vineyard to sing a cappella (i.e., without being drowned in oak or any other heavy handed winemaker machinations), rising up with a refreshing sense of purity, singularity, and the originality intrinsic in Lodi's unique terroir.

Adam Sabelli-Frisch during a past Lodi Flame Tokay harvest. Sabelli-Frisch.