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.

The brand is called Dent de Lion (pronounced DAWN-de-lee-yon), which is French for “lion’s tooth.” Their first release, all from the 2023 vintage, consists of three different wines, all from the same 74-year-old vineyard: A Zinfandel, a Carignan, and a 50/50 Zinfandel/Carignan blend.

Dent de Lion co-owner Eric Hill with the brand's three inaugural bottlings, festooned with colorful dandelions, in the Lodi Crush Lounge where the wines are available to taste and purchase.

The terroir focused wines

You will love the story behind Dent de Lion, although you might love the wines themselves even more because they are, in fact, quintessential expressions of west side Mokelumne River-Lodi reds. Meaning, they are round yet zesty and mouth-tingly, full bodied without being weighty, and have a tinge of earthiness that is almost Southern French-like; the latter attribute unique to wines grown on this side of the appellation—and most certainly, unique in comparison to Zinfandels or Carignans grown anywhere else in California.

Aficionados of contemporary style wines will also love the fact that the three inaugural wines are vinified in pretty much a natural, native yeast fermented style, and aged strictly in “neutral” (i.e., previously used) French oak barrels so that what you taste is the true sense of the grapes and vineyard, and not a stick of wood or a winemaker’s ego.

First, the 2023 Dent de Lion Heritage Mokelumne River-Lodi Zinfandel ($38) is a 100% varietal, fragrant with aromas of the grape suggesting black cherry and blackberry, a tinge of pepper/baking spice as well as the characteristic west side earthiness (a faint note of fertile loam). The feel is round and full without being heavy, supported by soft tannin and a touch of acidic zip.

Harvesting of 74-year-old vines in Dent de Lion Vineyard on the west side Lodi's Mokelumne River appellation. Dent de Lion.

The 2023 Dent de Lion Mokelumne River-Lodi Carignane ($40) is also a 100% varietal. While lighter in weight (13.5% ABV) than the Zinfandel, it is no less mouth-filling, its nose soaring with cherry/raspberry/pomegranate-like red fruit, like a warm berry pie just pulled out of an oven. Here, the acidity is markedly zesty, lending a vibrant edge to a rounded, medium bodied feel, while the west side Lodi earthiness sits quietly in a backdrop.

The best qualities of the two aforementioned wines, however, are encapsulated in the 2023 Dent de Lion Mokelumne River-Lodi Red Wine Blend ($36): This 50/50 Zinfandel/Carignan coming across as pure and very, very “Lodi”—a ringing natural acidity dialing up bright, mixed berry (black cherry/blackberry/blueberry) pie-like aromas and flavors, a touch of potpourri in the nose, and fleshy yet finely delineated on the palate, with a faint earthiness contributing a distinct sense of place. 

Early April 2025 in Dent de Lion Vineyard: Visibly taller, longer limbed Carignan interplanted among shorter, head trained, spur pruned Zinfandel.

The Dent de Lion story—all about the dandelions

Eric Hill—married to Stockton family practice doctor named Raissa Marasigan Hill—sat down last week to explain how and why his family started this latest brand of estate grown Lodi wines:

We had been living off N. Davis Rd. and Larson Rd., on the west side of Lodi, where we could always see this block of old vines from our back door. It’s a 40-acre vineyard, located on Devries Road, just north of W. Kettleman [Hwy. 12]. 

One day, in 2022, the owner of the vineyard, Jackie Shaw, who is part of the Lauchland family who have been growing grapes in Lodi forever, came knocking on our door, offering to sell the vineyard. She explained that she wanted it to go to someone who could commit to keeping the old vines in the ground. Preferably someone living in the neighborhood.

Working sheep in Dent de Lion Vineyard. Dent de Lion.

Although respectively a lawyer and doctor by trade, the Hills did, in fact, have an interest in old vines. According to Mr. Hill, “We had previously owned a 50-year-old vineyard out near Clements [on the east side of the Lodi appellation], but it was badly diseased. We ended up pulling that vineyard out and planting almonds.”

The old Lauchland parcel owned by Shaw consists mostly of head trained vines originally planted in 1951. Says Mr. Hill, “When we bought it, we made a promise to Jackie that we would preserve the old vines, as if the vineyard was a museum.”

Elise Hill—daughter of Eric and Raissa Hill—helping out with the winter prunings in Dent de Lion Vineyard. Dent de Lion.

Hill, however, was not disabused of the fact that, in 2022, there was little chance in hell that they would be able to sell the grapes to wineries, in such a down market. They did, however, take this as a perfect opportunity to do something else: Make wine from the vineyard and sell it under their own label.

Which, of course, is an equally daunting task. In California, everyone and their uncle wants to be a winemaker. Today’s grape market is flooded precisely because there is an excess of product out in the wine market.

Lodi Crush owner/winemaker Gerardo Espinosa. Lodi Crush.

The Hills, though, made another smart smooth by entrusting the wine production to Gerardo Espinosa of Lodi Crush, a custom crush facility located in Downtown Lodi where a number of different brands are produced and bottled. Together, the Hills and Espinosa decided to produce wines in a premium, contemporary style—in as natural, or “minimum intervention,” a style as possible in order to let the intrinsic character of the vineyard express itself. 

In other words, to Hill’s way of thinking, the best way to save the vineyard was to make wines with a taste that cannot be mistaken for anything else but that particular vineyard. To distinguish the vineyard you have to make a distinguishable wine.

Laying the groundwork for their first vintage, in 2023, was also a process of discovery. Says Mr. Hill, “We wanted to contract Arbor Vineyards, owned by the Mettler family, to manage the property. Larry Mettler and his son-in-law Jason Eells came out to look at it. One of the first things Larry noticed when looking at the vineyard was that it wasn’t planted entirely to Zinfandel. He said, ‘There is a lot of of Carignan interplanted among the Zinfandel,’ particularly in one corner of the vineyard. He could tell just by looking at the shape of the old vines!”

Photograph of one of the finger paintings done by a 1st grader in Sicily which inspired the idea of "Dent de Lion." Dent de Lion.

The inspiration for the dandelion adorned Dent de Lion labels came from a 2023 trip to Sicily, where they visited a school and saw children doing finger paintings of dandelions, depicting seeds floating in the air to symbolize everyone dispersing to go on their summer break, and then coming back together for a new school year. Says Mr. Hill, “We loved the entire idea of people floating away to different parts of the world, then coming back together in one place... that’s how we think of ourselves, coming together here in Lodi.” 

The story behind that story is that Mr. Hill is originally from Indio in Riverside County, CA, and his wife  Raissa originated from the The Bronx in New York City. They moved to Lodi in 1996 to put down new roots and start a family, while establishing their family health clinic in Stockton, where Raissa's younger sister Richelle Marasignan also works as a family practitioner. Adds Mr. Hill, “It is all about the dandelion, or dent de lion, for us. When we harvested our first vintage, the grape picking brought our family together from all sides, just like the paintings of dandelions we saw those kids doing in Sicily!”

Eric Hill harvesting his Dent de Lion Vineyard Zinfandel. Dent de Lion.