One of Lodi's oldest heritage vineyards is picked and packed for home winemakers

2024 Lodi Zinfandel harvest at Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard, first planted in the 1920s, being packed for shipping to home winemakers across the country by Lodi's M & R Company.

A legacy of longtime Lodi families

There is nothing like the sight of ancient vine Lodi Zinfandel being picked and packed, right in the vineyard, for fresh fruit shipping directly to stores catering to home winemakers clear across the country and to our neighbors in Canada.

If you recall, many of Lodi's longtime winegrowing families got their start doing exactly that during the 1920s, when wine production (except for sacramental wines) and liquor sales were prohibited by law, yet citizens were allowed to make up to 200 gallons of wine a year in their own homes. 

As a result of Prohibition, demand for grapes in Lodi exploded, and vineyard acreage in the region increased significantly. Grape packing families such as Mondavi made out like bandits, launching the legendary careers of Robert Mondavi (1913-2008, founder of his own eponymous Napa Valley winery) and Peter Mondavi (owner of Charles Krug Winery all the way up to his passing at the age of 101 in 2016).

2023 photo of Lodi grape packer Cesare Mondavi with his two sons, Robert and Peter, at their Pine St. home (steps away from today's Lodi City Hall).

The oldest Zinfandel vines in Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard⏤picked during the week of September 2-6, 2024⏤date as far back as the mid-1920s. While not known as a vineyard associated with Lodi wines, it is historic enough to have been registered by California's Historic Vineyard Society. This west side Mokelumne River-Lodi Viticultural Area vineyard is owned by Diedre Ferrari, granddaughter of Corrado and Santina Giorgi who originally staked out the grapevines to meet the grape packing market.

The Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard is also registered in the rolls of the UK-based Old Vine Registry, which endeavors to shed a light and perpetuate appreciation of old vines all around the world.

Colorful vintage wood crate labels for Lodi-grown Zinfandel shipped to home winemakers across the country in 40-pound boxes (holding 36 lbs. of fresh grapes).

In recent years, the Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard has been packed by Lodi's M & R Company, originally founded in 1963 by Don Reynolds (1928-2016) and his cousin Rocky Reynolds (1924-2013). The Reynolds' business actually started off as Reynolds Nailing Company during the 1950s, making boxes and bins utilized by the agricultural industry for shipping cherries, asparagus, grapes, prunes, grape juice, anything edible or drinkable made from crops grown in San Joaquin Valley. 

It was only a matter of time before the family got into the packing and shipping industry themselves, establishing cold storage facilities in partnership with Tony Mayfort (hence M & R Company). Soon, the company's "4 Aces-Hard to Beat" brand of fresh grapes became a go-to for home winemakers from coast to coast.

Two vintage packing labels for Lodi Zinfandel: At top, M & R Packing Co.'s signature "Heart to Beat" brand; below, Delta Packing Co.'s "Scaletta Juice Grapes" label.

How important has M & R been to the Lodi region? In peak season, the Reynolds family employs up to 1,000 people, on top of 50 year-round employees, many of whom have been known to work for the family for over 40 years.

One of Don Reynolds' daughters, Donna Reynolds, now runs M & R Company with partners in the Podesta family. Like her father, she is known for helping many an owner of young and older heritage vineyards in the Lodi region find buyers for their grapes each year, especially in the inevitable lean years when wine industry demand for grapes is on the down side. 

Fresh picked old vine Lodi Carignan being weighed in vineyard by pickers working for M & R Packing Co.

In a March 10, 2016 Lodi-News Sentinel article entitled "Remembering Don Reynolds," Donna Reynolds well recalls, “I’ve had more than one grower say that there was a year that nobody would buy grapes and there was a bank payment due, and Rocky and Dad found a home for the grapes." In the same article, Lodi's F&M Bank CEO Kent Steinwert said, "Don was a very good humanitarian, supporting community activities... a true civic leader, leading many development projects in the city... For quality of life, Reynolds Ranch saved Blue Shield, who stayed here in Lodi."

The tradition of field packing wine grapes is alive and well

Every mid-September through early October, one of the common sights in vineyards in Lodi is pickers loading grapes into 36-pound lug boxes. Right alongside the vines in the vineyards, each box is weighed by pickers on scales in order to be as precise as possible on their weight. At the edge of the vineyards, often along the side of a road, the grapes in the picking lugs are sorted then transferred to packing boxes, often festooned with colorful old school labels. 

2024 Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard Zinfandel being packed in lighter weight 36-pound boxes in this west side Lodi vineyard.

Each individual crate or box⏤filled with wine grapes ranging from Alicante Bouschet and Zinfandel to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon⏤is sealed (if in wood crate) and bundled together with steel strapping on 36-box pallets, before being loaded onto refrigerated trucks, destined for retail markets in the Midwest, towards the East Coast and cities in Canada.

While it is obviously easier to buy ready-made wines sold in bottles on store shelves, there are still many people on the continent who look forward to making their own wine each year⏤and because of the consistency of Lodi's climate and grapevine-friendly soils, the region has remained the source of the nation's largest supply of fresh wine grapes for over 100 years.

Just-picked 2024 Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard old vine Zinfandel and scale sitting on super-sandy soil typifying the Mokelumne River-Lodi appellation.

For example, this is how a company called Consumer Fresh Winemakers located in Pittsburgh, PA is currently advertising its fresh grape offerings:

You've heard it through the grape vine⏤and it's true⏤we have the FRESHEST, highest-quality wine grapes for your winemaking needs. Our long-standing relationships with growers and vineyards in California, Italy, South Africa and Chile provide you with fresh grapes for every winemaking season. What's more, our state-of-the-art cold storage facility assures that all your wine grapes are maintained at proper temperatures at all times.

2024 old vine Zinfandel harvest in Lodi's Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard.

Among the varieties of California grapes being offered by CFW this year are Zinfandel (described as "Zinderella, The Princess of Lodi!"), Aglianico, Albariño, Alicante Bouschet, Petite Sirah, Barbera, Muscat, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carignan, Carnelian, Chardonnay, Cinsaut, Montepulciano, Nebbiolo, Nero d'Avola, Primitivo, Graciano, Grenache and Syrah.

Prices for the 36-pound boxes of fresh wine grapes currently range from $55 to $95, although most of the Lodi grapes hover in the $60 range.

Stacking 35-pound boxes of 2024 old vine Zinfandel in Lodi's Giorgi-Ferrari Vineayrd

Besides M & R Company, another one of Lodi's major packing company is Delta Packing Co., originally founded by Carl Elkins and Lee Mettler in 1976. Since 2001 Delta Packing has been run by the Costamagna family, who along with the Mettlers own and farm thousands of acres of multiple crops, including many of the varieties of fresh grapes shipped in 36-pound boxes to retailers such as Consumer Fresh Winemakers in Pennsylvania. Why buy wine when you can make your own?!

Lug of 2024 Zinfandel alongside own-rooted old vines in Lodi's Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard.

Partial pallett of 2024 Giorgi-Ferrari Vineyard Lodi Zinfandel ready to be strapped in for shipping across the country in refrigerated trucks.