Monte Rio's Patrick Cappiello gets things off his chest while producing an astounding range of Lodi grown wines

Monte Rio Cellars owner/winemaker Patrick Cappiello. Leigh-Ann Beverley.

This past mid-December I was walking along a beach in Hawaii, toes squishing along in wet silky sand, when the phone in my board shorts rang. It was Patrick Cappiello, owner/winemaker of Monte Rio Cellars, a Sonoma County-based brand that has been making quite a name for itself for naturalistic style wine—most of it sourced from either super-old vines or regeneratively or biodynamic farmed grapes here in Lodi.

Monte Rio, Cappiello called to say, was reaching an impasse. The brand was satisfactorily established in key markets, and the wines better and more mulitfaceted than ever. But for whatever reason—primarily, no doubt, because of an overall market malaise—sales had recently stagnated. Monte Rio seemed to be fulfilling an old industry adage, that is is a lot easier to make great wine than it is to sell it...

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Nero d'Avola is a poster child for today's taste for zestier, lighter weight yet deeply flavorful reds

Nero d'Avola in LangeTwins Family's Redtail Vineyard in the Jahant AVA of Lodi.

One of California winemaker Randall Grahm’s favorite ways of referring to the under-appreciated wine grapes of the world is "ugly ducklings." Or, if you prefer a more esoteric word, "heterodoxical." That is, unorthodox or contrarian to the point of making a point.  

The point of Nero d'Avola is that it is one of those grapes that challenges the presumed orthodoxy of today's hierarchy of varietals considered to be the "greatest" in the world: starting with Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay—the “king” and “queen” of wine grapes—as well as Pinot noir, Merlot and Sauvignon blanc, among the rest of the current aristocracy...

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Albariño—the state of one of Lodi's most important varietal whites

Silvaspoons Vineyards owner/grower Ron Silva with his Alvarinho, a Portuguese clonal variant of Albariño.

Why Albariño is such a natural in Lodi

Albariño—a grape variety native to Spain's Rías Baixas region, also grown in the neighboring Vinho Verde region of Portugal—is by no means the most important white wine cultivar in California. Not when there is over 126 times more Chardonnay cultivated in the state.

Yet among the wineries based in California's Lodi appellation, Albariño has emerged as one of the most important of white wine varieties. There are more producers of Albariño in Lodi than there are brands of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio (a.k.a., Pinot Gris). 

Lodi, in fact, grows and produces more than a third of all the Albariño in California (see the USDA's most recent statistics below). So just in this sense, this varietal has become the appellation's signature white wine.

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