Eight years ago, Al Bechthold was selling grapes from his Lodi vineyard for $250 a ton to people wanting something lively and aromatic for red blends. He knew the vineyard had been planted by his wife's great-grandfather in 1885 with money he made from charging gold miners 25 times the ordinary cost for supplies.  But [...]

Tegan Passalacqua, the vineyard manager of the esteemed Turley Wine Cellars, calls it “one of the last of the great dry farmed vineyards in Lodi.” Jillian Phoenix, the former winemaker of Bonny Doon Vineyard and current winemaker/co-owner of Phoenix Ranch in Napa Valley, calls it “a magical vineyard” planted to Cinsault grapes that are “by [...]