Lodi’s First Verdejo – A New, Exciting Spanish Varietal
This month’s picks from the Lodi Wine and Visitor Center
Odisea Wine Company – a small, artisanal winery based in Napa – has produced Lodi’s first Verdejo: a 2013 bottled under their Flor de Viña sub-label. The Verdejo grapes were planted in 2011 by Bokisch Ranches in the cobbley clay loam slopes of Lodi’s Borden Ranch sub-region. Odisea’s 2013 Flor de Viña Verdejo ($21) is, in fact, an unequivocal success for a first-ever vintage: bone dry and light as a feather, while bursting with fragrant orange peel, Meyer lemon-like perfumes; tasting mildly tart, slightly viscous, with a delightfully mouth freshening orange peel pith and faint apéritif-like bitterness on the palate.
Most Americans are still unfamiliar with Verdejo. If you’re one of them, here’s a quickie: Verdejo is a white wine grape that vine scientists say originated in North Africa, and later transplanted to the Rueda region of Spain some time during the 11th century, where it is now bottled as a popular varietal wine. Americans began seeing good quantities of Spanish Verdejo imported in the mid-1990s, and it has caught on with a small, yet avid audience particularly consumers seeking airy light and lean, tart styles of dry white wine.
Odisea is not the first California winery to produce a Verdejo. Lodi’s own Riaza Wines, owned by Rick and Erin Taylor, produced one the year before: a 2012 Riaza Verdejo ($19), 
which can be tasted in their Downtown Lodi tasting room (20 W. Elm St.). The Taylors’ Verdejo, however, is grown in the Heringer-Holland Vineyard in nearby Clarksburg. The Riaza is softer and even lighter (12.2% alcohol) than Odisea’s Verdejo, while just as refreshing in its mildly tart, Clementine orange-like, citrusy zip. Opines Taylor, “Verdejo is Spain’s answer to Sauvignon Blanc, only better… but it is not to be confused with Verdelho, a Portuguese grape.” Verdejo has also been erroneously related to Verduzzo of Italy. But Verdejo (pronounced vairr-DAY-ho, with a slight roll of the R) is a grape unto its own, unlike any other.
According to Odisea owner/winemaker Adam Webb, “So far people have described our Verdejo in several ways – some have said wildflower, and some say honeysuckle or jasmine. Someone else described it as dandelion-ish. I can see dandelion, because you get a mild bitterness in Verdejo, like dandelion greens (sensations we describe as “orange peel”). When the grapes came in I noticed its green skin – it didn’t have the golden color of most white wine grapes. There’s an unusual thickness to the skin in Verdejo, similar to what you find in many Italian grapes.”
Bokisch Ranches owner/grower Markus Bokisch concurs, although he tells us that grapes like Albariño and Garnacha Blanca (a.k.a. Grenache Blanc) have even thicker skins. “Verdejo does not have the grapefruity phenolics of Albariño,” says Bokisch, “but it has its own thick, Sémillon-like, high glycerol texture and meatiness, more so than Garnacha Blanca.” Adds Bokisch, “We’re really excited about the grape. It’s something I’d been wanting to plant since 2006 – it was just a matter of waiting around for the right budwood. Lodi’s Mediterranean climate is even more similar to Verdejo’s homeland in Rueda than Albariño is to Rías Baixas. We have high hopes that we’ve found another perfect grape for Lodi.”
“Lodi,” says Webb, “is the place to be for experimental grapes. It is practically the only place where we can get grapes at a value. It takes good value grapes to make wines that can get into more people’s glasses, and master growers like Markus Bokisch to produce the quality that will turn people on to these new varietals.” Randy Caparoso is the multi-award winning sommelier/restaurateur and longtime wine journalist who also pens the blog for the Lodi Winegrape Commission’s lodiwine.com.