Wine, as it’s often said, is made in the vineyard. Which sometimes brings up the jocular comment: why the heck do we need wineries? Although the process of making wine starts with good quality grapes; the work ethic, talent and creative juices of men and women also have a direct impact on the quality of grapes – and on the commensurate quality of the resulting wines. And it doesn’t happen just in a winery. It starts in the soil of the ?elds soon after each harvest; during the cold, biting days of winter when brown leafed canes are pruned back to allow the vines to rest in anticipation of new bud growth the following spring. Machines have been invented to aid this process, but over 99% of the pruning is still done by hand.
When you consider that, in Lodi, there are approximately 113,000 acres of vines (the most widely planted wine region in the U.S.), and there are at least 600 vines on each acre. That’s about 68 million individual plants that need to be touched, and artistically sculpted. That requires many hands of men and women (especially women pruners, who are prized by growers for their fine motor skills and attention to detail). Wine grape vines don’t cultivate themselves; and the process of crushing or pressing grapes, fermenting and barreling down wines, and countless other steps involved in the “natural” phenomenon of winemaking all require direct human input – good sense and sensibilities.
You also cannot forget the technical work done by worker bees: people who may not be the owners or executive winemakers, but whose talent and self-motivation are just as crucial to the process of getting good wines from the ?elds to our tables. Like the people who recruit – and cajole, teach, lead and encourage – the ones who do the actual back breaking, callusing work of pruning, leaf and cluster thinning, and picking of these millions of plants. Or, the people who perform the exacting science of bottling wines; making sure the correct corks go into exact shaped bottles, and labels are glued in perfect alignment (would you buy a bottle with a crooked label?). Other non-expendables include people who drive the tractors and trucks pulling gondolas; and “cellar rats” who make sure the correct batches of wine go into the correct tanks or barrels for aging and blending.
Put it this way: one 60-gallon barrel holds about 300 bottles of wine, and one 20-ton tank holds about 14,000 bottles. You’re just not allowed to say “whoops, there goes $300,000 worth of wine,” should you accidentally transfer a few thousand gallons of wine into the wrong tank (one well known Napa Valley winery once had a cellarer who moved such a large amount of wine into the wrong tank, they ended up bottling the resulting odd blend, which they named “Beauzeaux”). Here are the short stories behind three such people living and working in the Lodi wine region; all of them quietly exerting their in?uence on wines that end up in our glass:
TENDERS
Manuel Maldonado manages over 200 acres of planted vines, and everything else that grows around the winery or along vineyard waterways, for Borra Vineyards, Lodi’s oldest bonded winery (since 1975). “Manuel,” says owner/grower Steve Borra, “has a green thumb. He not only makes everything grow very well, I think he has a name for every grape vine – they’re more like his children to him.” After coming to Borra from Mexico some 37 years ago, Mr. Maldonado still speaks less than perfect English, which has never bothered Mr. Borra. He knows enough to lavish optimal care on each vine. Maldonado can very well tell you, for instance, “When we prune we do not leave extra wood, because too much wood is not good for the vine.” “Each vine must be in balance – the right amount of grapes, and the right amount of leaves – because this is the way you make good wine.” Maldonado, in other words, does not grow grapes – he grows wines. Proof is always in the pudding: wines such as Borra’s Heritage Red (a Barbera based field blend) and Fusion Red (a sumptuous blend of Syrah and Petite Sirah) have been among the most acclaimed in California.
As Mr. Borra explains, “When Manuel came here he didn’t speak a word of English and I didn’t speak Spanish… but we rode around in a truck all day, and eventually taught each other enough of our languages to communicate just ?ne.” Maldonado adds this pertinent fact: “I married my Mexican wife right after I came to Lodi, and we raised 8 kids, who are now 16 to 37 years old.” Maldonado is particularly known for the loyalty he inspires in his vineyard crews: 5 to 10 sets of hands all year round, depending upon work loads, and another 20 to help during harvest. Without Maldonado’s penchant for recruiting through friends and connections, Borra Vineyards simply wouldn’t function as a winery and supplier of grapes to other wineries, inside and outside of California. “I leave everything to Manuel because he doesn’t compromise on quality,” Borra continues, “He won’t take shortcuts, and he doesn’t let me take any either. He treats every plant as his own; and in a sense, every plant in Borra Vineyards is his own.”
GENERATIONS
Like a number of other successful, critically acclaimed Lodi wineries, Mettler Family Vineyards started off as successful grape growers looking to take ?rmer control of their destinies. Larry Mettler heads up the family’s vineyard management company, called Arbor Vineyards; which farms over 800 acres of numero uno quality vineyards in Lodi. Larry had taken over the family business in 1970 from his dad Carl, who was a sixth generation farmer. Carl’s grandfather, George Mettler, was one of ?ve brothers who emigrated from Germany to South Dakota in the mid-1800s, and soon after trickled down to the Lodi region. According to Mettler, “It was my wife, Charlene, who pushed us to ‘take it to the next level,’ back in 1998. We held a family meeting, and made the decision to do this together as a family.” Adam Mettler, Larry and Charlene’s son, would be in charge of winemaking (Adam also holds down a “day job” as the GM/head winemaker of the celebrated Michael David Winery). The two daughters, Kim and Kelli, would spearhead sales, marketing, and management; and Larry would continue to farm the vineyards with Kim’s husband, Jason Eels. The Mettlers also decided, almost counter-intuitively, to specialize in a grape that had never really been associated with Lodi: Cabernet Sauvignon. “I took it as a challenge when I was going to school back in the mid-‘60s,” says Mettler, “when a viticultural professor in Fresno told me Lodi was too warm to grow Cabernet Sauvignon.”
But Mettler made Cabernet Sauvignon a specialty of Arbor Vineyards, and the very ?rst bottling of Mettler Family label wine – a 1999 Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon – was ranked among Wine Spectator Magazine’s “Top 100 Wines in the World.” Subsequent vintages have fared just as well. “It goes to show,” says Mettler, “that how you farm is just as important as the place.” Every year during the past 15 years Mettler Family Vineyards has been increasing sales and production by 15 to 20 percent, and the wines are now sold in over 40 states, from Hawaii to New York. Even more unusual, the Mettlers did not even open their own tasting room in Lodi until this past January 2014 – the opposite of the vast majority of wineries, who open a tasting room to sell locally ?rst, and then hope to expand into other states once their wines become better known.
The Mettlers did it the opposite way because they’ve always put the horse before the cart; starting with highest quality grapes, and then letting the quality of the wines drive sales. “It took us 15 years after we sold our ?rst vintage to open up a tasting room because it was the right time. The way we look at it, our family has been farming for over 100 years,” Kim Mettler-Eels continues, “We plan for the long term, and take it slow and steady, because that’s the way we do things in Lodi. When you do that, you can over-deliver on your wines, and growth comes naturally.” Slowly, steadily, naturally, for the long term – oh so Lodi!
BUNDELERS
For the past 50 years virtually every grower and winery within the Lodi area has utilized the services of the Vaz family; and so have many wineries and growers as far away as 100 miles. Top quality grape growing and winemaking requires precision timing, and absolute dependability. When 50 tons of grapes, 1000 gallons of fermented juice, or 15,000 cases of wine need to get from point A to point B, there must be a truck available at the exact appointed time – no ifs, ands, or buts. This is not a commercial for Paul E. Vaz: timing and dependability is simply what the Vaz family business is all about; which now entails 49 gleamingly polished trucks, a temperature controlled warehouse (where it is a Rolling Ladder or two and countless other equipment that help the process along), and a mobile bottling line (the vast majority of Lodi’s 80-plus wineries do not have their own bottling line – and wines need to get into bottles somehow.)
P.J. Vaz is the youngest of four brothers who (along with a sister, who runs the office) now operate the company. “We all grew up in the business founded by my dad, and we run the company as joint partners. Everyone has been delegated their own department, which is why we all get along and work so well together.” Vaz adds, “During the harvest we’re moving grapes for Lodi growers to as far away as Ukiah, Fresno and the Foothills. Other times of year, we’re moving glass and case goods. In the warehouse alone, we employ between 130 and 150 people at a time, and we keep at least 35 drivers busy pretty much all year round. “In a place like Lodi, a business like ours has to be built upon relationships. For instance, we’ve worked closely with the Langes (of LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards) for over 30 years, and with Mondavi (locally, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi) for over 30 years. It starts with cleanliness, and reliability has to be a given. Taking care of customers makes them happy; and just as importantly, that’s what keeps us happy doing what we do!”
ENOLOGISTS
Juan Gonzalez is very much the picture of a bright eyed, bushy tailed Millennial; employed by one of Lodi’s oldest families, tracing their farming roots in the Delta back to the 1860s. Hired as an enologist and assistant lab manager in July 2013, Gonzalez joined a full-time winery staff numbering less than a dozen; helping to manage a state-of-the-art winery with the capacity of producing over 4 million cases of wine a year. Wines bottled under the LangeTwins label, however, are just a tiny fraction of the winery’s 
production: most of the wines crushed, fermented, aged and ?nished at LangeTwins winery are bottled under other people’s labels. In that sense, the Lange family’s winery serves primarily as a custom crush facility; especially for producers who use grapes from the staggering 7,200 acres of vines that the family owns or manages in both Lodi and Clarksburg. “I have the best job in the world, other than maybe a motorcycle test driver,” laughs Gonzalez, in reference to his free-time passion. “I joined a cellar crew that is basically unmatched – they are fastidious, just about the hardest working team I’ve ever seen.” Gonzalez bases his judgment on some credible experience; having worked for E. & J. Gallo in Fresno for a short time, after graduating with a B.A. in biochemistry at UC Santa Barbara.
“I’m young – essentially a winemaker-in-training – but I have a goal: to trick David and Karen (i.e. David Akiyoshi, LangeTwins’ head winemaker; and Karen Birmingham, Mr. Akiyoshi’s right arm) to teach me everything they know,” Gonzalez says with a smile. “Twelve-hour days, especially during harvest, are not unexpected around here; but it’s absolutely true that if you love what you do, you never really work a day in your life.” Asked about his achievements thus far, Mr. Gonzalez tells us, “It might sound silly, but I’m especially proud of our new tank board, which is basically a big glossy schematic grid on a wall that tells you what is happening in each tank, and what is happening to the wines in them. After working just a few months at LangeTwins, I was given the job of designing and custom ordering the tank board, now used by all our winemakers to communicate with each other.”
Gonzalez unabashedly proclaims, “The wine industry is fantastic. It’s the experiences you accumulate, the relationships you build, the pride you can take sharing bottles representing the tangible result of all your hard work. It’s even more awesome to work for a family that is now in its fourth and ?fth generation in Lodi. The Langes are here every day, working right beside you, in this super high-tech winery. It’s a big operation, but it feels small because it’s still all family.”
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.