12 fantastic Lodi buys that take you from the realm of the senses into heights of the intellect

Visiting wine journalists on the grape sorting line at Lodi's Bokisch Vineyards. "Wine, women and song... why reinvent the wheel?" That's the writing on a wall I once saw in Las Vegas' Caesars Palace. While there was undoubtedly wine and singing aplenty in the historical Caesar's era, a little reading shows that the expression first became popular in Germany, during the early 1800s. Aren't you glad you know that? It is also good to know that through good times and bad, since before the days of the Romans, we have always had wine. It was, I think, Robert Mondavi who pointed out that the civilizing attributes of wine have been known since, well, the beginning of civilization.  Mr. Mondavi was a pioneer of the modern day California wine renaissance. There were numerous others, of course, and their collective impact was so huge that we can now say, here at the start of 2025, that American wines are far, far better than ever before...