Avivo Wines

Lodi used to get no respect. Too far east to be part of the vibrant Bay Area, but not one of the Central Valley’s larger cities, Lodi had long been a town to pass through on the way to the mountains. A song by Creedence Clearwater Revival lamented a worse fate: “to be stuck in Lodi again.” In the wine world, serious folk long regarded Lodi as little more than a producer of jug wines. But things have changed. What the wine enthusiasts of old did not understand was that Lodi was where high-volume producers looked for quality fruit, the ingredient that gave their jug wines fruit, acidity, and structure (in addition to high yields). In recent decades, Lodi growers and producers have given their vineyards a more discerning look and found some real treasures: acres and acres of old vine vineyards, a moderate climate, well-drained sandy or loam soils and vineyard costs low enough to make varieties other than Cabernet and Chardonnay economically viable. As a result, Lodi has acquired a new reputation (and AVA status) as a versatile region capable of producing balanced, site-specific wines that take full advantage of its unique growing conditions.

Avivo is a relatively new Lodi venture founded by Ridgely Evers, who previously planted an olive grove and vineyard near Healdsburg to produce award-winning olive oils and wines exclusively from Italian grape varieties. Evers has long maintained that California’s latitude and warm, dry climate make it far better suited to Mediterranean grapes like Vermentino and Sangiovese than to traditional Bordelaise or Burgundian varieties. Lodi provided the ideal landscape to prove this on a broader scale: it offered matching climatic conditions and deep sandy soils, but at farming costs reasonable enough to deliver these wines at accessible everyday prices. To execute this vision, Avivo partnered with the Ledbetters, Lodi farmers for three generations, committing to strict organic and regenerative practices—farming completely free of glyphosate or chemical weedkillers, and working toward full biodynamic certification. Handled with minimal intervention and native yeast fermentations in the cellar, Avivo’s wines offer a pure, food-friendly expression of what Mediterranean varieties can achieve in Lodi.

Dan Fitzgerald

USA

California