Tuesday’s Wine

The country votes today, so we are celebrating domestic winemaking. Both of this week's bottles come from one place and one decision. Bleecker is not a wine that Polaner Selections imports. It is their own label — their own fruit, picked in Lodi, made by an independent winemaker who works for himself and a short list of quality-minded clients. There is no estate, no tasting room, no hospitality staff, no marketing department. Those are the costs sitting inside most American bottles before a single grape is bought, and none of them are in these.

It also skips a step most good wine cannot. The usual chain runs producer, importer, distributor, shop. Polaner is the brand owner and the distributor at once, and the fruit never crosses an ocean, so there is no freight, no customs, no currency risk and no second margin. One hand where there are normally three.

Lodi fruit costs about a tenth of what Napa fruit costs. Nothing about these tastes like a tenth.

The other half of the price is the region itself. The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta is the only real gap in the California Coast Ranges, and every evening it pulls cool marine air straight inland into the vineyards. Nights fall into the low fifties. That swing is what holds acidity in a warm climate, and it is what you are tasting in both of these — the snap underneath the Chardonnay's orchard fruit, the lift that keeps the Cabernet from going heavy and sweet.

Lodi has about a hundred thousand acres planted, roughly as much as Napa and Sonoma combined, and most of that fruit has spent decades leaving the region inside wines labelled as something else. The farming got serious while the name stayed cheap. Lodi Rules, the region's sustainability certification, has been running since 2005 and now covers more than seventy-five thousand acres against a hundred and fifty farming standards — and the grower still gets paid Lodi prices.

Both wines are labelled California rather than Lodi, which gives the blend room to move and keeps the price where it is. The fruit is Lodi. What you are paying for is the farming and the barrels, and very little else. The wines are perfect table wines to match with burgers, steak, mac-and-cheese, and fried chicken — American bistro fare, in other words.

Both wines will be opened in the shop so that you can try before you buy.

Both are 10% off today only. Enter WINEYTUESDAY10 at checkout.