Home >Wine Store >Uvaggio Lodi Vermentino

Light peach, melon, under ripe pineapple, lychee, Meyer lemon and minerals.

Jim Moore has championed Italian varietals in California since the 1980s when he worked for Robert Mondavi and helped launch a brand called La Famiglia di Robert Mondavi. He also served as assistant winemaker at Bonny Doon Vineyards in Santa Cruz before starting his own wine company, L'Uvaggio di Giacomo, which translates amusingly to "Jim's Wines." He says he can still remember his first sip of Vermentino enjoyed on a trip to Tuscany and resolved then to make Vermentino more popular to American palates. Jim sourced the fruit for this small-lot bottling from two vineyards in Lodi, the region east of San Francisco that is part of California's Central Valley. While most of the valley is blazingly hot in the summer, Lodi sits in the valley's cooler midpoint, at the mouth of a gap in the western ridges. As temperatures rise in the hot inland valley, cool maritime breezes provide Lodi with a balance of warm days and cooler evenings--essential for ripening premium wine grapes.

Fish and shellfish make perfect partners to Vermentino, whose medium body and crisp palate can handle the squeeze of lemon or other acidic ingredients that often accompany these dishes. For something different, try the Vermentino with my Tuna Tonnato.

Jim Moore calls Vermentino "the thinking man's or woman's Pinot Grigio."