Klinker Brick Winery — Lodi Winery & Tasting Room

Klinker Brick Winery is named for the klinker brick — the overcooked, irregular brick that results from firing clay at too high a temperature. Klinker bricks (from the Dutch klinker, the brick that 'clinks' when struck) emerge from the kiln darker, denser, and harder than properly fired bricks — the excess heat creating a product of greater structural density and a distinctive metallic ring.

Applied to old-vine Lodi Zinfandel, the klinker brick philosophy declares wine of structural density and concentrated character — the excess of the Lodi sun creating Zinfandel of greater concentration than easily ripened fruit, the overcooked-brick philosophy applied to grapes grown in one of California's most sun-intense wine regions.

Fifth-generation Lodi grape farmers Steve and Lori Felten established Klinker Brick in 2000, bottling fruit from estate Zinfandel vines that the Felten family has farmed since the early 20th century. The old-vine Zinfandel blocks — some over 100 years old — produce wines of the structural depth and concentrated character that the klinker brick naming implies.