From Table to Wine Grapes

This vintage crate label says Sanguinetti Flame Tokay Grapes, packed by Sanguinetti Fruit Company of Lodi, California — the home of the Lodi Grape Festival. Although Lodi has produced grapes steadily from its incorporation as a city in 1906 through today, the festival got its start in 1934 after the repeal of Prohibition, when the city looked forward to prosperous times for both table and wine grapes.

At the height of the Flame Tokay production, about 25,000 acres of land — almost half Lodi's total acreage — were dedicated to Flame Tokays. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, production of Flame Tokays peaked at around 4 million "lug" crates of the best grapes intended for use as table grapes.

Today, there may be less than 1000 acres in production and only about 1,000 lug boxes of Flame Tokays are shipped from the Lodi area. Most Flame Tokays today are used as bulk grapes in sparkling wines and brandy. This decline is due to the popularity of the flame seedless variety. Flame seedless grapes are a blend of Thompson, Cardinal and a few other grape varieties and are the second most popular table grape after the Thompson seedless. There is still a small market for the old grapes and some are shipped to Canada.

You can learn more about Lodi and the festival and the California grape industry at lodinews.com.