Our Markus Niggli was just handed his 15 minutes of fame, appearing in two newspaper articles in Saturday’s Lodi News-Sentinel.
Here’s an excerpt from the first, entitled “Yellow Cab submits application to come to Lodi,” with several quotes from Markus:
The biggest competition for a taxi company serving wineries during the day is limousine service, he said, because the limos can be rented out for a long period, and there is no waiting for it to show up.
“Limo services are not too expensive,” Niggli said. “It is also probably better looking to come up in a stretch limo than in a cab.”
But he could see the cabs being used at night when the wineries have events.
“People might leave behind their cars, take the safe route and take a cab home,” Niggli said.
The second story, “Lyrics of the vine,” describes what Lodi wineries are doing to offer evening entertainment, along with excellent wines.
Here’s the full quote:
Borra Vineyards started combining wine and music four years ago with their Fusion Friday events, named after their Fusion wines.
Relaxation, entertainment and good wine was their motivation for the monthly summertime event.
“Music and wine are the two things that help you relax after a long, hard week of work,” Markus Niggli, Borra Vineyards winemaker said.
Niggli says there were about 40 or 50 people who would attend. Now, the even that combines food, wine and music brings in at least 150 people on the first Friday of the month during summer.
“You pull up in a winery site and it takes you away from daily life. For just a couple of hours, you can be yourself and enjoy the moment off,” Niggli said.
At Fusion Friday, guests sit at tables surrounding a Bocce ball field. In the beginning, many get comfortable at their tables with a full glass of wine or dinner prepared by a local caterer. But as the music plays and wine glasses get a little emptier, groups starts dancing and joining in games of Bocce ball.
Meanwhile, I touched base with Markus today as he was munching on a mouthwatering peach.
“The fruit this season looks great. Maturity is very nice. Normally we’d see sugars climbing. This year we have nice even sugars in grapes that are holding on to their acid,” he said.
Regarding current sugar levels, “The Viognier and reds are all under 20˚ Brix and we’ll start sampling late next week after our last bottling of the year. With this cool weather, we won’t be picking anything until the second or third week of September.”
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