"Contrary to popular belief, Leaping Horse is not the name of the horse that went wild at the Kentucky Derby. It's the name of a wine that comes from California. You see, in 2002, the Kautz Family, makers of Ironstone Vineyards, got the idea to create a new wine brand. Their sales and marketing guy went to one of the family members and said they should use, of all things, grapes from Lodi and put Lodi on the label. Well, one family member talked to another and then another and before you knew it, Lodi made its national debut! And in case you didn't know it, many larger wineries use a lot of grapes from Lodi in their wines, have for years, but were reluctant to put 'Lodi' on the label. Go figure? Guess they thought folks like you wouldn't consider a wine that wasn't from one of the more well known wine regions in California, say one that starts with an 'N' and another that maybe starts with an 'S'. Anyway, their VP of Sales told them he thought they could sell 100,000 cases in the first 12 months. Needless to say, they all wondered what he was smoking.The first year Leaping Horse was released, it found its way into 50 states and 4 countries selling over 300,000 cases. Why you may ask? it's in the juice!
"Leaping Horse is the first nationally distributed brand to put the Lodi appellation on our wines. The "Lodi" appellation was approved by the federal government in 1986 and is located 100 miles east of San Francisco near the San Joaquin River Delta, south of Sacramento and west of the Sierra Nevada. The Lodi appellation is noted for its classic Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers and cool, moist winters and its distinctive sandy soils that provide the perfect environment for the production of world-class wines."