"Welcome to a new tradition" is the tagline the George Mettler family uses on promotional material for its Lodi winery, Harney Lane.

That pretty much sums up the story for a lot of Lodi wineries. While many of them are relatively new, they often spring from a long tradition of farming in the Lodi area.

Harney Lane Winery's foundation was established more than a century ago, when in 1900 George Mettler's great-grandfather, Fred Schnaidt, bought land just southeast of downtown Lodi. In 1907, his son, Henry Schnaidt, planted the first wine grapes on the property, primarily zinfandel, but also some missions and tokays, the latter a popular table grape long identified with Lodi.

Like other growers around Lodi, the Schnaidts and later the Mettlers long were content to leave winemaking to the wineries that bought their grapes. In 2006, however, the family agreed to start holding on to some of its fruit with an eye toward establishing its own winery, which opened in 2008.

Today, their lineup of varietal wines includes zinfandel, tempranillo, primitivo, petite sirah and chardonnay. It's a pretty safe and traditional portfolio but for one of their wines, albariño, a white made from a grape that is little known beyond the Galicia region of Spain. There, albariño yields light-bodied wines notable for their fresh and inviting smells, lean yet solid builds, and refreshing acidity.

Kathleen Mettler, George's wife, had gotten to like a couple of albariños being made by other producers in the Lodi area. "She loves the wine's fruitiness. It was her personal favorite," says Jorja Lerner, the Mettlers' daughter, a former physical therapist now involved in helping run the winery.

Kathleen Mettler combined her fondness for albariño with persuasiveness, talking her family into grafting 3 acres of chardonnay to the variety. She had to be persuasive; rarely is any stand of California's most popular grape made over into another variety, particularly one as little known as albariño.

Back in June, I learned why Kathleen Mettler is so enthusiastic about albariño. At that time, I was introduced to the Harney Lane Winery 2010 Lodi Albariño in San Francisco, where it was being poured at a tasting sponsored by the Tempranillo Advocates Producers and Amigos Society, a trade group promoting the cultivation in the United States of grape varieties traditionally associated with the Iberian peninsula.

The Harney Lane take on albariño was richer, more solid and more complex than what I generally had been finding in the varietal, yet it still conveyed clearly the grape's full expression of summer melons and peaches, along with a refreshing seam of acidity suggestive of pineapple.

Chad Joseph, Harney Lane's consulting winemaker, says he fermented about half of the juice in neutral oak barrels and then let it age briefly on its lees, the grungy sediment that settles to the bottom of the vessel and which generally is left behind as wine is racked to another container. Winemakers credit this exposure for adding complexity and substance to a wine, helping explain the weight and layering in the Harney Lane albariño.

Joseph also let a small portion of the wine undergo malolactic fermentation while in oak. With malolactic fermentation, the sharp malic acid found in several fresh fruits is transformed into softer lactic acid, thereby helping round out the edges of the resulting wine, making it more supple.

Joseph, incidentally, is becoming an old hand at working with albariño. He's also the winemaker for Dancing Coyote Wines of Clarksburg, whose albariño he ferments entirely in stainless-steel tanks, with no oak exposure and no malolactic fermentation, the resulting wine being all forward and spirited fruit.

Harney Lane Winery

2010 Lodi Albariño

By the numbers: 13.9 percent alcohol, 442 cases, $19

Context: Albariño's fresh fruit flavor and zesty acidity call for it to be poured whenever grilled oysters are heading for the table. "It wakens up the natural flavors in seafood," says winemaker Chad Joseph. "It also really goes well with pasta, paella and risotto, especially when a lot of garlic is used in these dishes. This time of year the wine is great for chilling in ice and then taking to the patio with a plate of melon, pear, apple and chèvre."

Availability: The albariño is available only at Harney Lane Winery and online at www.harneylane.com.

Location and hours: The tasting room at Harney Lane Winery, 9010 E. Harney Lane, Lodi, is open noon-5 p.m. Thursday through Monday.

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Longtime wine critic and competition judge Mike Dunne continues his relationship with The Bee as a contributing columnist to the Food & Wine section. His wine selections are based solely on open and blind tastings, judging at competitions, and visits to wine regions. Check out his blog at www.ayearinwine.com, and reach him at mikedunne@winegigs.com.

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