The Record Catches Up

Born in Chicago in the last days of August, into an Irish family and an Elvis summer. The record begins here. It spends the next seventy years catching up.

Apprenticeship, two teachers: LeRoy McClain — scratch cook, butcher-direct, vegetables out back — and Julia Child, by way of television and butter. The subject took notes.

Chicago Faucets, the family firm twice over — her parents’ employer before her. Where hot and cold first ran together.

Three sons; corporate relocations across several states and, for a time, Malmö, Sweden. The boys turned out fine. All three confirm this independently.

Portland, the first time. A successful mail-order holly wreath business; Oregon Pinot running its own successful campaign. The city will come up again.

One evening on the patio — wine in hand, k.d. lang’s “Acquiesce” on the stereo — Rodney predicts a place with that name. This family files patio talk under planning.

The Tiptons arrive in Lodi. The appellation is not yet aware of its good fortune.

Eighteen acres on Peltier Road, twelve of them Zinfandel — in Zinfandel country, a drum kit in a marching-band town. She sold the grapes. She had heard something better.

First plantings: Grenache Blanc and Grenache Noir, Beaucastel clones by way of Tablas Creek — in her 50s, against all available advice. The record shows no evidence that any was solicited.

First wines in 2011; the hundred-year-old barn opens as a tasting room in 2012 — Lodi’s only all-white winery. A second wave of vines (Roussanne, Viognier, Picpoul Blanc) had joined the estate in 2009. For years the wines sell out by fall and the room closes for the winter — a problem the trade files under enviable. Production catches up around 2019; the winters reopen.

Clairette Blanche and Bourboulenc planted after a six-year waiting list for the vines — the first Bourboulenc in the United States, first bottled in 2018. The 2016 sparkling Grenache Blanc, arriving alongside, is believed to be the world’s only. The word “first” begins appearing in this record with some regularity.

Woman Winemaker of the Year. Best White Wine of the entire San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, for the 2020 Viognier. The record, catching up.

Visit Lodi names Acquiesce its Winery of the Year, citing the wines and the hospitality. The paper notes that both were hers.

Christina Lopez takes the cellar; Sue remains founding winemaker. The house style holds — proof the founder built something that runs without her hand on every vine.

Best of Show White. Best of California. Ninety-nine points at the California State Fair, for the 2025 Grenache Blanc. The advice-givers of 2008 could not be reached for comment.

The winery passes to new hands; Sue and Rodney head north to the City of Roses, where all three sons keep homes. New roots go in this fall. The record expects them to take.