About a dozen years ago, Chinese wine drinkers were mixing Chateau Lafite Bordeaux with Coca-Cola, Joan Kautz recalls. "They didn't like the taste of wine yet, and they wanted some sweetness," said Kautz, vice president of international operations for her family's vineyards in Lodi, which has been shipping to China for almost 15 years. Today, thanks to an emerging, increasingly thirsty middle class, more Chinese are drinking California wines without cutting it with cola, including labels like Lange Twins, Ironstone and Michael David, all from the Lodi region.