Keeping in mind the Lodi wine area is known for Zinfandel and Old Vine Zinfandel, some ports and dessert wines were poured and a few whites only.
The weather was spectacular all weekend, sunny in the upper 60's in the valley. Tickets were $45 before the event and $55 at the door of any of the wineries participating. We bought early and saved the $10 a person and it was well worth it.
There were around 40 or so local vineyards participating and spending the time to map out your day prior to leaving the house is highly recommended, otherwise you might be driving all over the county when you could be sampling really great wine. Most of the vineyards participating range from 500-1000 cases per year, some smaller and a couple up to 7K a year, but all that we visited were family owned and operated.
We chose to start the day on the east side at Harmony Wynelands, food, chocolate, music and wine were all very good.
We then moved right down the road to Omega Cellars, they had a nice kind of rustic barn thing going. Food and wine here were only good, this one was definitely towards the bottom of our list and probably not worth a visit back unless their wine really improves.
Next we visited Harney Lane Winery and wow was this place hopping. There were easily a couple of hundred people here when we arrived late in the morning. One of the highlights was the chocolate chili, that's right chocolate chili, one of the things the winery is known for when they have events like this. It was fantastic and paired well with the wine we were drinking.
Down the road to the next stop at Klinker Brick Winery. They had some chocolate samplers and were pouring pretty freely. The wine was good but not great.
We proceeded up the road and over to Vicarmont Vineyards, this was a much smaller place but they had over fired pizza cooked outdoors and it was pretty good, photo below. While the pizza was good, the wine left quite a bit to be desired. Stop by for the pizza but not again for the wine.
Off to Woodbridge (Robert Mondavi) up the road and worst stop of the day. Really run down and old place that had not been well maintained. Only a few people there when we arrived. Gnats in the dip and it was warm, bags of candy for chocolate. Need to update the place or close it!
Winding down the day we hit a few more spots, next on the list was Field Family Wines. This was a pretty cool place, they had just opened their new tasting room and wine was pretty good. Wine was decent and definitely worth a stop back by.
Last three of the day, St. Jorge Winery was absolutely spectacular. Does not look like they spared too much expense to do it right. From the store and tasting room to the outdoor look, truly amazing. They had one of the nicest labels of the day, DJ spinning some records, people dancing (it was later in the afternoon, so some may have been wine induced). Wine was very good and well worth a purchase.
Century Oak Winery had a very small tasting room but the owner was very in tune to what people were looking for in their wine. While the wine was just ok, you definitely got more of a you're part of the family here feel.
And the last stop on our fun filled weekend was Jessie's Grove Winery. We ended up here around 3:30, the wine included price stopped at 4 PM for the day. They were pouring only barrel ports and dessert wines and had a DJ. There were at least 75-100 people out on the dance floor under the barrels partying pretty hearty. While I am not a big fan of ports, all that we tasted here were good. Definitely worth a stop and possible purchase if you find something that you like.
All in all a great weekend before Valentine's Day and one I would highly recommend you spend with your significant other.
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