Winery Recommendations For A Good Bottle of Wine in Lodi
Our winery recommendations for a Good Bottle of Wine in Lodi….we’ve written about individual wineries when you see links, and we do have an overview of some of these, ‘Lodi Wine.’
Just like our wines we are ranking wineries we’ve visited with our star system. When you see ✰++ you need to visit this winery. Ranked from best to least in descending order.
Western Side of Highway 99
✰++ Michael & David – West of downtown on Route 12 and known for Freak Show and Earthquake, lots of Zins and beautiful grounds.
✰++ M2, Interesting building, good wine, well priced with an experienced and mature staff.
✰+ Fields Family, Northwest of downtown. Check out their Big Red and Il Ladro (Tuscan blend of Sangiovese, Cab & Merlot)
✰+ Jessie’s Grove, another pioneer family estate with 100+ year old grape vine around the old farm house. Now operated by Michael & David wines.
✰ Oak Farm Vineyards, has a beautiful new facility, wonderful patio for lunch (your own food.)
✰Van Ruiten, also West of downtown on Route 12. Another pioneer family making nice wines.
✰ Peirano Estates – 4th generation farmer with 128-year-old Zin vines creating well priced wines from Zins to Petite Sirah.
✰ Jeremy Wine Company, downtown retail storefront sells some good wine and a ‘Jug’ for refilling with their blended wine.
Eastern Side of Highway 99
✰++ Burghold, East of downtown. Great Syrahs and of course Zins we enjoy. Alas, owner Joe Burghold recently passed so you won’t have the chance for him to tell stories from behind the bar. The wine is great. Amy our wine host was wonderful. You should visit for some great blends.
✰++ Macchia Wines, lots of good Zins, but alas, getting a spitting cup from them was difficult. We were ready to leave when they finally produced one.
✰++ Mettler Family Vineyards – Founded in the late 1890s the family has grown grapes for other wineries until creating their own wine in 1990. Beautiful gardens perfect for a wedding or a wine taste. Ask for Linette, their tasting room manager. Good blends, Zin, GSM, Mourvedre and Chardonnay.
✰++ Harney Lane – Good wines, Zin of course, a pioneer family making wine since the late 1900s. They have a beautiful garden for picnic lunch. Bring some food.
✰+ St. Amant – Tucked away at 1 Winemaster Way in a large historic wine production facility they create some tasty Barberas and a Zinfandel created from a 1944 planting. They also produce Iberian and port style wines.
✰ Delicato – In Manteca, just south of Lodi. Big commercial winemaker with good commercial wine and some more expensive wines too. Check out their 1824 red wines and their 1924 Whiskey Barrel-Aged Red Blend. Many wines available at retail stores including a boxed Chardonnay with low carbs, calories & alcohol.
✰ Oak Ridge, a large wine maker of long time growers. Their tasting room is in a 55,000 gallon aging cask. We went there to taste their 100+ year old zin and left unsatisfied as they have a set taste list for the week. The wine we wanted to taste was not on that week’s list and they were not going off list.
✰ Bokisch – Out on the east side specializing in Italian variatels. Enjoyed their Barbera & Old Vine Carignon.
✰ McCay Cellars – They have a lot of old vine Zin and you can sample their wine at Woodbridge Uncorked.
✰ Heritage Oak, the wine did not ‘sing’ for us, it was the last winery of the day and our palates may have been overburdened and the fruit flies were irritating.
✰ Klinkerbrick – The magic is gone from this winery. We recently revisited and 6 plastic cups with our wine samples were placed on the table for us to pour into a glass ourselves. The wine host Matt checked on us twice and that was it. Disappointing is the best we can say. Did we mention the mandatory 20% tip on groups of 8+? The host indicated this was common in Lodi, saying 80% of the wineries charged mandatory tips for large groups. This has been a favorite Lodi visit, but no more. We visited 6 wineries on our last trip and only Durst & Klinkerbrick required mandatory tipping.
✰ Durst – Cassandra Durst is creating interesting wines but our recent visit was disappointing. There was a mandatory 20% tip on groups of 8 or more and the $20 tasting was for three samples. We left without sampling any of the wines we enjoyed ten years ago….and will probably not taste again.