![\"Lodi](\"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Kidder-Family.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Rural Wine Tasting in Lodi. Thankfully the Barn Smelled Like Fermenting Wine, Not Cows.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
Date: Wineries Visited: Details<\/strong>: St. Amant Winery Hiding In an Industrial Area. Notice the Small Red Awning Marked In Red. Google Was No Help Because It Pointed Us To Another Section.<\/p><\/div>\n We finally entered St. Amant and found ourselves in their tasting room which was the front of their barrel room. \u00a0Ornate wine tasting rooms are nice but there is something about tasting while surrounded by barrels and the smell of aging wine and oak. St Amant Winery was one of the first boutique wineries making handmade wines in Lodi and has stories to spare about the history of the family and numerous stories about the early days of the hand crafted Lodi wine industry. For instance, how they hijacked their own grapes back from the cellar of an unscrupulous purchaser who conveniently declared bankruptcy right after taking delivery. If you go there, ask about how the family got it’s name…great story but if I retold it here, this blog post would end up being a novel. They also made one of the first Old Vine Zinfandels<\/a> in 1996, before “Old Vine” wines became the rage. The first taste was a Verdelho<\/a> and it was quite good with a lovely fragrance and layers of flavors. There were a host of reds as well and we each had our favorites and they were all well made. The most intriguing point about St. Amant Winery is that they are special wines but you can get them at every day prices.<\/p>\n The Bucket List Board At Acquiesce…Although Come to Think About It, Dying While Enjoying A Glass of Wine Is a Touch Morbid<\/p><\/div>\n If you are looking for a winery that is different on almost every level, check out Acquiesce. Female winemaker – check. Specializes in white Varietals rather than Red ones – check….make that whites from the Rhone region of France…..say what? Yep, although they get little play in the US aside from Viognier, the Rhone has a number of white Varietals. Although now sold out, the Grenache Blanc was very good and possessed layers of flavor. If you are more familiar with the standard red Grenache, Grenache Blanc<\/a> is a clonal variation much like Pinot Gris<\/a> is to Pinot Noir<\/a>. The Viognier was also quite good. Perhaps its just me but I’m finding more winemakers that are now managing to balance the floral notes with a little more depth. When they first came out, it seemed every winemaker was striving to make it as heavenly perfumed as possible. Thankfully a number have managed to find some restraint. The best was the Picpoul Blanc<\/a>, which my cousin Brian, thought I’d never heard of. Sorry to disappoint you Brian but you now know I’d heard of it, I just hadn’t tasted it. Give it a shot if you see it. It’s quite interesting. We bought a bottle which Brian insisted on paying for but somehow he managed to keep it as well. I’ve now learned which side of the family are the sneaky ones as opposed to my fathers side….the LOUD ones. Winemaker Sue Tipton was kind enough to take a number of us on a quick tour into her fermentation facility where all of her wines are cold fermented. Samples she pulled from the glycol cooled tanks showed a range of wines from just starting fermentation to almost finished. By the way…check out the tasting room. It’s in a 100 year old barn, which for California is pretty old.<\/p>\n Kidder Family Winery is quite new to the Lodi wine scene, having just opened two years ago, although they have been home winemakers for a number of years before that…kind of a hobby run amuck (kind of like this web site apparently). Make sure you hear the story about the winemaker, Aaron Kidder, and his childhood guest spot on the Ed Sullivan show as part of a family barbershop quartet. Aaron, the celebrity in question, wasn’t there or we would have asked for a performance but come to think of it, a barbershop quartet with only one person isn’t much of a quartet so maybe it’s best left to our imagination. We started with a Sauvignon Blanc<\/a> which Karen sort of liked (about as strong an endorsement you will ever get from either of us regarding Sauvignon Blanc…long story and I suspect most of your have heard it before by now). She also quite liked the Barbera<\/a> but I thought the highlights were the Caberah (a Cabernet Sauvignon<\/a>, Syrah<\/a> and Petite Sirah<\/a> blend) which had a nice dry finish, and the Estate Petite Sirah. The weather was brisk so I guess I was in the mood for heavier wines by that point. We missed trying their flagship wine, the “Duet” which is styled after a Rioja blend from Spain, made from Tempranillo<\/a> and Graciano<\/a>, Spain’s answer to Cabernet Sauvignon. Aaron offered to send us a bottle, it won a Gold at the state fair and is also sold out so those are two pretty good testimonials that it’s a good wine even without tasting it (thanks for the offer by the way Aaron).<\/p>\n Riaza’s New Tasting Room in Lodi<\/p><\/div>\n Riaza Wines is one of downtown Lodi’s Wine Tasting Rooms and has been open less than a year although they have been making wines for a number of years. Rick Taylor’s, enthusiasm and friendly demeanor make for a great Lodi tasting experience so make sure that you give them a shot. Riaza specializes in Spanish Varietals and we started with a Verdejo (which is the Spanish name for Verdelho, mentioned earlier in this post at St. Amant) which Karen pronounced a perfect deck wine, usually her highest praise for a light flavorful wine to enjoy on a deck or patio on a warm afternoon. The Garnacha<\/a> was extremely light, almost a Rose but that lightness allowed many of the subtle flavors to show through that are often hidden in the more commonly known French Grenache<\/a> version of the wine. This lightness was a characteristic of most of the Riaza wines, which is a nice contrast to most California Wineries. They make a number of Tempranillos but Karen and I didn’t agree which was our favorite. She liked the Hunter’s Oak Vineyard, where as I preferred the Firefall Vineyard from El Dorado Hills. They had a number of other nice wines but I’ve rambled on enough for this blog post so do yourself a favor and check out the Lodi wine region.<\/p>\n General Location: Winery-Sage.com Listings:<\/strong> 2) To find more Lodi wineries,\u00a0click here<\/a>\u00a0and enter \u201cSan Joaquin\u201d in the \u201cquick search\u201d field for Winery-Sage.com\u2019s Winery database.<\/p>\n 3) More information can be found for each Varietal that we\u2019ve listed by clicking on the link that we\u2019ve created the first time the Varietal is listed in each post.<\/p>\n Explorers:
\n<\/strong>September 22nd, 2013<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>St Amant Winery \u2013 production 6,000 cases
\nAcquiesce Winery and Vineyards \u2013 production 1,000 cases
\nKidder Family Winery – production 750 cases
\nRiaza Wines – production 1,500 cases<\/p>\n
\nContinuing our wine tasting trip in Lodi, several of the earlier wineries recommended visiting St. Amant Winery. Its web site lists its address as “1 Wine Master Way” but knowing the address and actually finding it are two entirely different things. I now know what it must have felt like in prohibition. Apparently only the cool people got to know where the hidden door was actually located to get into the speakeasy. After a complete trip around a complex that looked like it just as easily could have been building nuclear weapons, we returned to Layne at m2 for more explicit instructions. After a quick snicker and an affirmation that St. Amant could be a little tough to find, he quickly drew a map that bore a slight resemblance to a 300 year old treasure map but the key was to look for the Oleander hedge and there will be a small red awning over a door. Cool…wine tasting in Lodi and a scavenger hunt all in the same day! We returned to the nuclear complex\/winemaking facility, made a left at the tree shaped like a skull and crossbones, drove roughly 247 yards and peered behind a well groomed hedge. Our prize was in site and X marked the spot. Well…X didn’t actually mark the spot. The promised red awning did but saying the “red awning marked the spot” just doesn’t sound very manly.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n<\/strong>Lodi is located about 35 miles south of Sacramento and sits on highway 99. It can also be easily reached from highway 5 and highway 88.<\/p>\n
\n1) To view more information for the Wineries in Lodi (the local regional association),\u00a0click here<\/a>\u00a0and type \u201cLodi\u201d in the \u201cquick search\u201d field to see their listing on Winery-Sage.com.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Karen \u2013 Ken
\nCheck out their\u00a0tastes and bios here<\/a><\/p>\n