Summer Travel Map

Thursday, May 17, 2012

May 12-13: A Quick Stop in Lodi Wine Country

May 13, 2012
Woodbridge/Lodi, CA

We left Tehachapi right on schedule around 10:00 AM Saturday morning, making a quick stop at the "dump station" on the way out of the park. We enjoyed our stay and will likely return if we're passing through this way again.

Our travel route took us east on CA-58 to Bakersfield, then north (actually northwest) on CA-99 through the Central Valley, one of California's prime agricultural areas. This brings a lot of truck traffic, which unfortunately begets terrible roads. We had quite a bumpy ride.




Our destination was the little burg of Woodbridge, part of the town of Lodi. Ever seen Mondavi Woodbridge wines? Well, this is where they're made. We'd called ahead to make sure we'd find a space at the local Elks Lodge and had been told to arrive after 6:00 PM because they were hosting an antique car show in the afternoon. Even though it was past our usual "stop time", we were able to accommodate by spending a little extra time at a fuel stop near Stockton.

We arrived right at the designated time and were soon parked and checked in. It was a pretty good deal at $16/night for a 30 Amp water/electric site (dump on premises, even though we didn't need it since we were only staying two nights). We headed over to the lodge for a "quick one" before they closed, which turned into a "quick two" since they buy the visitors the second drink. We had a few laughs with the locals, and the ended
up buying us a bottle of, what else, Mondavi Woodbridge Cab to take "home". Overall, it was a fun but weird evening.




Sunday was a nice day, so we relaxed in the morning and visited a few local wineries in the afternoon. The wine scene is much more diverse than in the 80s and 90s, with many more varieties being cultivated than the old-school Zinfandels. Zin is still around, of course, and many vintners tout their old-vine versions (older vines tend to yield more concentrated fruit, leading to more powerful wines). We found several Rhone and Bordeaux varietals (Syrah, Malbec, Carignane) doing well. One winery, St. Jorge, specializes in Portugese varietals; we found their Souzao ("shoe-zow") to be quite interesting.


Most of the wineries in the area charge a nominal fee for tasting but waive the charge upon purchase. We limited ourselves to two bottle purchases at each of the three stops we made. Prices were reasonable for a non-mainstream wine region, generally in the $12-25 range with a maximum of about $35. We did find a bargain at Van Ruiten: a case of their Reserve Chardonnay discounted from $23/bottle to $60/case. Yes, we tasted it and it was fine, and yes, we bought the case. Since we're not huge white wine drinkers, that'll last us for quite a while.

Since it was Mother's Day and we'd just spent the afternoon tasting, it was out for dinner. The closest local restaurant was "Cactus", a Mexican place, so we walked over. The food was OK, the drinks were overpriced and the service was slow. Other than that it was fine for a spur-of-the-moment dinner. We didn't have to cook or clean up, and the leftovers will make a fine lunch next week.



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Location:Woodbridge, CA

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