this is the personal blog of brandon quintana.

Yesterday I met up with a few friends at the Lodi Wine Country. I’ve done a good amount of tasting in Livermore Wine Country and a few places scattered throughout the US. Lodi Wine Country was hosting the Wine & Chocolate Weekend event February 14-15, 2009. It lasted from 11am-4pm both days and I showed up around 3pm on Sunday. Even though it was kind of late, we were still able to taste at three wineries.

First up was Abundance Vineyards. They just opened a new location which was really nice. I’m all about modern things and it’s probably why I don’t have much appreciation for historical landmarks. To me it’s just someplace old. There were a decent amount of people there, but not too many. The wine was okay also.

Our next stop was Lucas Winery. They had some good tasting wine. To be honest, I have no clue what I’m doing. If it tastes good to me that’s all that really matters. I picked up a bottle of their Zin Blossoms. It’s supposed to be a summer wine, but I’m not sure if it will last until then. By then it was already 4pm, so we looked for a place that was open until 5pm.

This brought us to Jesse’s Grove Winery. It seemed like the people were much friendlier there. There were also some people that had too much to drink. I guess that’s what happens late in the wine tasting day. The wine maker explained a couple different barrels, one with oak treatment and one without and a mixture of the two. It was pretty interesting and nice that someone was willing to take the time to explain to someone that knows nothing about the industry. I picked up their bottle of Carignane. I noticed the alcohol content is a little higher than some of the other wines so that could probably be a good explanation for the state of mind of the people tasting there. One of my friends burnt her jacket on the space heater. Seriously who does that?

It was a pretty fun trip even through the weather could have been better. It was overcast and rainy at times. I guess that’s what I should expect during winter. I’ll need to go out and taste more as spring and summer come around. It’s much more fun when it’s sunny outside, but not too hot. I’m looking forward to my next trip and if anyone has any recommendations of places to go, let me know.