Oak Ridge Winery Tasting Room
6100 E. Victor Road, Highway 12 East, Lodi, CA 95240
Website: https://oakridgewinery.com/
I was automatically drawn to visiting this winery when I learned that the tasting room is housed inside a gigantic 50,000 gallon redwood tank. This is something you have to see to believe. It provides a truly unique experience. Where else can you go drink wine inside of a redwood tank? Of course, my more cynical side questioned “is this all a gimmick” before seeing it myself. I can assure you it is not. In fact, Oak Ridge Winery has much more to offer than a giant oak tank for a tasting room. This is the oldest operating winery in Lodi, CA. It was built in 1934 by Italian immigrant Angelo Maggio. He arrived in the United States from Genova in 1906 and planted the first cuttings in 1928. Angelo, his son Roy, and grandson Rudy carried on the farming, producing grapes that were sold to other wineries all around the country. In 2002, Rudy saw the opportunity to expand the winery to keep up with demand and start producing wines of their own at the same time. So, he created the state-of-the-art facility that exists today. Now, Rudy’s three daughters are overseeing operations of the winery and continue the family tradition, while maintaining the 2,500 acres spread through the Lodi AVA.
Oak Ridge Winery Slushy Bar
As you might expect of a unique tasting room like this one, the place was pretty popular when my husband and I visited. This was prior to COVID. Unfortunately, the tasting room was shut down during COVID and tastings were moved outside. Inside the tasting room is made up of all dark wood staves from floor to walls, and the only real lighting was coming from the front entrance. It was dim and a bit crowded. There is a semi-circular shaped bar with a big lit up sign behind it saying “Slushy Bar”. I had heard of wine slushies before and even tried one at an outdoor event on the east coast, but this was my first time seeing one in CA wine country. They had a good varied selection of wines on the tasting menu. I tried a Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, and two Zinfandels. The Zinfandels drew me in the most. The Old Soul 2016 Zinfandel had a deep purple color with chocolate and raspberry aromas. It reminded me of eating a slice of cherry pie, sweet and smooth. My favorite was the Oak Ridge 2014 Reserve Ancient Vine Zinfandel. It was so velvety with aromas of cocoa nibs and cardamom and it tasted like chocolate covered cherries. It was so yummy!
I’m glad I got to check out the winery and the tasting room, but there were a couple things that put it lower on my favorites list than other Lodi wineries. First, the tasting room made me feel like they were trying to draw more of a “party” type of crowd with the slushy bar. Second, right outside the winery between the tasting room and parking lot was an area with rows of enormous cement fermentation tanks. At first it was impressive to see, but it made the winery seem very industrial, which is in stark contrast to the other places I visited in Lodi. I would keep this on my list of places to see, but be aware that it is an atypical California winery experience.
Enormous fermentation tanks outside Oak Ridge Winery