wine tasting

The other week I visited Lodi, located in the Central Valley. You may have heard of it thanks to the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song, “Lodi”. But believe it or not, Lodi is a cute little town filled with wineries and is a great place to get stuck and spend the day wine tasting. It’s also way more affordable than Napa or Sonoma.

I like the little arch welcoming you into the downtown area (yes, that is the downtown!). Built in 1907, the arch is a California Historical Landmark and on the US National Register of Historic Places.

lodi5

It was a little foggy at one point

One of the wineries we visited was Ripken, which makes many types of wine

And has this fun sculpture of a flying pig

The trees and flowers were blooming and gorgeous

A little kitty said hi to us

We also visited Michael David Winery, which makes a couple of wines that I like – 7 Deadly Zins and a symphony, which is sweeter. Their tasting room is cute because it also has a cafe, fruit stand, and bakery with yummy pies.

Lodi is a couple of hours or so away from San Francisco and I recommend checking out some of their 40-ish wineries!

I recently went wine lasting in Livermore, a farming community that is at the eastern edge of the Bay Area before it turns into the Central Valley. I never knew that Livermore even had wineries until just a couple of months ago!

We went to four or five different wineries in the area. Only a couple actually charged for tastings and gave generous pours and lots of tastes for free or about $5, which is a great deal, especially when places like Napa charge up to $25 for tastings.