If you are looking to maximize your wine tasting experience, we have found just the place. Hidden away on a back street in the small town of Lockford, California, the old Lockford Winery and Distillery complex sat vacant for over 20 years. Reborn as Vino Piazza, the brain child of Don and Karyn Litchfield, it is now home to ten wineries, a deli and a restaurant. Vino Piazza is a wine lover’s paradise.

   We cannot think of another place where you can taste wine inside a massive wine tank!  Several of the old 60,000 gallon concrete wine tanks have been converted into tasting rooms and leased to small family wineries. If this does not warm you up, try the Stama winery tasting room, located inside the old boiler! Adding to the experience, the winemaker of La Vida Dulce Wines is likely to play a few songs on his guitar while you taste.

   Lockford is part of the Lodi wine region, home to some of the best zinfandel on the planet. Lodi zin is known for making big wines loaded with flavors of blackberries, cherries and spice. Many people do not realize that white zinfandel is made from the same grape as red zinfandel. Red wine gets its color by soaking the clear juice with the grape skins to extract color. White zin production skips this process to create a typically sweeter, easy sipping wine

Sharing space with the Olde Lockford Winery is a great collection of minerals and fossils, including a life-sized casting of a T-Rex skull! The Litchfield’s were natural history buffs long before entering the wine business and now proudly display these unique treasures collected from around the world along with their wines.

Lockford is a short drive over highway 88 about 20 minutes west of Jackson. Turn north on Locke Road just west of the center of town. For more information, visit their website at www.VinoPiazza.com.  

Our Picks of the Month:

Stama Winery, 2007 White Zinfandel; A semi-dry style of white zin with notes of strawberry and ripe melon. Great value. ($7)

Watts Winery, 2004 Reserve Syrah; A background of plum, dark berries, baking spice and sweet oak.  ($26)