The Harmony Wynelands tasting room filled up Saturday afternoon during the Wine and Chocolate Festival. (Angelina Gervasi/News-Sentinel)

Thousands converge on Lodi area to take part in Wine and Chocolate Weekend

It was raining cats and dogs Saturday, but that didn't deter lovers of everything wine and chocolate. And milder weather greeted visitors on Sunday.

The 10th annual Wine and Chocolate Weekend drew an estimated 2,500 people to 23 area wineries and to the Wine and Visitors Center over the weekend.

"It was a tsunami yesterday, and a tsunami of people," Richard Gray, owner of Barsetti Vineyards said on Sunday.

"It's kind of a jump start to get you started for Valentine's Day," Galt resident John Gordon said outside the Wine and Visitors Center on Turner Road on Sunday.

Despite Saturday's downpour, the bigger crowds came Sunday, observers said.

Six limousines took young women participating in a bachelorette party to wineries throughout the area Saturday, said Carol Ann Hackley, a public relations professor at University of the Pacific.

Vintners, such as Ron Mencarini, co-owner of Abundance Vineyards on Ray Road, were also pleased to see a younger crowd coming to enjoy some of the Lodi-Woodbridge wines that were available.

The wine industry used to promote its product to the 10 percent who typically purchased 90 percent of the wines nationwide, said Visitors Center manager Michael Perry. Now, the wine industry — from the Lodi area and elsewhere — is attracting all age ranges, Perry said.

Visitors enjoyed red wine and chocolate both days at various wineries. Highlights included angel food cake and crackers in chocolate fondue mix at the River Bluff Cellars table at the Wine and Visitors Center, and several pieces of chocolate with wine inside at the Barsetti Vineyards table.

Barsetti had chardonnay dipped into small pieces of dark chocolate, white chocolate with merlot and white chocolate with strawberries and zinfandel mixed together.

"It's a very lovely event," Hackley said Sunday afternoon at the Wine and Visitors Center. "The pride of Lodi showed."

Hackley husband, Cole, who toured wineries both days, said it appeared that there were more actual wine connoisseurs on Sunday.

"(Saturday), they were drinking," Cole Hackley said. "Today they were sipping."

Rachel Gordon of Vacaville particularly enjoyed the apricot on the stick with banana and chocolate at the Michael David Winery on Highway 12.

"Each place had something different," she said.

Her daughter-in-law, Yvonne Gordon of Galt, said she enjoyed talking to the people who run the tasting rooms. And Rachel Gordon noted that the wineries had something extra, such as hand lotion, candles and jewelry.

As Yvonne Gordon put it, "It was a very good ending to the day."

Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.

First published: Monday, February 12, 2007