Maggio Family Vineyards Chardonnay 2015
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This wine pairs well with a variety of food including, salad greens with toasted pine nuts, dates with honey, lightly spiced and peppered roasted chicken, and seafood such as tilapia, shellfish and cod.
The patriarch of the Maggio family, Angelo Maggio, arrived in Lodi in 1906. The first cuttings were planted in 1928 on the property of their first ranch home in Lodi, which laid the foundation for the long, winding journey that culminates in the production powerhouse that is Oak Ridge Winery.
Originally built in 1934, the winery itself was once a wine-making cooperative. As multigenerational farmers, Angelo, his son Roy, and eventually his grandson Rudy, were active participants, growing grapes to supply to winemakers around the country. When the facility was placed on the market in 2002, it was Roy’s son, Rudy, who saw this as an opportunity to expand on their long history of grape growing by producing quality wines of their very own. His intentions went far beyond a desire to dust off a piece of history; the Maggio family transformed it into a state-of-the-art winery – capable of meeting the quality, style, and volume demands of a growing and evolving marketplace.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Positioned between the San Francisco Bay and the Sierra Nevada mountain range, the Lodi appellation, while relatively far inland, is able to maintain a classic Mediterranean climate featuring warm, sunny days and cool evenings. This is because the appellation is uniquely situated at the end of the Sacramento River Delta, which brings chilly, afternoon “delta breezes” to the area during the growing season.
Lodi is a premier source of 100+ year old ancient Zinfandel vineyards—some dating back as far as 1888! With low yields of small berries, these heritage vines produce complex and bold wines, concentrated in rich and voluptuous, dark fruit.
But Lodi doesn’t just produce Zinfandel; in fact, the appellation produces high quality wines from over 100 different grape varieties. Among them are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc as well as some of California's more rare and unique grapes. Lodi is recognized as an ideal spot for growing Spanish varieties like Albarino and Tempranillo, Portugese varieties—namely Touriga Nacional—as well as many German, Italian and French varieties.
Soil types vary widely among Lodi’s seven sub-appellations (Cosumnes River, Alta Mesa, Deer Creek Hills, Borden Ranch, Jahant, Clements Hills and Mokelumne River). The eastern hills are clay-based and rocky and in the west, along the Mokelumne and Cosumnes Rivers, sandy and mineral-heavy soils support the majority of Lodi’s century-old own-rooted Zinfandel vineyards. Unique to Lodi are pink Rocklin-Jahant loam soils, mainly found in the Jahant sub-appellation.