Vino Piazza

But don’t get distracted, this is a winery, after all, and they make some very nice, award winning wines.  Their Old Vine Zin was named one of the twelve best Zins of Lodi by the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, their Cabernet/Shiraz blend won double gold at this year’s State Fair Commercial Wine Competition and the winery won several awards at the 2007 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.  Don is the winemaker at the 3,000 case winery as well as for the 25,000 case custom bottling facility.  In addition to their wonderful wines and great displays, the winery offers some very fun fossil and stone items for sale in their tasting room as well as some very tasty hand-made chocolates, among other things.

There are eight other wineries that have tasting rooms at the plaza and below is a list with a little information on each:

Boitano Family Wines:  This winery specializes in wines made from grapes sourced out of Amador and Calaveras Counties, many sourced from their own family vineyard at Mokelumne HIll. These are primarily Italian style wines, such as Trebbiano, Sangiovese and Barbera, as well as Zinfandel and Viognier.  Their Zinfandel, Sangiovese and Barbera seem to be particularly popular, winning awards at many of the local and statewide wine competitions.

Brice Station Vintners:  There are actually two winery sites for Brice Station Vintners, the one found at Vina Piazza and a second one located just east of Murphys in Calaveras County.  This is a colorful winery built on the old stage stop created by a deed signed by President McKinley.  The estate is also home to the Quyle Pottery Kiln and is home to some of the highest vineyards in the Sierra Foothills at about 3300 feet in elevation.  The vineyard and winery specializes in Bordeaux style wines like Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and a Bordeaux Blend, High Country Red.  The winery offers several white wine varieties as well, such as Chardonnay, Viognier and Pinot Grigio, a port style wine and a Merlot Rose.  See our sister-site, SierraWines.com for a full write-up on the Calaveras County winery.

Cantiga Wineworks:   This winery has its winery production facility and tasting room located in Lockeford and has a second tasting room in the Fairplay AVA of El Dorado County.  The winery offers both a barrel-aged and oakless Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, a Cab-Shiraz Blend, Zinfandel and Shiraz.  For more information on the winery and its El Dorado County tasting room, see our sister site SierraWines.com

La Vida Dulce Winery:  This is a winery that has family at the heart of the entire operation.  The winery is owned and operated by husband and wife team of Donna and Aurelio, winemaking duties are performed by son Joe, and the wine label art was designed by Donna and Aurelio’s daughter.  The winery is only a year and a half old and their first crush of grapes they purchased was used to make a medium bodied, wonderfully flavorful Tempranillo.  They also recently produced a Zinfandel that is almost a late harvest with some residual sugar but enough acidity to keep it from being flabby and that great burst of flavor Lodi Zins are known for.  The winery currently produces 450 cases of White Zinfandel, Merlot, Tempranillo, Syrah and Zinfandel with a Chardonnay coming soon.  The tasting room is warm and inviting with great local art on the walls and lots of genuine hospitality that is often missing from larger wineries.