TRAVEL The lounge of the Wine & Roses hotel in Lodi has live jazz nightly. The exhibits at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum depict the story of the county through a wide variety of displays and dioramas. MARCH/APRIL 2017 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 155 Culinary Institute of America graduate. Chef John prepared a meal that was served in the resort’s cellar room, paired with wines from the Fields Family Winery. We began our first full day in Lodi with a visit to the Michael David Winery, as we already were fans of its “Seven Deadly Zins” Zinfandel, which is served at many Tampa Bay area restaurants. The winery is owned by brothers Michael and David Phillips, whose family has farmed in Lodi since the 1850s. The brothers are the family’s fifth generation to farm in Lodi. Michael’s son and daughter are actively working as the sixth generation in the family’s 750 acres of vineyards. We enjoyed a wide variety of their wines in their tasting room, including a Petite Sirah blended with a Petit Verdot, that they call Petite Petit, and their label-famous Freakshow wines. We particularly enjoyed their Symphony wine from the grape variety of the same name that was created at the University of California- Davis in the 1940s. While at the Michael David Winery, we enjoyed a delightful lunch at The Farm Café. Most items were made from fresh ingredients grown in their garden, and of course, accompanied by more wines. Our next stop was the San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum in Micke Grove Regional Park. This 12-building complex has eight exhibition buildings and four historic structures spread out over 18 acres. Here, we learned about the area’s early native American tribes and their lives, as well as about the settlement, growth and development of agriculture in the area. We also visited the adjacent three-acre Japanese Garden that has been there since 1965. The garden is centered around a large teahouse pavilion and a koi pond filled with giant fish. In keeping with these educational stops, we next headed downtown for A&W Root Beer, since it originated in Lodi in 1919. The blend of barks, berries, herbs and spices that was in the formula for the first mug sold has not changed since and is a closely guarded secret. That evening we enjoyed an outstanding gourmet dinner at Rosewood Bar and Grill in downtown Lodi. We greeted each course with a local wine that further endeared us to Lodi’s wide breadth of wineries. We began our next day in downtown Lodi at Cheese Central, where owner Cindy Della Monica taught us “Cheese 101,” as she calls it. We learned about the various milks that are used, their characteristics, and the process used to make cheese from warming and culturing the curd to waxing and aging. We tried to apply this knowledge, as we tasted a wide variety of the special cheeses that she selected for us. It was fascinating, and we fell in love with Humboldt Fog goat cheese from California and the Domain du Vallage double cream cow’s milk cheese from Burgundy, France. For lunch, we visited Cecchetti Olive Oil Farm and the home of former professional baseball player George Cecchetti and his wife Karen Chandler, which is next to their orchard of 100-year-old Mission olive trees from which they make extra virgin oil. We sampled a selection of their unflavored oils and oils infused with garlic, orange and lemon, as well as their Balsamic vinegar. Lodging Wine & Roses Hotel Restaurant and Spa, 2505 W. Turner Road, (209) 334-6988. Restaurants and Foods Rosewood Bar & Grill, 28 S. School St., (209) 369-0470. A&W Root Beer, 216 E. Lodi Ave., (209) 368-8548. Towne House Restaurant at Wine & Roses, 2505 W. Turner Road, (209) 334-6988. Cheese Central, 11 N. School St., (209) 368-3033. Cecchetti Olive Oil, 511 W. Sargent Road, (209) 369-6868. Wineries Acquiesce Winery, 22353 N. Tretheway Road, Acampo, (209) 333-6102. Fields Family Wines, 3803 E. Woodbridge Road, Acampo, (209) 327-6306. Jeremy Wine Co., 6 W. Pine St., (209) 367-3773. Michael David Winery, 4580 W. Highway 12, (209) 368-7384. Oak Farm Vineyards, 23627 N. DeVries Road, (209) 365-6565. St. Jorge Winery, 22769 N. Bender Road, Acampo, (209) 365-0202.
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