We're heading down Interstate 5 toward Lodi and can't help but get a little goofy and switch up a Rick Springfield song: "You know, I wish that I had Jessie's Grove!"
Jessie's Grove is the destination this day for a couple of reasons:
• This winery boasts some of the oldest vineyards in Lodi, with some vines planted nearly 120 years ago.
• And in the spirit of this week's cover story about olive oil, we're looking to visit a winery with an olive connection.
So we pull into Jessie's Grove and cruise down a long driveway framed by olive trees. The property is marked by more than 70 olive trees, and some of that fruit is used by Lodi's Cecchetti Olive Oil Co.
Jessie's Grove is a place to sip and perhaps take some bread for a dip – in olive oil, that is.
Olives are an increasingly popular crop in Lodi, with the Central Valley boasting the heat and sunny weather that's the right terroir for growing olives. But this is still wine country, with zinfandel as the commander in chief for wine tourists.
We walk into the rustic tasting room, and brr! it's kind of cold in here. But our attention turns to the historic photos on the walls, including a portrait circa late 1890s of Jessie Spenker Beckman – the "Jessie" of Jessie's Grove herself. Plenty of gifts also line the tasting room, including bottles of extra virgin olive oil from Cecchetti Olive Oil Co. ($25, 11.9 ounces).
But now it's time to taste some of Jessie's fermented juice. We grab a couple of spots at the bar, noticing that water is poured in a bottle that's decorated with olives, and start sipping.
The 2005 Ancient Vine Carignane ($24.50) is especially juicy with blueberry flavors and dusty tannins to boot. And then we're off for a series of zinfandels, five in all. The 2005 Royal-Tee ($42) sources its grapes from vines nearly 120 years old. The resulting taste is round on the edges, with plum and cherry fruit that goes down smoothly.
But our favorite of this zinfandel flight is the 2006 Fancy Quest ($24.50). This juice is normally reserved for blending in other Jessie's Grove zinfandels. Winemaker Greg Burns, a fifth-generation member of the family behind Jessie's Grove, liked the 2006 batch so much that Fancy Quest merited its own bottling. It's a wine with bright, cherry flavors, a little spice and vanilla on the back end.
But it all seems to come back to olives. The 2004 cabernet ($24.50) shows hints of black olive, which may be due to the 17 percent mourverdre that's included in this blend.
For all of the juicy reds at Jessie's Grove, one of the more popular bottles here is the 2006 Chardonnay ($18), a butter bomb of a wine that's undergone plenty of malolactic fermentation. You can skip the popcorn on your next Blockbuster movie night and instead drink this chardonnay with some Milk Duds.
There's no port available for tasting this day, so a sample of the Cecchetti olive oil is offered. And it's good that we tasted this fruity olive oil last, otherwise our tongues would've been too coated and greasy to taste the wines fully.
The next time we're looking for both olives and wine under the same rustic roof, we know where to make a pit stop.
Call Bee food and wine writer Chris Macias, (916) 321-1253.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.