If you like making authentic Zinfandels from family heritage vineyards part of your daily lifestyle, then look no further than the Maggio family’s Oak Ridge Winery in Lodi, where a line of wine brands from three Maggio family sisters – Raquel Casity, Lisa Kammerer, and Shelly Maggio Woltkamp provide wine-drinking pleasure for every taste and budget – beginners to pros. The Oak Ridge Winery’s brands inlclude OZV, Old Soul, Maggio,1906 Vintners, Three Girls, Blazon, and Moss Roxx – with Zinfandel playing a prominent role in most.
Zinfandel, like no other wine, is so much about family tradition: California’s agricultural history, immigrant dreams, hard work, winemaking savvy, sacrifice, farming dedication, and succeeding generations is an oft-repeated, almost common theme with Zinfandel. The Maggio family farming story goes back five generations with Angelo Maggio emigrating from Genoa with his wife Luisa to Lodi in 1906 where they eventually started their own vineyard in 1928. In 1936, Angelo, his son Roy, and grandson Rudy became involved in what is now the oldest winery in Lodi. When the entire winery came on the market in 2002, Rudy jumped at the chance to make it a state of the art, dedicated winemaking facility for the family’s 2500 acres of vineyards. Seated outdoor tastings of Oak Ridge wines are available Tuesday through Sundays.
