Just when you thought Lodi Wine Country couldn’t get any sweeter, spicier, or more complex, along comes Abundance Vineyards with the grand opening of their new tasting room, and just in time for the Holidays!

For the past few months, wine enthusiasts have been trolling up and down Lodi’s bucolic Turner Road, watching construction of the highly anticipated tasting room as it sprouted from the vineyard floor. “People are going to drive by and say, ‘What did those crazy people build here?!’ They’re going to pull in just to see what it’s all about!” chuckles Dino Mencarini, co-owner of Abundance Vineyards and Mencarini Family Farms.

The daring wine duo of Dino and Ron Mencarini have jumped into the proverbial wine barrel and created a delightful taste of Italy for lovers of Lodi’s buon vita to enjoy. Dino and Ron are brothers and longtime Lodi business partners in farming, grape growing, and running Mencarini Family Winery. Five long years went into planning the elegant tasting room, and the finely tuned project has literally left no stone unturned. During the early planning stages, Dino met with several builders and designers before hiring David Duke, the General Contractor who put Mencarini’s vision and thoughts into production. According to Dino, “The tasting room is very Tuscan. Full of crushed granite, pretty simplistic.”

The 5,000 square foot facility boasts an expansive main tasting room, a barrel cellaring room that will house reserve wines, and a separate Reserve tasting room reminiscent of the arched wine caves of Europe.The grounds surrounding Abundance’s tasting room include an expansive patio, bocce ball court, and the “pond,” which more closely resembles a small lake, and offers visitors a relaxing and pleasant spot to escape for a while, sip wine, or enjoy a picnic.

The tasting room welcomes children, and yes, the family dog is welcome, too. There’s plenty of room to roam! Mencarini hopes that one day children will be able to come out with their parents and fish in the pond. “We want to do things to attract families,” he says. “One of our (wine) labels shows a family, and that kind of says what we are.”The winery plans on offering weekend music and a variety of special events. Also on the calendar will be fun and exciting wine education classes, such as participatory component tastings, and learning about the steps it takes to get from the vine to the glass. Just like farmer Dino says, “When you do it yourself, you learn more.”

“I don’t want just a tasting room,” he continues, adding that he wants the endeavor to be meaningful in other ways. “There has to be people, food, and friends bringing friends to drink wine.”And bring on the wine! Currently, Abundance offers sippers an array of seven delicious selections: Chardonnay, Bountiful Blanc (a blend of symphony and sauvignon blanc), Merlot, Old Vine Zinfandel, Abundantly Rich Red (a blend of zinfandel, carignane and petite sirah), Petite Sirah, and Syrah. “The wines speak for themselves,” says Dino, the outspoken half of the family partnership.

Mencarini is planning on releasing a Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon in April 2009. Under the new Reserve program, the wines will carry the Mencarini Family label. Future enhancements to the Reserve collection will feature zinfandel and petite sirah, and there’s talk of producing a carignane port. Notably, Bountiful Blanc won Double Gold and Best of Class at this year’s California State Fair. “Our ’06 Bountiful Blanc was the first release we did,” says Courtney Roesler, Mencarini Family Winery’s office manager, “It was kind of a wild idea from our winemaker, but we wanted another blend we could pair with the Rich Red.”

The master brewer responsible for the tasty elixir in Abundance’s bottles is Jim Yerkes, the “mad scientist” wine maker who has been with the winery for three years. A graduate of UC Davis, Jim hails from an impressive winemaking background which began 33 years ago in the south of France, then moving on to work with prominent producers like Sebastiani, Krug, Round Hill, and Benziger. “Our winemaker’s pretty keen,” remarks Mencarini. “Awards are great,” says Dino, as he points to a box in the corner of his office, overflowing with ribbons from past competitions. “But you still have to taste it and you still have to like it.” Touching on the subject of a certain popular wine critic, both brothers agree that his lofty opinions and scores might attract people to wine like a fishing lure, but in the end, you still can’t drink the ribbon!

Mencarini considers his wines unique to the area, up front, user friendly, and true to the varietal they’re made of. “No nonsense,” he calls them, and goes so far as to describe his product as “handcrafted,” a term he chooses not to use very often. Not surprisingly, those same words describe the Mencarini family’s history. “We were basically row crop farmers, planting a lot of tomatoes and crops. I was taking care of the crops and Ron was taking care of the vineyard. We slowly began buying land for vineyards. Both my mother’s and father’s side grew up in farming,
originally from the Old Country. We are Tuscan Italian, or Toscana,” Dino says.

According to Ron, “Working people are the ones who go to the store and pick out the (wine) bottle to drink tonight,” and Dino adds, “Our wines are working man’s wines. We got tired of watching people going into a restaurant and paying more for the wine than for their meal.” With the exception of their Reserve line, Abundance wines are priced between $11 and $16 a bottle. And in these challenging economic times, how refreshing is that?

Undoubtedly, Abundance Vineyard’s sparkling new tasting room will help give greater exposure to Lodi Wine Country. Yet Mencarini strives to maintain his status as a boutique winery. As he says, “I want to be as small as I can, but yet be as big as I can without sacrificing quality. I want to always be known for doing something good and being the best at what I do with that good.” With the approaching holidays and the New Year ahead, be sure to visit Abundance Vineyards and share a taste of what your family and friends could be sipping this season. As the Mencarini family says “Good friends, good food and good wine bring about an ABUNDANTLY good time!”

Abundance Vineyards is located at 1150 West Turner Road, Lodi, CA.
The Tasting Room is open 7 days a week.
For further information, phone 209-334-0274.
Website: www.abundancevineyards.com