After a rainy, windy weekend, the sun came out on Monday, making it a perfect day to do some wine tasting.  We started at d’Art Wines.  Drove up and saw this great truck in front of their tasting room. Reminds me of Bobby’s “Truck Challenge”.

Wendy was our Tasting Room Associate.  She was amazing.   She has been at d’Art for more than 10 years and provided some great information about the wines and the winery.  The last name of the owners is Dart, so they did a play on their name and named the winery d’Art.  To make it even more appropriate, it turns out that Dave Dart is a photographer and showcases a number of his pictures in the tasting room. 

D’Art does not distribute any of their wines.  They grow 5 acres of grapes, which are hand-picked for their Cabernet.  They get their grapes from other vineyards for the rest of their wines. 

Wendy poured us a tasting from a bottle with a really cute aerator.  It is called a Chirpy-Top and, not only does it aerate your wine, it actually chirps while the wine pours.  We had to buy one, because you can’t have too many wine toys 😊. 

They have a very nice tasting room.  The bar goes all the way around, providing lots of room for people to taste.  Dave’s pictures add a lot of color and character to the room.   

The tasting menu consisted of 1 white and 6 reds.  The tasting is $10 per person, waived with the purchase of a bottle.  We bought a bottle of the zinfandel.

The last tasting was the ‘Dog Day Red’.  It is a slightly sweet port, with the best story.  Apparently one day, about 11 years ago, there was a “miscommunication”.  The winemaker, who speaks only English, asked Francisco, who speaks only Spanish, to pour some port into a barrel.  He accidently poured the port into a barrel of Tempranillo that the winemaker was not happy with.  Oops!  But before just throwing the whole thing out, the winemaker tasted it and liked it.  They decided to bottle it and see what people thought of it.  Turned out, it was a hit.  They have been making it every year for the past 11 years. 

Details:

• South of Lodi, just off Harney Lane
• 13299 N. Curry Ave
• www.dartwines.com
• Open daily 11am – 5pm

Speaking of the “Truck Challenge”, Bobby should be posting something soon…