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127-year old Zinfandel Vines at Lodi's Jessie's Grove Winery

Packing Tokay grapes back in the day at Jessie's Grove Winery Lodi, CA
Greg Burns family

Still harvesting Zinfandel grapes from vines planted in 1889, Lodi’s Jessie’s Grove Winery cherishes the oldest Zinfandel vines in the entire LodiAppellation and amongst the oldest in California. Join Sarah Williams and winemaker/owner Greg Burns at the Lodi tasting room.

Jessie’s Grove Winery and the surrounding vineyards, known as Spenker Ranch, has been owned by the same family since 1868—just three years after the conclusion of the Civil War.

Net yields per acre of ancient Zinfandel vines are substantially less than from young vines, but once you have a taste of the exotic elixir you’ll understand just why old-vine Zinfandel is so coveted and cherished. 

Greg Burn's ancestors and founders of the family farm in Lodi CA
Credit Greg Burns family
Greg Burn's ancestors and founders of the family farm in Lodi CA on their wedding day July 1870

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Credit SATW Foundation
Credit Jessie's Grove Winery
Jessie's Grove Winery Spenker Ranch farmhouse long ago

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
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