Why it matters
The producer
Lodi sits in California's Central Valley, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers converge and push cool air inland each afternoon. 3 Finger Jack Cellars is a brand from Delicato Family Wines that draws on this geography: hot days tempered by delta breezes, sandy soils that push vine roots deep in search of moisture. This range is built on ripe Lodi fruit, with old vine Zinfandel at its centre.
The brand name belongs to a Gold Country outlaw. Three Finger Jack moved through the Sierra Nevada foothills in the closing years of the American Old West. No one recorded where he came from, why he had three fingers, or where he went. The winery chose the name because the mystery holds: a label built on a gap in the historical record, from a region that once drew thousands chasing gold through the same hills.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Lodi is an appellation in the northern San Joaquin Valley, roughly fifty miles south of Sacramento. The defining climate feature is the Delta Breeze: afternoon air funnelled west through the Sacramento River Delta drops temperatures sharply after the midday heat, slowing ripening and preserving acidity in fruit that would otherwise go flat. Sandy loam soils drain fast and hold little water, which stresses vines and concentrates flavour without excessive irrigation. Old vine Zinfandel has grown here for over a century, and Lodi now holds some of the largest surviving blocks of the variety in California. The appellation produces ripe, warmly styled wines across all three colours, with Zinfandel carrying the most distinct regional character.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The wines source from Lodi, where sandy soils and the Delta Breeze set the basic fruit character. The old vine designation on the Zinfandel reflects real vine age in the appellation: Lodi's old vine blocks survived phylloxera because of the sandy soil and were never pulled and replanted in the wave of modernisation that cleared most old plantings elsewhere in California. Older vines produce lower yields naturally, which pushes concentration into fewer, smaller clusters. The East Side Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon uses a blend of 77 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 14 percent Malbec, 8 percent Petite Sirah, and 1 percent other varieties, giving the wine a fuller mid-palate and rounding the tannin frame that straight Cabernet at high alcohol can sometimes harden.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range runs to four bottles. Old Vine Zinfandel is the anchor, with rich black cherry and plum fruit, chocolate, coffee, and toasty oak. The palate is sweet-fruited and full, without the jamminess that marks overripe Zinfandel from hotter California sites. Decanter rated the 2019 vintage 91 points and set a drinking window through 2026, which positions it as something to open now rather than keep.
Chardonnay arrives full-bodied, with ripe fig, mango, lightly roasted marshmallow, and sliced pear on the palate. The finish is creamy and butterscotch-leaning, with natural acidity keeping it from feeling heavy. The style is oak-influenced and fruit-forward, built for immediate drinking.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Old Vine Zinfandel is the bottle to start with. It is the wine that most directly reflects what Lodi's sandy soils and old vine blocks produce: concentrated dark fruit, warmth, and genuine vine-age depth without the over-extracted weight that California Zinfandel can tip into at lesser addresses. The chocolate and coffee notes from the oak sit behind the fruit rather than on top of it. Decanter scored the 2019 vintage 91 points. Drink it over the next year or two, with red meat or on its own, and it will give a clear account of what this appellation does with the variety.