Winery & Vintage Info
Production Notes
Woodbridge Chardonnay is crafted using small winery traditions — leaving the wine on the lees for greater complexity and oak ageing select lots for a smooth, approachable finish. All lots are tasted separately to determine their specific flavour profiles before blending, ensuring the final wine is fruit-focused and well-balanced. Woodbridge Winery was the first major winery to use the Direct-To-Press method for making white wine on a large scale — a pioneering approach that reflects the innovation Robert Mondavi brought to every aspect of his winemaking.
Producer History
The Mondavi story begins in the early 1900s, when Cesare and Rosa Mondavi — newlyweds from Sassoferrato in northern Italy — settled in Minnesota. When Prohibition arrived in 1919, a loophole in the law allowed families to make 200 gallons of wine each year for personal consumption. Cesare became involved in shipping wine grapes from California for home winemaking, noticed that the finest grapes were coming from a place called Lodi, and moved his family — including a young Robert Mondavi — to California to start his own grape shipping business. Robert’s first job was nailing crates together to hold the grapes. After studying business and chemistry at Stanford and viticulture and enology at UC Berkeley, Robert Mondavi founded the iconic Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966 near Oakville — the first major winery built in the Napa Valley since Prohibition. In 1979, he returned to Lodi to pursue his second vision: delicious wines at a price accessible to all. He acquired a local cooperative of grape growers and named the winery after a nearby town — and the Woodbridge Winery was born.
Vineyard Notes
Lodi, California has been a major grape-growing region since the 1850s, when prospectors drawn by the California gold rush began to settle the area. Today, Lodi comprises 18% of California’s total wine grape production — more than Napa and Sonoma counties combined. Located in California’s central valley approximately 100 miles east of San Francisco, at the edge of the Sacramento River Delta, Lodi is greatly influenced by its proximity to San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. As the central valley heats up, cool maritime breezes are drawn across the region, creating a Mediterranean-like climate of warm days and cool nights ideal for growing premium grapes.
