Festa dell’ uva! celebrates grape harvest, new friends

Woodbridge Winery plants to celebrate the grape harvest with fine wine and Italian food next week, and Lodi wine lovers are invited to take part.

Festa dell’ uva! — Italian for “grape festival” — will be held under tents outdoors. The long table covered in a traditional red-checkered tablecloth encourages guests to make new friends and enjoy a dinner like family.

“You can’t block yourself off from everyone else,” said Bill Ohlhauser, wine club manager at Woodbridge Winery.

Dinner will be the centerpiece, featuring chicken, pasta, bread and salad. An accordion player will provide live music, and games like cornhole will be available to pass the time with new friends, he said.

This year’s event follows a successful harvest celebration last year.

It also precedes the harvest by about a week — Woodbridge estimates that vineyards will begin picking their grapes in early August.

During the drought, grape harvest came early, and so the event was planned based on that, Ohlhauser said. However, with this year’s abundant rain, harvest looks set to begin at its normal time this year, not early.

Ohlhauser encourages anyone who wants to celebrate the harvest at Festa dell’ uva! to make a reservation soon.

“Seating is very limited for this event,” he said.