Peltier Winery embraces new wine technology

Third generation Lodi grower Rodney Schatz and his wife, Gayla, like to say they have “been crushing it” since 2001 at Peltier Winery & Vineyards. That’s when they built a custom crush facility where their grapes could be processed and sold as bulk wine. By 2005, they were bottling fine wines under their own label.

The tasting room is sleek and modern while the “patio” is reminiscent of a Japanese sand garden with its minimalist powder gravel bed, olive trees and low-slung lounge furniture. The tasting experience is equally contemporary, based around a state-of-the-art system usually only found in high-end restaurants or big city tasting salons.

With their WineStation system, automated, temperaturecontrolled, multi-bottle machines hold Peltier’s 24 wines.

You use a hotel-like key card to pour yourself a taste, half glass or full glass directly from the WineStations (you can also have your host guide your selections and bring the wine to you). Choose a dollar amount you’d like to stay within or run a bar tab that you may close out at the end of your tasting.

Fair warning – the first couple times you use such a system, it’s best to set a dollar amount. It’s too easy to keep adding more and more tastes, much like a self-serve yogurt or salad bar with endless irresistible toppings.