Last Thursday mid-day I was done with a meeting near Sacramento so I headed up Highway 50 to Placerville for one of my favorite wine tasting road trips.  My purpose was shooting photography for our upcoming video series on each wine region but I hit a few tasting rooms when time allows.

We’ll feature this road trip in a video and map someday but for now I recommend taking Ceder Ravine Road south from Placerville and tasting at the wineries in those hills.  Most of the roads are winding mountain roads covered by oaks and pines.  The smell of pine is everywhere.  All of the wineries are small and as I recall family owned.  Vintners are often pouring for you.  Some wineries aren’t open early in the week.

Travel through the Fairplay area and either return to Placerville for lodging or drive south to Plymouth, Amador City (check the little bakery!), or Sutter Creek for more Gold Rush Town ambiance.  Fairplay has only one restaurant and it is open on weekends and late week evenings.  Food sources are sparse in the back hills of El Dorado County so bring something with you.

The next day drive the loops in Amador’s Shenandoah Valley where you’ll find the splendor of Villa Toscana and Bella Piazzio along with quaint little tasting rooms such as Story and Wildrotter.  You’ll find food at Villa Toscana and in Plymouth.  Dinner at Taste Restaurant in Plymouth is a treat in fine gourmet dinning.

We’ll soon have the winery profiles online for El Dorado and Amador regions for you to select and sort which wineries interest you.  We like every tasting room we’ve mapped in the Sierra Foothills wine regions.

For maps of the regions please visit our California Wine Regions maps!  All locations were GPS mapped by me.  They aren’t geo-coded addresses like all the other online wine maps.  Those are very inaccurate in rural areas.

- jim

I just returned from a three day video shoot of three Sierra Foothills regions; El Dorado, Amador, and Murphys / Calaveras.  I travel and visit hundreds of tasting rooms a year and only buy wines that I find unusually interesting to taste.  As always I’m not going to tell you what you will taste in whatever context you drink wine but if you are looking for a taste adventure try these outstanding wines.

Tanner – Murphys / Calaveras region.  The Tanners have been growers for decades but are recent to winemaking.  They opened a tasting room in Murphys last summer.  I’m very impressed with all their wines but these stand out:

• Vermentino – A rare white grape and VERY dry.  Almost no flavor but interesting taste anyway.  Nice surprise of a wine.
• 2006 Syrah
• 2006 Petit Verdot

Twisted Oak – Murphys / Calaveras region.  This hilltop winery has great views and is very friendly.  The long driveway is, well, entertaining, and will be featured in our upcoming video on the region.

• 2005 Murgatroyd
• 2006 The Spaniard
• 2005 Tanner Vineyard Syrah
• 2006 Pig Stai Calaveras County port

Amador Cellars – Amador region.  This little winery in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley just east of Highway 49 is home to an interesting range of wines.  The winemaker experimented with some older style techniques and the result are the following three robust wines.  Amador makes softer wines that are popular now but for those of us who want plenty of flavor and nose then try these!

• 2004 Syrah
• 2004 Zinfandel
• 2006 Zinfandel
• 2005 Rapscallion – Zin – Syrah blend with oak and taste adventure in a cute little 1 liter jug!

Chatom Vineyards – Murphys / Calaveras region.  Chatom is woman owned and operated with an intimate tasting room and events in their barrel room.  Nice landscaping, very friendly staff, owner pours, and arbor covered picnic area make Chatom one of our favorite destinations.

• 2006 Chardonnay
• 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2004 Zinfandel

Stevenot – Murphys / Calaveras region.  I tasted a few wines at the ranch, their remote and wonderfully romantic tasting room.  This tasting room is in an old house in a deep valley with the winery’s old barns nearby.  They have a picnic area under a grape arbor. $72 for a case of their Red Rover stainless steel aged Chardonnay so I bought a case.  Their other wines are good but I can’t buy everything.  We are always running out of Chard so I stocked up.

Ironstone – Murphys / Calaveras region.  Besides a stunningly beautiful site with great landscaping and one of our Gold Star Picnic Areas, Ironstone has some fine wines at very reasonable prices.  Their Cabs tend to be rather tasteless for me but Merlot, Syrah, and Cab Franc are wonderful.  They had an incredible case sale on Saturday of their export brands so I picked up a couple of cases of Chard for $30 a case.  (We’ve paid as low as $18 a case for decent wine at times.) This Chard is oaky and buttery which goes well with some of our evening appetizer dinners.  Ironstone often has great deals at events.  I would have bought far more if we had any space left at home for storage.

- jim