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