Exploring the Wineries of Amador County

Labor Day was approaching and I had the NEED to get out of town.  But where to?  I needed to go somewhere new, somewhere off of my usual beaten tracks and I came upon the idea of Amador County, known for its little, historic Gold rush towns and more importantly its old vine, big red wines.  Fortunately my friend Sandra was also in need of an escape as well as being a lover of big red wines. I had vague memories of Jackson from a trip I made when I was a teenager, so I made reservations at the Jackson Lodge.When we set out from the Bay Area we headed first for the Shenandoah Valley outside Plymouth and about 13 miles north of Jackson to start our exploration.  

Story Winery was the farthest out off of Shenandoah Road.  They were serving their whites and a rose' out on the deck beneath huge oaks and we were then directed into the tasting room for their reds, mostly zins and a nice sparkling white. Because of the elevation and the heat we found that the whites grown in the area are Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Viognier and Rousanne, no Chardonnays. Story had some nice Zins, fun servers and we moved on.  Next stop was Amador Foothill which had been recommended by a cousin of mine that lives about an hour north in El Dorado Hills. Set way up on a hillside, the tasting room is fairly basic but the owners, Ben and Katie were warm and very welcoming.  Turns out Ben was a scientist in Palo Altowho was also making garage wine when he decided to move to Amador over 30 years ago to pursue his passion. He met Katie who had completed UC Davis’ enology training and the rest is history.  Their Sauvignon Blanc was a wonderful blend of dry with just enough fruit, but their Sangioveses were the stars.  Ben even went so far as to make our dinner reservation at the one shining star of a restaurant; Taste in Plymouth.  Lovely people! From there we ventured barely up the road and across the street to Dobra Zemjla.  The tasting room is located in a cave that they have built into the side of the hill and was bustling, but everyone behind that counter was very friendly and there was a lovely assortment of cheese cubes to nibble along the way. What impressed me about Dobra was the variety of reds.  I fell for their Granache, velvety, jammy but not too sweet. My other favorite was their Tempranillo.  They also had Zinandels, Barberas (the specialty of the area) and a couple of whites.  Lots to choose from.  As I suspected from the name, the wine maker’s origins are Croatian.  Definitely worth a return visit.  Our last stop was Deaver, just a ways back down the road. They were clearly having some sort of event, as there were more people there than we had seen all day.  There was live music and they were pouring their whites and some of their reds out under tents (complete with fans and water mist), Sauvignon Blanc , Rose’, Zinfandels, Carignane, Barbera.  Then we were directed inside which was filled with all kinds of winery paraphernalia from amusing cocktail napkins to an assortment of mustards that we had tasted outside. They were serving their Orange Muscat Port (white) with a smear of their Mandarin Pumpkin Marmelade combined with cream cheese on a piece of a ginger snap, heavenly!  This was followed by their Zinfandel Port with a tiny spoonful of Fran’s chocolate sauce (Seattle).  We ended up buying food but no wine.

We headed back down Hwy 49 to Jackson, passing through Plymouth and Dry Town.  The Jackson Lodge is basically a 1960’s motel that’s been somewhat updated, and also offers some duplex cabins. We had a large room with a king and double bed. There was a continental breakfast in the morning and especially  important in this climate; a pool.  After settling in and recuperating from our afternoon of consuming wine we headed back up to Plymouth.  I had seen “Taste” on the web, with rave reviews from the Sacramento Bee besides Ben’s recommendation and it really lived up to the hype.  We had four different people ask if we were being helped while we were waiting for our table, refreshingly attentive service.  Their mushroom cigars appetizer was such a hit when they opened that they have never taken it off of the menu; Porcini, Crimini, Shiitake mushrooms with fresh herbs and goat cheese wrapped in phyllo dough and baked golden, YUM!  Sandra had the grilled, local albacore with a zucchini pancake with black garlic vinaigrette, squash blossom, rock shrimp sausage and I had something a bit off of the norm; smoke salt brined crispy tofu with roasted pepper aioli, arugula pesto, Umbrian farro, spring peas. OH my.

There were also beef, pork and guinea hen choices with equally mouth watering accompaniments.  The wine list was superb and the prices very reasonable.  We passed on the desserts because we were so full and left very happy. http://www.restauranttaste.com/

Sunday morning we decided to wander down to the main part of Jackson. The town was settled in 1848 during the California Gold Rush and some of the original buildings are still standing.  We found lots of antique stores on main street, as well as some vacancies, but what caught our eye was the Biggest Little Kitchen Store. A bonanza of cooking gadgets. Turns out that it was started in 1974.  Fortunately neither of us had a credit card in our possession!  After that we took the car to Andrae’s bakery, a lovely gem of a bakery. We had sampled their breads the night before at the Taste.  We stuffed ourselves on sticky buns, scones and lattes. Onto more wineries.

My cousin had recommended CG Arie on Shenandoah School Road so that was our first stop.  The staff was very well informed and professional and the tasting room nicely done. Again we started with a Sauvignon Blanc and a Rose'. Their Syrah, Zins and Petite Sirah were all note-worthy.  From there we wandered farther up the road to a Cooper Vineyards which had been recommended a couple of times the day before.  When we sidled up to the counter we immediately recognized two of the people pouring as they had been pouring at Dobra the day before. Jim and Teri were both biologists that married when they met in San Diego and ended up at Nasa at Moffett Field.  They finished their careers and then moved up to Fiddletown not far from Plymouth, and being garage vintners ended up pouring for Cooper.  They were also a wonderful source of information.  Never-the-less I have to say that Cooper ended up being my favorite winery of the bunch. Like the others they had a wide variety of reds.  They are known for their Barbera but I loved their Petite Sirah.  Teri had recommended that we try Sobon, so that’s was our next stop. The winery in one form or another has been operating for over 150 years. The tasting room has high shelves of empty wine bottles draped with all of the medals that they have won. I fell for their Viognier, but the rest didn’t do much for me.  They charged $5 to taste their four Reserve Wines, all reds (the first tasting fee that we came upon).  The Zin was the most impressive and the last one they served was a “Tannant” that supposedly has the highest concentration of anti-oxidants but it was too dry for me.  While there we bumped into a couple that we had seen the day before tasting at Dobra. They were from Wisconsin, he had been out for a job interview and they decided to spend the long weekend wine tasting.  We arranged to meet at Jeff Runquist Wines next.  Runquist was awareded “Best Vineyard of California” and we had heard that their Barbera got “Best of California” in 2009. The interesting thing about Runquist is that there is this trend amongst the Amador vintners to use only Amador grapes.  However Jeff brings them in from all over California, but evidently he’s so well respected and liked that the other vintners don’t make too much of a fuss.  I found the tasting room to be more along the lines of Sonoma/Napa, a little slicker than their neighbors. The Barbera didn’t knock my socks off, but they were offering a Petite Verdot that is hard to find (they weren’t pouring) so I bought a bottle of that.  We arranged to meet our Wisconsin friends at Helwig after we each made stops at different wineries.  We went to Vino Nocetto, a more laid-back and yet raucous environment.  Great Sangioveses.  Turns out that the old Doggie Diners in San Francisco were owned by the founder of the vineyard, which explained the Doggie Diner doggie statue in the parking lot!  From there it was Hedwig for our final stop, a new and sleek,modern building set on the edge of a hill-top, friendly staff, great ambiance but nothing that we found note-worthy. We bid our new Wisconsin friends goodbye and headed back to Jackson and the pool.  Later we stumbled into nearby Sutter Creek for a pizza and wished that we had spent some time in this lovely little town.  Next time.

Yes, there will be a next time. We found out from Teri and Jim that the owners of Taste also have a B&B in nearby Volcano, complete with a pub.  There were many things to recommend the Amador wineries; very pleaseant, un-pretentious people, great wine at very reasonable prices (nothing was over $35 and most were in the $20 range with the whites ranging from $10 to $15, no tasting fees and the other visitors were also more laid-back.  We’ve tasted wine in Napa, Sonoma, Carmel Valley, Paso Robes and Santa Barbara, but Amador definitely had the feel of something more off the beaten track and as it turns out Amador is just one area in the Sierra foothills growing grapes, there are many more wineries to explore.  Stay tuned!