Going to be in Lake Tahoe for a week, and would like to visit a few
wineries in Gold Country. Which wineries do you recommend for tastings
and purchase?

In article .com>,
says...
> Going to be in Lake Tahoe for a week, and would like to visit a few
> wineries in Gold Country. Which wineries do you recommend for tastings
> and purchase?

Cedarville is probably my favorite. They sell most of their wine through
wine clubs, so visiting might be the only way you'll try it. You have to
call and make a reservation. In El Dorado County.
http://www.cedarvillevineyard.com/
Three vineyards close to each other have gotten together to form the El
Do Rhone growing area. Sierra Vista, which makes my favorite viognier
(very American), Holly's Hill and the newbie, Narrow Gate. The founder
of Sierra Vista is a founding member of the Rhone Rangers. In El Dorado
County. I believe all three are open every day. Sierra Vista is for
sure. No appointment necessary.
Max of this newsgroup knows Bill Easton of Easton Wines, which also
operates Terre Rouge Winss. I Love Easton's Zinfandel. It's in Amador
County, which is getting a bit out of the way.
http://www.terrerougewines.com/
Back in El Dorado County, Boeger Winery in Apple Hill has good wines and
probably the best tasting room I've ever been in. It's an old wine
cellar. They were building a new, larger one. Hopefully the cellar is
still available.
http://www.boegerwinery.com/
The Apple Hill area, which is kind of a tourist trap of small farms
selling produce and fresh baked goods, has several wineries.
http://www.applehill.com/
Also in Apple Hill, I like Madrona Vineyards
http://www.madronavineyards.com/
There's a couple others but I'm forgetting them. Apple Hill is just
north of U.S. 50. El Do Rhone would be about 10 minutes south of U.S.
50. Cedarville is a few minutes south of El Do Rhone, if I remember
correctly.

If you're in north shore, see my post of about two weeks ago in this
newsgrouop about my tasting trip to Grass Valley and Nevada City.

Steve Timko wrote:

>>Going to be in Lake Tahoe for a week, and would like to visit a few
>>wineries in Gold Country. Which wineries do you recommend for tastings
>>and purchase?

Before getting too in depth, is this a plan for a day trip or an
overnight? If you want to do a day trip, keep in mind that from South
Lake Tahoe, El Dorado wineries are over 60 miles away and Amador County
wineries are about 100 mi away. Since much of the travel will be done
on CA Hwy 49 through the foothills, don't expect to go faster than 60
MPH either... If (God forbid) you're starting from Truckee, add another
50 miles onto your journey -- and that's one way. The bottom line: El
Dorado is doable as a day trip, but forget about Amador county unless
you're willing to put in 5+ hours of driving. If OTOH you plan on
spending a night or two there, both areas are easily accessible.


> Three vineyards close to each other have gotten together to form the El
> Do Rhone growing area. Sierra Vista, which makes my favorite viognier
> (very American), Holly's Hill and the newbie, Narrow Gate. The founder
> of Sierra Vista is a founding member of the Rhone Rangers. In El Dorado
> County. I believe all three are open every day. Sierra Vista is for
> sure. No appointment necessary.

Sierra Vista is the only El Dorado winery I've visited. It's well worth
a visit.

> http://www.terrerougewines.com/

Easton/Terre Rouge is a great place to visit. Other good stops in
Amador are Karly, Amador Foothill, Vino Noceto and Renwood/Santino.

My recommended travel route is to start on 49 at Placerville (take US 50
from South Lake Tahoe) or Auburn (take I-80 from Truckee). FWIW,
there's great touristic opportunities in Gold Country aside from wine
tasting, too.

Mark Lipton

In article >,
says...
> Before getting too in depth, is this a plan for a day trip or an
> overnight? If you want to do a day trip, keep in mind that from South
> Lake Tahoe, El Dorado wineries are over 60 miles away and Amador County
> wineries are about 100 mi away. Since much of the travel will be done
> on CA Hwy 49 through the foothills, don't expect to go faster than 60
> MPH either... If (God forbid) you're starting from Truckee, add another
> 50 miles onto your journey -- and that's one way. The bottom line: El
> Dorado is doable as a day trip, but forget about Amador county unless
> you're willing to put in 5+ hours of driving. If OTOH you plan on
> spending a night or two there, both areas are easily accessible.

Mark Lipton raises a valid point I overlooked. I'm assuming you know
that it is a drive of some length from the south shore of Lake Tahoe to
El Dorado County wineries.
I think Amador County and El Dorado counties are both doable because I
did it myself one time driving from Reno, which is a lot further away
than South Lake Tahoe. YOu can't do every winery, but you can do
several.
I ran the mileage from South Lake Tahoe to Plymouth, which is on the
southwestern side of most Amador county wineries, in both Expedia and
Yahoo map and the stimated driving time varied from 2 hours and 12
minutes in Yahoo to 95 minutes in Expedia. I suspect Yahoo is probably
closer to the actual driving time.
I don't know how many wineries you want to visit, but both areas are
doable because you can visit Amador County wineries, then go to southern
El Dorado County wineries in the Fair Play area (Cedarville and others)
and then go to the wineries in Pleasent Valley (like Sierra Vista) and
then maybe go into Apple Hill if there's time left.
Take a look at this Amador County winery map:
http://www.amadorwine.com/winemapbig.html
By the time you reach Mount Aukum, you're in southern El Dorado County.
Shenandoah Road turns into Aukum Road, which takes you through the Fair
Play wineries and into Pleasant Valley. From Pleasant VAlley it's a
realitivy straight shot up to the Camino area of U.S. 50, which is the
east end of Apple Hill.
So if you started out about 8 a.m., you would reach your first Amador
County winery shortly after 10 a.m. and could drink your way back to
U.S. 50 and the drive back to South Lake Tahoe. All in one day.
It's not clear when you're doing this but if it's in the fall, here's an
added bonus: YOu'll thank me for the recommendation because the drive up
Shenandoah and Aukum roads is gorgeous. I made note of this last October
when I did this because the previous June I had gone to Napa Valley and
go stuck in a huge traffic jam trying to reach I-80.
A few more Amador County wineries to toss out are Montevina and Sobon
Estate. As I drank wine I bought on my trip to Amador County I kept
being surprised how good were the three Montevina varieties I bought.
Nothing that Robert Parker is going to rate as a 100, but good wine none
the less.
I picked up a bottle of their pinot grigio this year in my neverending
quest for unaoked whites. I still don't like pinot grigio, but it was
probably one of the better pinot grigios I had and was less than $10.
Sobon Estate has a couple of Rhones I liked. They also have a free
museum that's worth the 10 to 15 minutes it takes to walk through it.
They include some huge wine casks that well-known winemakers used until
about 30 years ago to make wine which they sold to people who brought
their own gallon jugs. There's also early winemaking tools for the area.

Steve Timko wrote:
> I think Amador County and El Dorado counties are both doable because I
> did it myself one time driving from Reno, which is a lot further away
> than South Lake Tahoe. YOu can't do every winery, but you can do
> several.

Whether it's doable depends on how willing the person is to drive a fair
distance after having visited several wineries. I've given enough
advice to visitors to NoCal about visiting wine country to know that
many people quail at even driving 50 mi on 101 back from the Sonoma
valley after a day of wine tasting. Driving 49 at night is another
kettle of fish altogether, hence my warning. I'd do it (but I spit) and
you'd do it, but many people -- especially visitors to CA -- won't.

> I ran the mileage from South Lake Tahoe to Plymouth, which is on the
> southwestern side of most Amador county wineries, in both Expedia and
> Yahoo map and the stimated driving time varied from 2 hours and 12
> minutes in Yahoo to 95 minutes in Expedia. I suspect Yahoo is probably
> closer to the actual driving time.

So much depends on weather and traffic that it's hard to estimate.
Under the best conditions, the Expedia time might be possible, but in
the real world, 2 hours is closer to the mark IMO. It also depends on
how comfortable the driver is with two lane "mountain" roads: I've seen
tourists creep along 49 almost as badly as they do on Hwy 1. And God
help you if you get stuck behind an RV from Kansas ;-)

Your advice is excellent, though, Steve, and I'll take note of it for my
next visit, too.

Mark Lipton