Ah, summertime in San Francisco. Not to drop names, but Mark
Twain once said that the coldest winter he ever spent was July in our fair
City. (No, bitch, I am not that old, I read it somewhere. Hmph.)
In any case, there are times when I crave hot air -- of the
non-political variety, thank you very much -- so I long to escape from the City on
those dreary, foggy, damp days when the temperature promises to stay in
the 50s for an entire week. The Boss and I also enjoy road trips, so we
occasionally take a summer drive to more seasonal climes. Though I hear
that Sonoma and Napa are now sweltering in a veritable heat wave, there
is another destination that is guaranteed to be hot and summery in the
Sierra Foothills. It has wine too! I speak of none other than Amador County.
Often associated with the Gold Rush, Amador County is also a hidden
treasury of California wines. Locals will tell you that wine production
started earlier here than anywhere else in Northern California --
certainly earlier than Napa County and Sonoma County. But don't quote the Wine
Mo on that, as I have not been able to find supporting evidence. (I
also don't need any more attitude thrown at me by Napa wine snobs than I
already get, thanks.) However, it does seem likely that viniculture has
been practiced in the area for quite a while. Indeed, the wineries are
strongly influenced by Italian wine-making traditions instead of
French, hearkening back to the early settler days when this section of the
Sierra Foothills was inhabited by immigrants from Italy. There is still a
strong Italian accent in the local culture, as well.
Since I'm sending you so far out of town, I'm going to review several
wineries in the area this month as well as a local restaurant. I'll try
to be brief, as the underwear salesman said to the model. Hubba, hubba.
Sorry, no time for good humor, too many wineries to review....
Wilderotter Vineyard is a recent addition to this very old wine area.
Their modest sized tasting room is very new, I believe built within
the last year or two, and their first wines were only available in 2003
to the general public if I recall correctly. However this winery is
already shaping up to be a star. We started our tasting with the 2005
Granache Rose. I'm not a huge fan of rose wine, but this was a nice
enough dry sort: as I always say about rose, people who enjoy this sort of
thing will enjoy this sort of thing (apologies to whomever actually said
that first). We next moved to the 2005 Sauvignon Blanc. The Wilderotter
offering is crisp and distinctive, with hints of pineapple in the nose;
the winery claims "citrus," and they deliver. The next white on our
tasting menu was the 2004 Estate Viognier. Delivering that "leafy" flavor
that I'm personally so fond of (a sort of green earthiness), the
complex flavor of this wine was pure delight to me. We took home several
bottles. This would be a great wine for an afternoon with friends after
the Gay Pride Parade (I did, in fact, serve it to our webmaster, Don,
who was visiting us in the City for the big celebration). We next tasted
the 2003 Amador Zinfandel. Another very distinctive offering from this
winery, it is not quite as tannic as many of the California Zins --
some may not like that, but the Boss and I agreed that it was a nice
change, providing a highly drinkable red for everyday occasions. Our last
tasting at Wilderotter was their 2003 Sierra Foothills Syrah. This is the
wine to watch from this winery! Very complex, the nose offers fruit
right up front; when the wine hits your tongue, you will definitely be
reminded of black cherries, but then you will realize that it is actually
a VERY dry wine (though not super tannic). An excellent, excellent wine
for special meals or very close friends. Bottom line: an outstanding
new winery in Amador County well worth buying from now and watching for
the future. http://wilderottervineyard.com 19890 Shenandoah School Road,
Plymouth, CA 95669 (Google maps not working really well for this one,
but it's right before Bella Piazza, mapped below)
The Boss and I have been to Bella Piazza on both of our trips to Amador
County. This winery is owned by the same people who own Villa Toscana
(another Amador County outfit not reviewed this time). They have been
around for a while, and have a large facility (just up the hill from
Wilderotter) in the grand Italian style -- it's truly a "Beautiful Plaza"
-- that is filled with a suprising amount of slightly silly antiques and
paintings for sale along-side their wines. But don't let the
tourist trap atmosphere put you off. They do make some mighty fine wine. We
began our tasting with their 2004 Semillon, one of my favorite white
varietals. This semillon starts crisp and bright, but mellows into a
delicious honey-like finish (without getting syrupy-sweet). We then tried the
2004 Chardonnay, one of the Boss's favorite whites (I know, I know, how
typical for a California girl). Bella Piazza's take on the chardonnay
is one of my personal favorites, as you can taste some of the
barrel-smoke in the wine along with a very well-balanced buttery texture. This is
a chard to share with friends who usually don't like California
chardonnays. Next, we tried their 2002 Primitivo.
I want to spend a little bit of time telling you about primitivo in
case you don't know about it. If you do, please feel free to skip ahead to
the next paragraph. There is much argument in the wine-making community
about whether or not primitivo grapes are the same as zinfandel grapes.
One researcher (from UC Davis, the same "experts" that claim no one can
taste the difference between a red and a white wine) has claimed that
the varities are genetically identical, though possibly from different
clones. Any experienced vintner will tell you that anyone who works with
vines in the field can easily tell the difference between the
grapevines in nature. Who is right? I am not an expert in such matters -- well,
not officially -- but I tend to believe the people who actually make
wine instead of the lady in the lab trying to match up genes in some DNA
sequencing computer. Maybe her computer has a virus. On the other hand,
this opinion seems to put me in the same category as Dubya, who would
rather believe what he believes than take the word of any fancy
scientist. How embarrassing. Perhaps it's the same grape, just treated
differently in the field and finished differently in the winery. Anyway,
primitivo is one of the oldest varieties of wine grape in existence, probably
originating in modern-day Croatia. It was taken to Italy very early,
and all Italian wines from similar grapes are called "Primitivo." These
wines are very similar to zinfandels (any time a similar grape from
California is sold in Europe, it must be called a zinfandel) but to my
palate, they are a little more robust and straight-forward. The Boss added
this note when I was talking to him about the differences between zins
and primitivos: "If you are ravishing one of the farm boys, you take a
bottle of primitivo. If you're ravishing a frat boy, you take a bottle
of zinfandel." Hmm, that might say more about his taste in boys than
the wines....
Bella Piazza makes an excellent American Primitivo. It's bold and
tannic, yet fruity and slightly sweet. This wine is guaranteed to go well
with a robust meal. To satisfy our curiosity as to the difference between
primitivo and zin, we tried their 2002 Zinfandel next. They were
similar wines, however, the zinfandel was definitely more complex and ever so
slightly less aggressive. The next wine we tried was their 2003
Montepulciano, certainly one of their headliners. This is a subtle wine, but
still is tannic enough to stand up to most food. Many of the finest
qualities of the wine, however, are quite delicate -- you will enjoy this
wine with most things, but you will miss some stellar points unless you
taste it with mild food or by itself. It is floral but not
prepossessing, has an underlying oakiness, and sparkles with very subtle hints of
black cherry. Finally, we tried the 2002 Port. This is not a bad effort.
Certainly a lovely, syrupy creation with dark berry flavors, but lacks
some complexity. Try it. It may be to your taste. Bottom line: an
excellent producer of many fine varieties of wine, don't be put off by the
touristy facade. http://www.bellapiazzawinery.com 19900 Shenandoah
School Road, Plymouth, CA 95669 Google
Map (not the best map, but close enough to get you there)
In between Bella Piazza and Cooper Vineyards on Shenandoah School Road
is Montevina Winery -- you would be hard pressed to miss this enormous
barn-like structure. However, the Boss and I did miss it on this
trip because of our experience on our first visit to Amador County.
Frankly, every wine we tasted stood up poorly compared to the other wines
we tasted; some were downright insipid. However, they do have some
value-priced wines, still many of their prices were quite as rarified as
the best wines we tried. I will give them another try at some point when
we return, as the staff at other wineries has said that they make some
good wines, and expressed surprise that our experience wasn't better.
Perhaps the bottles had been open too long. In any event, for the time
being you may want to focus your limited time in the foothills on other
wineries. Please note that my last visit was in late summer 2005 --
things may have changed for the better. http://www.montevina.com 20680
Shenandoah School Rd., Plymouth, CA 95669 Google Map
As you finish the loop of Shenandoah School Road, you will pass another
new addition to the tasting rooms of Amador County: Cooper Vineyards.
You may know some catty queens who never have anything good to say about
another gay person; fortunately, most of the wineries of the Sierra
Foothill are not like this at all. The kind folks over at
Wilderotter recommended that the Boss and I stop at Cooper since we
claimed to be mostly on the lookout for white wines (as usual ... and,
again as usual, we nonetheless ended up with a good selection of reds in
the trunk, as well). Unfortunately, when we arrived Cooper was overrun
by a large tasting party. One of the usual advantages of visiting the
wineries of Amador County is that they are not as polluted with tourists
as the more popular destinations of Napa and Sonoma. We were not so
lucky this time. As a result, the tasting room service was perfunctory and
not nearly as friendly and attentive as that to which I am accustomed.
"It must be your cologne," catted the Boss. "Oh, no, I must have used
yours by mistake," I retorted. Anyway, EVERYONE knows that we SF queens
don't use cologne. In any case, it is my hope that Cooper's staff is as
friendly as everyone else and they were just distracted by their
unusually large crowd. We'll visit again and let you know. But on to the
wine! (Didn't I promise to keep these brief? Ah, well, c'est la vie.) We
began with their 2003 Roussanne, a wine that I have not had abundant
experience with, so I can't compare it with a "typical" Roussanne. However,
I can say that it was a tart yet very buttery white, such an enchanting
combination that we took several bottles home (did I also serve that to
Don and crew for Gay Pride Day? It would have been an excellent
choice.) The maker notes hints of passion fruit, with which I must agree. The
2004 Viognier was our next wine: the bouquet is very mild -- almost
weak -- but the taste was quite good, on the sweet side of viogniers, with
honeysuckle notes. We then moved on to the reds with the 2004 Barbera.
Not quite as strong as the Bella Piazza, Cooper's effort is nonetheless
quite drinkable, with buttery touches on the fruity nose. The flavor
certainly reminds one of currants, but the promised "smoky" notes were
not really very strong. We then tasted the 2003 Zinfandel del
campo, which is a field blend of barbera and zinfandel grapes (that is,
they were crushed together instead of being blended after fermentation). A
great, strong wine with lots of tannic fruit in it, this wine will
stand up well to any strongly flavored food. It's definitely a wine for
food pairing in the grand Italian tradition! Think spaghetti and meatballs
(or wheatballs if you're a vegetarian). Cooper's 2003 Petite Syrah was
the star player in our tasting. A mature effort with a lot of fruit,
mostly black cherry, this is nonetheless a lovely dry red. This is a
first class wine; their future petite syrahs should be watched. We ended
our tasting at Cooper with their 2004 Zinfandel del campo. This
wine was a little young for my taste, being quite tannic. However, it
promises well since tannins mellow in bottle aging. The 2003 was good
enough, and this vintage promised well enough, that the Boss talked me into
taking a bottle home anyway. Well, he does like his pleasures a little
on the acid side ... witness yours truly. Bottom line: another new
winery that promises well for the future, though it may need a little more
polish than Wilderotter (but then, they have a wider selection).
http://www.cooperwines.com 21365 Shenandoah School Road, Plymouth, CA
95669 (Google maps doesn't work for this address, sorry!)
The Boss and I then proceeded up Steiner Road, another loop road off of
the main drag between Plymouth and points futher north-east. I will
take this opportunity to mention another winery that we did not visit on
this trip -- Renwood. This winery we did not visit because of time
constraints. It is actually an outstanding winery with many fine vintages.
Our trip about one year ago was well worth the time and the price of the
one and a half cases we carried away with us. Stop by and try whatever
is on the tasting list. I'll review it as soon as we have a chance to
visit them again. http://www.renwood.com 12225 Steiner Road, Plymouth,
CA 95669 Google Map
We did have time for a stop at Shenandoah Vineyards. Being a native
Virginian (it's for lovers!), I was somewhat taken aback to find that
there was another Shenandoah Valley, but apparently some of the
original settlers moved to the Sierra Foothills from the East Coast . The
winery's tasting room features the photography of Galen Rowell, famous
for his iconic pictures of nature for National Geographic. The owner of
the winery was a good friend of the late Rowell, and so shows and sells
prints of his work. It does make for a very lovely setting (if, once
again, in the somewhat tourist-trappy mold). In my opinion, the wines
here tend to be variable in quality: they have some vintages that I
absolutely must take home, and some that I am not of a mind to buy. We
started our tasting with the Sauvignon Blanc, a tart wine with a lovely
strawberry aroma. Unfortunately, the final verdict on the palate was "a
little flabby;" it did not have the staying power or complexity that I
look for in a white wine. We moved on to the Zinfandel Special Reserve:
this was a fair wine, but probably not deserving of the appelation
"special reserve" as the tannins seemed a bit *ahem* unrefined. Ah, but
then we tasted the Zingiovese, a blend of ... well, it's so obvious I
blush to mention it ... zinfandel and sangiovese. This wine is definitely
one of Shenandoah's best performers; the nose will remind you of a yummy
berry jam, and the flavor is deeply fruity with nicely balanced
tannins. Next, we tried the Cab-Shiraz -- unsurprisingly, a blend of cabernet
sauvignon and syrah. Perhaps it was simply the delicious complexity of
the previous wine, but this wine did not seem as complex as the
blending promised. Also, the tasting notes say that the wine is "... light,
yet bold ..." but I found it very tannic; mind you, not in a bad way, but
by no means would I characterize this wine as "light." Shenandoah has a
special selection of wines that carry the appellation "ReZerve." There
is a small charge to taste the ReZerve selection, refunded if you buy
any of the wines. The Boss and I decided to fork over the small charge
so we could try their ReZerve Barbera and the ReZerve Primitivo to
compare with the Bella Piazza offerings. The Barbera was a very simple wine,
but also had some tannic characteristics -- it was not noteworthy to
me, and the Boss said that it did not stand out in comparison to the
Bella Piazza offering. The Primitivo, on the other hand, was almost syrupy,
and is an interesting comparison to others that I have tasted. Overall,
however, it may not be worth your money to do the ReZerve tasting
unless you have liked the free tastings quite a bit. Finally, we tried the
real winner of Shenandoah Vineyards -- their Black Muscat. One does not
find a dark muscat very often, but this winery specializes in dessert
wine: they also have a standard muscat (Daphne), a standard port, and a
white port, none of which we tasted this time but which we will be back
for. I am a real fan of muscats, and their Black Muscat is a velvety,
sweet liquid confection with deep floral notes reminiscent of wild
berries and the complex flavor typical of the variety. I recommend this wine
very highly. Bottom line: a great place that should be part of your
Amador County visit with some winners and some wines that I did not care
for. http://www.sobonwine.com 12300 Steiner Road, Plymouth, CA 95669 Google Map
Finally, when you are done with your trip to Amador County, you are
going to want to find a nice place to eat. There are many options, some
more rustic than others, but finding a great place out in the foothills
can be a bit trying. There is a good diner on the corner of Highway 49
and Main St./Shenandoah Road in Plymouth -- very authentic, but it also
has good vegetarian options. However, for a true eating treat, you must
try Giannini's in Pine Grove. It's well worth the trip slightly out of
the way. After taking a bit of a nature trip, the Boss and I found
ourselves in Pine Grove passing by the front door and decided to stop for
dinner. The menu is your standard old-fashioned Italian restaurant fare,
with any number of the things you might imagine -- chicken cacciatori,
eggplant parmigiana, veal piccata, lasagna -- along with real authentic
dishes such as saltimbocca and sweet breads saute. They have an
excellent house wine, but also an excellent selection of local Amador County
vintages. Be warned! The full deluxe dinners come with enough food for
three people! I had a "light Italian dinner" of gnocchi that "just" came
with salad, soup, and bread (and I skipped the soup), but the Boss had
the eggplant parmigiana dinner with a polenta board, salad, soup,
pasta, and bread. That's right, pasta, too! I helped with the polenta board,
but he could not eat everything, despite the fact that we had almost
nothing to eat earlier in the day. The food was AWESOME -- it could not
be beat with a wooden spoon, and I've had good Italian before. The only
thing that worried me a bit was that it seemed a bit straight ... the
waitress was wonderful (I mean really outstanding, in the rural
restaurant style), but we seemed to be getting some sideways looks from nearby
tables of old Italian couples and other locals. Then, right at the end
of the meal, one little old Italian lady started talking to us, and
before you could say "spaghetti and meatballs" we were being told about
all of the fine places to go in the area and being treated like family.
Truly an outstanding experience, though the Boss did experience a food
coma on the way home (it was a true five-course meal). PLEASE NOTE!!!
Giannini's is closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday! So remember to
only plan on eating there on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.
They have no website, but are easy to locate on Highway 88 in Pine Grove.
Phone 209-296-7222 19845 State Hwy 88, Pine Grove, CA. Google Map
Please note that Google Maps is not doing its best in a lot of these
locations, I've tried to note where it's good and where it's not. Use the
"map" feature only, the "satellite" pictures are not aligned very well
and are mostly at a very bad resolution.
BOTTOM LINE ON AMADOR COUNTY: out of the way, not very well known, but
well worth a visit! The Boss and I can make this a day trip, but you
may want to stay over in the area, particularly if you don't have a
designated driver! Let me know if you find a good place to stay the night:
MattTheMo@gmail.com
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