Amador Wine Country

My favorite times of the year to visit the wine country are Spring and Fall. In the Spring the temperatures are warming up and the vines are starting to bud. It's not too hot or cold and great for eating a lunch with a bottle of wine outside. In the fall the temperatures are cooling down and the harvest season is underway. If you want to see how wine is made that is the time as the crush is in full swing.

Last week my son and I went to the Amador Wine Country to pick up my wine club bottles and to also try a few wineries we hadn't been to before. There is a lot to be said for the foothill wineries. The rolling hills are beautiful and this time of year are still lush and green, the crowds are less than in Napa or Sonoma and most wineries don't charge to taste.

We picked up wines at Villa Toscano, iL Gioiello, Cooper and Dillian. If you want to picnic all have outdoor seating. If you want to buy a hot meal then I would suggest Villa Toscano. I would also suggest opening up a bottle of their wine to go with lunch.

We also stopped at the Scott Harvey tasting room. I have been going to Amador for over 30 years and Scott has been around well before that. When I first met Scott he was the wine maker at Santino Winery which is now Renwood. Scott was trained in Germany and produces great late harvest wines. He also makes great Zins and white varietals.  This time I purchased some late harvest Riesling.

If you are in the Sacramento area I would suggest making the short trip to either El Dorado or Amador county to taste their wines. This is a great time to go.

Pops' Travel Guide, California Grappa

I know there are not a lot of you out there that like Grappa. I happen to be one that does so indulge me. My son and I made the trek up to the Amador Wineries in Northern California to pick up our wine club selections. The Amador Wineries are about a 45 minute drive from our house. We usually drive up, go to the 4 wineries I am a club member of, have lunch and then drive home. It's a nice relaxing day in a beautiful part of California with the rolling hills full of vineyards. The best part is it's hardly ever crowded and the scenery and wine quality matches that of the more familiar areas in California. It's like going back in time to Napa when you didn't have to pay to taste and there were no crowds. Spring is coming soon and you might want to consider this option.

Now to the main point of this post. While I was driving from winery to winery I remembered that I was out of Grappa. For those of you that don't know what Grappa is, it's made by taking the leftover mash from the wine process and distilling it. My cousin Roberto in Italy makes his own and that's where I fell in love with it. There is one winery in Amador, that I know of, that makes and sells Grappa. If you know and love Grappa you will know that Grappa can have different tastes depending on what grapes the mash came from. We went to the Vino Nocheto Winery to buy the Grappa. There they had a Barbera and Sangiovese and I bought both. You can also get Moscato and Zinfandel.

Now Grappa is not for everyone and most of my friends think I'm crazy for drinking it but if you are like me and love Grappa then Vino Nocheto is a great option. If you live in the area and want to buy some, California law won't let you taste at the winery, then make the trip to Amador County and spend a day in the area. If you live too far away you can find locations that sell it online.

The address is 11011 Shenandoah Road, Plymouth, CA 95669 and they are open most days 11am to 4pm.   Amador County is just southeast of Sacramento off of Highway 49 in the gold country.