Amador County
Wine Country Edition
Our
California riding season lingers into mid-November. An hour or so away from the Sacramento area, nestled in the
gold country foothills of Amador County, rests a growing-in-public-awareness
wine-growing region. A free
morning with clear skies and moderate temperatures invites me to revisit the
area.
East
of Plymouth lays California’s Shenandoah Valley. Drained by the Cosumnes River, the earliest Europeans
dredged her waters for gold that would play out long before their dreams did.
In
the intervening 160 years, agriculture – row crops, walnuts, grazing, berries
and flowers – has given way to wine grape production.
But
remnants of those diverse agricultural days remain even as their wood
foundations dissolve into the rocky soil.
Now,
along Steiner Road and Shenandoah Schoolhouse Road, while old ranches have
become quaint wineries, relicts of the former era stand as weathering
sculptures honoring a not so long ago past. An old caterpillar tractor (Ben Holt invented these not far
away in Stockton)…
… a
springtooth furrow, once used to till in anticipation of the next planting…
…
another view of same…
… a
disk rusts in the foreground of what once was a farmer’s field shanty turned
into the tasting room for Story Vineyards. Picnicking on this acreage affords a view of the
Cosumnes. From this vantage it is
easy to see those grizzled sourdoughs looking back up the hill at us from a
century and a half ago.
The
autumn chill has turned the leaves to amber and gold…
…
but at spots along the way, orchards not yet ploughed asunder for grape
production still yield English Walnuts.
Old
barns and old buildings fascinate.
A corrugated metal structure serves perhaps as a barrel room, perhaps as
a workshop…
…
and a red barn fronts a pasture still grazed by horses.
Glorious
little roads twist behind hills and disappear. They network in and out of stream courses and along historic
fence lines. This one leads me to
a hidden gold rush era berg, one I wouldn’t have found if the road hadn’t
beckoned as I crested a ridge.
I’ve
visited the Amador vineyards many times since moving to the Gold County in the
mid 80s. Each time I return I find
it’s been too long. Each time I return
I enjoy a relaxing rural environment that spans multiple generations; one that takes care to not depart from its historic roots.
Oh! And the wine!
Twenty-nine years ago, I know because I just counted ‘em out on my
fingers, we first discovered this region.
Living in Sonora, an hour or so south on 49, we had taken a Sunday
drive, detoured off Steiner Road, up a gravel track to a metal building atop a
knoll. Amador Foothill the sign
had said. And it still does.
In the tasting room one is likely to be
greeted by either the vineyard tender (the husband) or the winemaker (the
wife.) It has been this way for 34
years, we were told yesterday as I purchased my usual half-case of Sauv Blanc –
formerly known as Amador Fume. I
fill in the case with some luscious Zins and Italian varietals. I put many of them in the “library”
side of my wine rack at home.
Over the past three decades, many
bigger-money wine operations have moved to the Shenandoah Valley with
state-of-the-art tasting rooms, event centers, entertainment venues, bistros
and paved parking.
But Amador Foothill, and a few others worth
searching out, offer excellent wines at good value staffed by the farmer, his
wife or one of the kids. This is
the place I seek out first.
o0o
Resources:
Amador
Wine Growers Association: http://amadorwinegrapes.com
Amador
Foothill Wines: http://blog.amadorfoothill.com/
o0o
 |
| Aging cedar fence post |
Today’s
Route: From Sacramento: US 50 west to Latrobe Road. South on Latrobe. East (left) on Sacramento Road to
Plymouth. Cross SR 49. Bear right toward Shenandoah
Valley. (Bearing left will land you
in Fiddletown – a delightful blast from our gold rush past.)
Return: Return to Plymouth and consider SR 49
north to El Dorado (ribs at Poor Reds) thence to Diamond Springs and
Placerville (antiques, galleries.)
Or:
Head east on Shenandoah Road to Mt. Aukum and on to Fair Play for some twisty
pavement, river views and a case of Slug Gulch Red.
©
2013
Church
of the Open Road Press
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