A Return to Wine Country

If you have read our blog for a few years, you know how enamored we are with El Dorado and Amador Counties in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in California. For us, this is wine country.

Not only do we find the wines that please our palates, we love catching up with our friends, Bill, Wayne and Greg and their Excellent Adventure performances. We caught up with them on Friday night at Chateau Davell's  new tasting room.

Listening to good music, drinking good wine and watching the sunset, it just doesn’t get any better.

We followed Bill and Wayne’s Excellent Adventure over to Distant Cellars in Amador County on Saturday afternoon where we discovered Tribute, a very good red blend.

Groupies

And, of course we ended up at The Wine Smith on Saturday evening. (I guess you could say we are their fan club.)

When one is on an adventure, one doesn’t always know where they will be sleeping. We have stayed at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds once before where we parked on a hill overlooking the race track, which was okay and that was where we expected to be parked on this visit. We were surprised when we were directed to park near the event and fairground offices.

Friday we found ourselves in the midst of a classic car show and chili cook-off.

Saturday evening the sound of the car races was deafening (not a big deal as we spent the evening at The Wine Smith. All was quiet when we returned to The Wanderer.)

After a couple of wine tastings in Camino on Sunday, Bill and Zacharie treated us to a most delicious meal (and political discussion) at their lovely home. Tuesday evening we said good-bye to our good friends

and moved over to Amador County.

With each visit to Amador County we become more enchanted. You have heard us say before that we really like small towns. In the wine country of Amador there seems to be a small town about every 5-10 miles. The county population is 38,244; the county seat is Jackson with a population of 4,651. The largest city is Ione with 7,918. A number of the “cities” have populations less than 1000. Our favorite is the charming little town of Sutter Creek (population 2500.)

Parts of Amador County remind us of Tuscany, Italy with brown rolling hills dotted with green trees. With over 50 wineries in the approximately 600 square miles, it is a wine lovers paradise. (Especially if your palate leans toward dry reds like Zinfandel, Syrah and Barbera. ) Our longtime favorite is Borjon. Last year ABN discovered the sparkling wines from Le Mulet Rouge,

She came away with 2 raspberries and one peach.

This visit we found a new favorite, Renwood. Its tasting room and wines rival those of Napa, yet it is affordable.

The Wanderer was parked at 49er Village RV Resort in Plymouth (population 1,005). There we met Gold Star parents, Ron and Marty, from Bandera, TX, who are now full timing in their RV. Connecting with other Gold Star parents is good for our souls as it allows us to talk with understanding about our fallen heroes.

Today we left Amador County, heading east through the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains. Here are a few of the views along CA 88 and US 395.

And then there was this.

The next couple of days will be quite boring with sporadic cell service as we drive across the Nevada desert; destination Zion National Park in Utah where we will meet up our good friend Roger.

 (At this point, we do not want to talk about college football.)

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