Longtime friends Todd Williams and Rodney Strong created Toad Hollow Vineyards when they released their first vintage of unoaked chardonnay in 1994. As one of the leaders in unoaked Chardonnay, their consistent style featuring bright, crisp fruit flavors, continues to be a favorite.
Sierra Vista: An El Dorado Original Since 1974
In 2024, Sierra Vista Wines proudly celebrates 50 years as one of the first and original wineries in the Sierra Foothills. This medium-sized boutique winery and vineyard is nestled in the picturesque landscape of El Dorado County, CA. Sierra Vista Winery seamlessly integrates the artistry of winemaking with the natural beauty of its 50-year-old legacy vineyard.
Each vintage begins with meticulous vineyard management, where skilled viticulturists tend to the vines, ensuring optimal grape ripening and quality. Harvesting is executed with precision, as grapes are hand-selected at their peak of maturity to capture the essence of the terroir.
Upon harvest, the grapes are immediately processed by a team of experienced and passionate winemakers and barrel hands. The winemaking process—encompassing crushing, fermenting, aging, and blending—focuses on preserving the unique characteristics of each varietal.
Sierra Vista Winery embraces sustainable and eco-friendly practices throughout its operations, reflecting a commitment to environmental stewardship. The winery features a welcoming tasting room where guests can savor a diverse range of wines grown, produced, and bottled on-site.
Knowledgeable Tasting Room staff members provide insights into the winemaking journey and guide visitors through curated tastings, creating memorable and educational experiences.
In addition, Sierra Vista actively hosts on-site wine events, live music, and food pairings, showcasing its exceptional products and engaging with the broader wine community. With a steadfast commitment to excellence, sustainability, and a passion for the art of winemaking, Sierra Vista aims to stand as a beacon of quality in fine wines.
photo courtesy photographer Randy Caparoso
David Girard Vineyards is nestled in the Sierra foothills near where the south fork of the American River gave up its gold in 1849. At an elevation of some 1,200 feet soil, temperature and conditions, an environment ideally suited to growing the premier grape varietals of southern France's Rhône valley. Twenty years ago the folks at David Girard started with little more than good earth, a tolerance for risk and a willingness to learn from their mistakes. The winery has established a solid reputation for excellence and value by producing Rhône style wines in the heart of one of California's most historic regions.
Trinchero Family Estates (“TFE”) is wholly owned and operated by the Trinchero family, Napa Valley vintners since 1948. Over the years, the company expanded its portfolio by purchasing a magnitude of wineries including Terra d’Oro Winery in Amador County in 1988, Napa Valley’s Folie á Deux Winery in 2004 and Napa Cellars in 2006. In 2009, the family completed building Trinchero Napa Valley winery and hospitality center, located in northern St. Helena, California.
Midnight Cellars, home to the Hartenberger family and their small production of award-winning Paso Robles wines. Twenty eight acres of hilly, rocky, limestone-rich and south facing slopes are dedicated to growing quality, low-yield, sustainably farmed Bordeaux grapes. In addition to the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot varietals, are Zinfandel and Chardonnay. Known for their gigantic Merlot, Midnight Cellars also makes some of the best “Paso Roblan blends.”
The diverse geology of Sonoma County and its topography have made it the ideal location to make world class wine for years but the grapes that are most often associated with the region have been Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Zinfandel to name a few. Super Sonoman Wine brings you another choice.
The vineyard is quite incredible and impressive. We tasted 9 different wines in their cave which was filled with millions of dollars worth of marble statues. The cave was nice and cool and the aroma of the wines in the barrels hit you as soon as you entered. There was Italian music being pumped into the cave which helped set the mood for the tasting. Afterwards we wandered around their property and enjoyed quite the view from their patio area.
Frangipani Winery has an outside patio to sit in and enjoy the view. They also have a couple of little windows that look like pick up windows at a fast food burger joint. This makes it easy to do your tasting outside while enjoying the aforementioned view and the little crackers they offer you to go with your wine. Handy after several wine tastings and you need to start absorbing that alocohol before heading to dinner. Family Owned Winery On The De Portola Wine Trail in Temcula Wine Country.
At this family-operated Central Valley gem you will find some wonderful wines. We first enjoyed wines from Moravia Wines at a wine tasting conducted by Rob Bausinan who handles the outside sales for the winery. It was great to visit him at this tasting at Total Wines in Fresno, CA. Rob extended an invited to visit him at the winery to learn more about what they were doing at Moravia Wines. When I was last there Rob was on vacation but Rich Hammond, CO-Proprietor and winemaker at the winery was available and happy to share. Often people forget just how long wines have been produced in the Central Valley, since the mid-1850"s. It was wonderful experience tasting and talking with the winemaker himself. While all the wines that were poured for me were delightful the two Symphony wines came into focus. I have always enjoyed Symphony since having tasted it in Lodi some years ago. Rich has done a wonderful job with his offering of his 2018 Symphony and 2018 Dry Symphony. The 2018 Dry is produced from a grape that is a clone of Grenache Gris and Muscat Alexander and is a dry wine with a floral and peach or apricot on the nose - delightfully crisp and bright. The other Symphony is semi-sweet with 4% residual sugar.*
Hours:
Mon-Fri Closed
Sat 12:00 to 5:00pm
Sun 12:00 to 5:00pm
“In the mid-1970’s, due to a normal teenage interest in alcoholic beverages, my family allowed me to make some wine from the family vineyard and beer at home (under adult supervision, of course).
This led to a UC Davis degree as well as concurrent work at a local winery doing the dirtiest and most menial jobs imaginable. In the mid-1980’s good friends at Duxoup Wine Works (think Marx Brothers for the pronunciation) inspired me to try my hand at my own label so I negotiated cellar space in lieu of a raise by my then-current employer, Greenwood Ridge Vineyards in Anderson Valley (I got a raise anyway). Greenwood Ridge was supportive of my project and decided to have some Scherrer Zinfandel produced for their label as well. Unfortunately, I had a poor business plan and during the first year I realized I was not yet ready for this project. Greenwood Ridge continued to make a small amount of Scherrer Vineyard Zinfandel for many years.
Enter Dehlinger Winery in the late 1980’s. Tom Dehlinger was very supportive of my long-term plans and challenged me to develop a solid business plan, facilitating an important entry into my own project. In return, his winery received my heart and soul for a decade. The final key element in our getting started was from my parents. They allowed me to delay paying them for their fine grapes until we began getting cash flow from our wine sales. By 1997, we were ready to make the move to a facility of our own. In anticipation of this, we were able to add Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay to supplement the Zinfandel we were producing, all from my father’s vineyard in Alexander Valley. Tom Dehlinger supported this transition of my focus, allowing me to produce these additional wines in his facility and we parted very amicably after that vintage.
