California Gold Country – Winery Recommendations for a Good Bottle of Wine

Our winery recommendations for a Good Bottle of Wine in California Gold Country….we’ve written about the linked wineries. Just like our wines we are ranking wineries we’ve visited with our star system. When you see ✰++ you need to visit this winery, with a -✰, not so much. Ranked from best to least in descending order.

Northern Gold Country

✰++ Polynesian Girl Winery – Review Coming Soon – Excellent wine created by upcoming winemakers, enjoyed their Cabernet Sauvignon.

✰+ Hart2Hart– Good Zins (29 wines!)

✰+ Miraflores Winery – Review Coming Soon – This classic rancho tasting room has wooden beams from the Oakland Ferry Building in 1936 along with a spread of white to red wines.

✰+ Saluti Cellars  – Review Coming Soon –  This dazzling mountain designed tasting room is nestled in a valley overlooking vineyards and mountains. Good whites as well as reds.

✰+ Dono del Cielo– Good Chard, Petite Sirah & a Zin/Petite Sirah blend

✰+Cielo Estate – Review Coming Soon – Set in the El Dorado Hills they create excellent Zinfandel, GSM & Barbera.

-✰ Boeger – Beautiful grounds right out of Placerville but there is little desire on employee or management’s part to focus on customers. This is only the second winery in all our years of tasting to collect their $15+tax tasting fee in advance for our 14 minute tasting session. Disappointed is the nicest thing we can say.

Southern Gold Country

✰++ Scott Harvey Winery – Most wine makers don’t splash their names over the front of bottles but we think Scott has earned the right to brag a bit. Located in Sutter Creek & Plymouth.

✰++ Irish Vineyards – Not much of a tasting room, but very good wine.  And, they were blending Viognier into their red blends.

✰+ + Findleton Estate Winery – An outstanding variety of ‘Sierra Style’ wines. Ask for Eldon, our favorite host there.

✰+ Chatom Vineyards – Check out their Sangiovese and Cuvee

✰+ Lavender Ridge Winery – Review Coming Soon – Everything is lavender but their wine is from grape in the historic town of Murphy.

✰+ Amador Cellars – Good Zinfandel

✰+ Helwig  Winery – Located in the Shenandoah Valley you’ll enjoy their blended white wine Three Sisters, Barbera and Petite Sirah.

✰+ Sobon Estate – Review Coming Soon – Family owned winemakers create some great Zins, some from 113 year old vine.

✰+ Karmere Vineyards & Winery – Review Coming Soon – Rancho style tasting room with beautiful wines and art on the walls which is also on the bottles.

✰+ Twisted Oak Winery – Another place for good Carignane

✰+ Bella Piazza – Good Zin

✰+ Hatcher Winery – Check out their Barbera

✰+ Newsome – Harlow – Review Coming Soon – Good Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah & check out their blend called The Deviant (Carignane, Zin, Petite Sirah)

✰+ Bella Grace Vineyards – Review Coming Soon – Sutter Creek & Shenandoah Valley tasting rooms. We sampled beautiful wines in their garden setting in downtown Sutter Creek.

✰ Ironstone – Beautiful place to visit for a picnic, eat lunch there, very large grounds, but the wines didn’t sing for us.

-✰ Vino Noceto – It was a bad day for them, we hope to have a better experience there sometime.