el dorado wine country
 

anyone have any insight? we are driving from lake tahoe to san fran and i thought it might make an interesting pitstop. but i know nothing about the area of the wineries. thougths anyone? thanks so much.

I live in Calaveras county which is about sixty miles from El Dorado county. Although Calaveras has many wineries I prefer El Dorado wines over either Calaveras or Amador wines. The wineries are somewhat clustered and you can easily do several in a day. Most, if any do not charge to taste and the people at the wineries are very friendly. A good place to start would be Boeger which is close to Placerville ( as most of the wineries are ) and move on from there. Lava Cap is my personal favorite. You can pick up a map at Boeger.

oh funny..thta's the 2 i looked at. we have to teens in our group and i thought it would be fun for them to see wine made. do any of the wineries do tours like that in addition to tastings?

sorry for all the typos..and its TWO teens :)

August and September are the harvest months. In September some of the wineries may be doing the crush and pressing. Not sure if any of the wineries would offer tours as it is an extremely busy time for the wineries. Go to eldoradowines.com and you can get more info.

I prefer Amador for red wines. A few of my picks are TKC Vineyards, Karly, Sobon and Story....All are near Plymouth.
The El Dorado wines I've enjoyed include: CHALET FLEUR DE LYS
CHARLES B. MITCHELL VINEYARDS. GRANITE SPRINGS WINERY and SINGLE LEAF WINERY VINEYARD
These are all south of Placerville in the Fair Play area

I also like these that are mostly on the north side of US 50. BOEGER WINERY, LAVA CAP WINERY and MADRONA VINEYARDS.

I have been to most of the wineries in El Dorado County (I live in El Dorado County). None that I know of offer tours on a regular basis. That said, sometimes we will ask and get a quick tour (Boeger's owner showed us around. He even let us do barrel tastings from different type of oak barrels). I would stick with the wineries near Placerville on the northside of Hwy 50. My favorites are Boeger, Lava Cap, Madrona, Jodar (they do free food pairings with their wines) and Sogno. All have free tastings. The area is known for it's red wines.

I really enjoy many of the Amador county wineries -- but also Boeger and Lava Cap are two of my very favorites (you see a theme here :) I don't know anyone who doesn't like Boeger/Lava Cap and/or Madrona).

Since those are more convenient to your route between SLT and San Francisco than Amador county is, those are the ones I'd probably pick. You really won't see wine being made - or at least it isn't very likely. You'll see vineyards, you'll definitely see activity in the fields, and you'll see the tasting rooms.

thanks so much everyone...we are coming from north lake tahoe so it seems Boeger & Lava Cap might be good for us.

The route back from northshore won't take you to the wineries of El Dorado County. I-80 takes your down through mostly Nevada and Placer counties. The cut across from I-80 to hwy 50 would be all the way down in Auburn to hwy 49 to Placerville. Auburn > Placerville is a slow 30 miles.

Where exactly are you staying at the lake? From most places I'd prefer to drive around the lake and take hwy 50 west to Camino/Placerville.

The best way to get information and a printer friendly map of El Dorado's wineries is to go to www.eldoradowines.org. (The site mentioned by twelveoaks is incorrect). The region makes wonderful reds in addition to many fine whites -- inc many unusual and obscure varieties that are earning awards. Definitely make the trip around the lake to the south shore and then drive toward Placerville down Hwy 50. From there you can easily hit the wineries in the Apple Hill area metnioned above, including Boeger, Lava Cap. Madrona, Jodar, Crystal Basin.