The Vineyards: El Dorado County

I first became intrigued by the winegrowing possibilities in the Sierra foothills back in my days in the retail wine business, upon tasting the Zinfandels made by Sutter Home winery in 1968 and 1970 from Amador County grapes. After starting Edmunds St. John in 1985, and being committed to working with Rhône varieties, but having a hard time getting anyone in Napa or Sonoma interested in growing them for me, I decided to head east, and try my luck in gold country.

El Dorado County was my target, rather than Amador, because I suspected I could find cooler growing sites, more suited to producing wines with the kind of high-toned aromatic character I was after, and the fine structure. It was, at that time, mostly just a hunch. So I set out for Placerville, in the Spring of '88. (Sounds like an old song, doesn't it?)

Turned out my luck was pretty good; I was introduced to a fellow named Ron Mansfield, who gave me a grand tour of the areas in El Dorado County between Placerville and Fairplay, and filled me in, a bit, on what was going on, grape-wise, in the county.

That was thirteen years ago, and in the intervening years, particularly the last few, I'm feeling more excited than ever about the grapes I'm getting from El Dorado County, nearly all of which, at this point, are coming from vineyards managed by Ron.

• Fenaughty Vineyard, Apple Hill District, Placerville
• Wylie Vineyard
• Izay Vineyard

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