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Daffodil Hill in Wine Country

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Daffodil Hill near Sutter Creek

Daffodil Hill near Sutter Creek

Daffodil Hill in Wine Country – Volcano, California

Daffodil Hill is not open to the public this year

Amador County is a hot tourist destination for wine country travelers. There are many small boutique wineries to visit in the spectacular foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But there is another attraction besides wineries worth seeing, Daffodil Hill in the very tiny town of Volcano. Timing is everything for Daffodil Hill! We always set aside the month of March to travel to the area. Sometimes, we are lucky and can see Daffodil Hill in full bloom. It all depends on the weather for bloom time.

There is said to be a possible 400,000 daffodil blooms. Daffodil Hill is a working ranch and is only open to visitors during the bloom season. The usual hours are 10am to 5pm daily. Check the Sutter Creek Association Website for complete details. We lodge and dine in Sutter Creek. We think it is the best town in Gold Country. From Sutter Creek, we have easy access to the wineries in Amador County and those of Fair Play in El Dorado County.  

Daffodil Hill is a beautiful 13-mile drive from Sutter Creek. Once you are up at Daffodil Hill, there is plenty of free parking, and access to the Hill is free. Bring your camera along, and a tripod if you have one. It is a photographer’s delight. There is also a picnic area, so, if the day is nice, pack a lunch, sit among the Daffodils and enjoy Life.

As of February 2021, many wineries in Amador County and El Dorado County are open for outdoor tastings. Check our Wine Routes for this area. If you see a winery that interests you, call and find out if the winery is open for outdoor tastings. Above all, stay safe and wear that mask!

Wine Routes in Amador and El Dorado

sutter creek restaurants
The Gold Country town of Sutter Creek

Sutter Creek Tasting Rooms

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Serafina tasting room

The Serafina tasting room in historic Sutter Creek

Sutter Creek Tasting Rooms

Sutter Creek is our favorite gold country town in the Sierra Foothills. We love the town for its old buildings and historic points of interest. Just in the past few years, Sutter Creek has been enjoying a boom in wine country tourism. Wine lovers are spending vacation time to visit the wineries in Amador County. With so many tourists lodging in Sutter Creek, several wineries have decided to open a tasting room in the downtown area. The most recent addition to the tasting room scene is Serafina Cellars. Paul Scotto is the owner and winemaker. Paul is a fifth-generation winemaker in the Scotto Family and established Serafina Cellars, focusing on wines produced from Amador County. Serafina Cellars has a broad lineup of Amador wines that are delicious and priced reasonably. There are several other wonderful tasting rooms in Sutter Creek. Take a walk along the three-block stretch of downtown Sutter Creek, where you can spend an entire day shopping and wine tasting in this delightful gold country town.

More information on Sutter Creek

 

Getaway to the Sierra Foothills Wine Country

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Looking out on the Shenandoah Valley from the Andis Winery

Looking out on the Shenandoah Valley from Andis Winery

Sierra Foothills Wine Country

Do you travel to the California wine country? Most likely you have been to Napa Valley and Sonoma.  A getaway to the Sierra Foothills Wine Country is a vastly different experience.  It is much more fun and rewarding. Don’t get me wrong; I love the Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley wine country. Things have changed there recently, mostly in the cost and some snobbery. Not so in the Sierra Foothills. It is what the Napa Valley was like 25 years ago. We spent three days this last adventure in Amador and El Dorado Counties. We can’t wait to get back.

Sutter Creek

We made our home base in the old gold mining town of Sutter Creek, lodging at the Hanford House Inn. Owners Athena and Robert Gordon have made the Hanford House Inn into a warm, welcoming spot.  The place is cozy and very comfortable. The restaurant at Hanford House Inn is called Element and is currently serving fantastic breakfast dishes. The plan is to have the restaurant open for dinner later in the year.

French Toast at Element Restaurant

French Toast at Element Restaurant

Down the street, the best choice for dinner is the restaurant at the Hotel Sutter. The food is good with nightly specials, a full bar and wine list that includes local wineries. Two new spots are also preparing for dinner openings, Buffalo Chips and Cavana. Buffalo Chips has some fantastic sandwiches.  A good place for coffee and sandwiches is Sina’s Backroads Cafe.

 

The grilled ham & cheese at Buffalo Chips

The grilled ham & cheese at Buffalo Chips

 

There are a plethora of quality wine tasting rooms in Sutter Creek, including Sera Fina, Bella Grace, Scott Harvey, Baiocchi, and Yorba. If you can only make it to one tasting room, Yorba is it. Vintner Ann Kramer farms her Shake Ridge Vineyards and has winemaker Ken Bernards produce high-quality wines at reasonable prices that rival wines from any California wine region.

Amador County Wine Trails

Sierra Foothills wine country

The Amador wine country is 15 minutes from Sutter Creek. What we enjoy about this wine region is that most of the wineries are small and family-owned. Tasting rooms are quaint and friendly. Wine tasting fees are either free or no more than $10 per person. We have divided up the wineries into two distinct wine routes. Follow one of these trails and discover the spectacular Shenandoah Valley wine country in Amador.

Fair Play Wineries in El Dorado

From Sutter Creek, the small town of Fair Play and the wineries of Fair Play are approximately a 25-mile drive through the beautiful backroads of both Amador and El Dorado Counties. Two wineries not to be missed in Fair Play are Cedarville Vineyard and Skinner Vineyards. Both make fantastic wines. The Cedarville Viognier and Petite Sirah are delicious. The owners Susan Marks and Jonathan Lachs will make you feel very much at home.

Cedarville Vineyards tasting room

Cozy Cedarville tasting room is located in the wine cellars

For complete information on all the regions of the Sierra Foothills – The Wineries of the Sierra Foothills. Here you will find all the information you need to plan a spectacular wine country getaway.

Is Sutter Creek the best wine country town in the Sierra Foothills?

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Sutter Creek best wine town Sutter Creek Theater and other boutiques on Main Street

Is Sutter Creek the best wine town in the Sierra Foothills?

Here are some reasons why we think it is.

Close to wineries

Sutter Creek is 20 minutes away from the Shenandoah Valley in the Plymouth area. There are over 40 wineries in this area of Amador County.  The wineries are mostly small and family owned. Most of the wineries are open from Thursday to Sunday, but several others are open daily. This wine country features some lovely side country roads lined with oak trees, grasslands and vineyards. For more wine adventures, travelers can head into the Fair Play wine region of El Dorado County. There are 19 wineries there, and many feature Rhone-style wines. Our favorite wineries are listed in our Sierra Foothills Wine Routes.

Excellent B&B’s

Sutter Creek offers many choices in B&B accommodations. Leading the way is the newly-remodeled Hanford House Inn. Owners Robert and Athena Gordon are wonderful hosts. Other B&B’s include the Eureka Street Inn and the Grey Gables Inn.  The Hotel Sutter has also recently been remodeled and has a lively bar and restaurant.

Tasting Room Row

In this small town, there are nine tasting rooms. They have their own Website, Sutter Creek Wine on Main, with complete visiting details. We like Yorba, Scott Harvey and Baiocchi. We really have not had much chance to visit the others, but I would guess they are also good. On Thursday, Yorba stays open until 7 pm. Beginning at 5 pm,  catered food from Lucy’s Spice Box is featured along with the great Yorba wines.

A historic gold mining town

Sutter Creek is where the gold discoveries began in California. There are lots of historic treasures, and visitors can take a tour of some of the old mining caves. If you are a California history buff, you will find plenty to do in the Sutter Creek area. The Sutter Creek Association has a complete list of the tours and historic gold mining sites.

Boutique shops

Even though the town is all of three blocks long, you can spend a lazy afternoon visiting many boutique shops loaded with knick-knacks, antiques, artworks and other goodies. Sandwich in a couple of wine tasting visits while browsing the cool shops.

Gourmet Dining

The Hotel Sutter and Susan’s Place are the top dining spots for now. But soon, the Element Restaurant at the Hanford House Inn will be serving gourmet dinners. Hanford House presently serves a fantastic breakfast.  I am sure that we can expect some delicious dinner meals by mid Spring. Additionally, there are the Sutter Creek Cheese Shoppe, Sutter Creek Provisions and Cavana’s Deli for gourmet items not found at the local markets.

The town of Volcano and Daffodil Hill

Volcano is an even smaller town 13 miles from Sutter Creek. Up in Volcano is the St. George Hotel. It is a historic place with an old saloon and restaurant. It is a fun spot. There is also the Union Inn and Pub. From late March to mid-April (depending on the weather), Daffodil Hill is a huge attraction. See our article on our visit there in late Feb.

Amador Flower Farm

While wine tasting in the Shenandoah Valley, mix in a trip to the finest garden nursery in Amador County. It’s the Amador Flower Farm on Shenandoah School Road.  They have a wide variety of flowers, plants, and trees available.  They also have a good selection of garden-related merchandise for sale.

Sutter Creek Slide Show

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The slide show gives you a quick glance at all the interesting and exciting things you can do in and around Sutter Creek. Sutter Creek is on the rise and it is destined to become one of the more popular wine country towns in California.

Something missing?

Did we miss something? An attraction, restaurant or lodging? Please post in the comment section. Even though Sutter Creek is small, there is always something new each time we visit.

Baiocchi Tasting Room in Sutter Creek

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Baiocchi Tasting Room in Sutter Creek

Baiocchi Tasting Room on Main Street in Sutter Creek, CA.

Baiocchi Tasting Room in Sutter Creek

Baiocchi Tasting Room in Sutter Creek is one of several new tasting rooms in this Gold Country town. Baiocchi Wines‘ first vintage was 2009. Greg Baiocchi is the winemaker and his wife Sharon tends to the business and PR end of the winery. Both Greg and Sharon work the tasting room that is open Thursday through Sunday, 11am to 5 pm. Baiocchi Wines is actually located in El Dorado County in the Fair Play AVA, about 30 miles northeast of Sutter Creek. In Fair Play, the Baiocchis have 12 acres which they farm sustainably. The Baiocchis felt that their wines would receive much more attention with a tasting room in Sutter Creek. Fair Play is off the beaten path, and Sutter Creek is becoming a destination wine country town. Baiocchi is a small-production winery with an annual production of 1300 cases of wine a year. There are actually two labels, the Baiocchi label and the GB label.  The latter label includes wines that are more affordable, with less oak and aging. The main focus at Baiocchi is on Rhone-style varietals and blends. In the whites, we thoroughly enjoyed the Viognier, so much so that we purchased some for home. The reds were all well made and tasty, but we thought the Sharon’s Vineyard Grenache was a pure delight. There are eight tasting rooms in Sutter Creek, and certainly the Baiocchi tasting room is one to put on your visitation list. We always enjoy a wine tasting, but when the person pouring the wine is the owner or winemaker, it is so much more educational and interesting.

Additional Information on the Sutter Creek area

Ann Kraemer, Master Vineyard Manager and Yorba Wines

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Yorba Wine Tasting

Yorba Tasting Room – 51 Hanford Street in Sutter Creek

Ann Kraemer – Shake Ridge Ranch and Yorba Wines

This is an update to an article I wrote five years ago about our tour through what is now regarded as one of the top vineyards in California, Ann Kraemer’s Shake Ridge Vineyards. Fast forward five years, and Ann Kraemer now has a successful tasting room in Sutter Creek. The Yorba wine tasting room is at 51 Hanford Street. We stopped in Thursday while visiting the Amador wine area and found the tasting room alive and well with a throng of folks tasting Yorba wines, along with catered food from Lucy’s Spice Box. Ann Kraemer sells 80% of her Shake Ridge fruit to various winemakers in California. She keeps 20% for the Yorba label. These wines are held from release at least two years or longer than the average release time for most wineries. The idea behind Ann’s late release is to showcase to winemakers the amazing quality and complexity that is possible from the grapes grown at Shake Ridge Ranch. Not only are these wines excellent in quality, the prices are very reasonable. The tasting room is open Thursday 12-7, Friday to Monday 12-5. If you are in the quaint town of Sutter Creek, stop in at the Yorba tasting room.

Originally posted in March of 2010

A few weeks back we had the chance to visit Ann Kraemer at her beautiful hillside vineyards on Shake Ridge Ranch in Amador County. What a pleasure it was to be with one of the most respected vineyard managers in the world of wine. Ann has been at the business of vineyard management for 19 years. Most of that has been working for others, and now that she’s at Shake Ridge she has fulfilled a dream to run her vineyards and reap the rewards of her vast experience.

Ann took us on a wonderful one-hour vineyard walk through the Shake Ridge Vineyards. Ann and her family purchased the ranch in 2001. It took Ann over a year to plan the vineyard. Soil was analyzed from six-foot deep pits dug at various locations. Which grapes would grow best and exactly where on the ranch would favor the growing conditions for a particular grape? For example, Barbera loves heat, so the orientation for those vines is on west-facing slopes. Petite Sirah was planted in the lower spots of the vineyard where the soil is more fertile and cooler. At the same time, Ann wanted to make sure she preserved the beauty of the ranch. As you can see from the photo, the oak trees have been preserved and add a wonderful attractiveness to the hillside vineyards.

ann kraemer shake ridge

Shake Ridge Ranch in the hills above Sutter Creek

There are 34 acres planted on the 185-acre ranch, with Zinfandel and Syrah making up the largest plots and Tempranillo, Petite Sirah, Monvedre, Granache and Viognier making up the smaller plots. Thirty percent of the vines are used for Ann’s Yorba label; the rest of the grapes are sold to ten different winemakers. Each winemaker has a specific plot and Ann works closely with each winemaker to make critical vineyard management decisions. In a week or so after our meeting with Ann, she was to meet with each winemaker to discuss pruning strategies. Pruning was scheduled for roughly two weeks after our visit. That is a bit late in the year but Ann points out that the longer she can delay pruning the longer she can delay bud break, giving her an added protection against frost. There is no frost protection that Ann uses, just good old Mother Nature. “Cold air runs downhill like water, so at the low spots we don’t plant vines.”

Ann Kraemer

Ann Kraemer – our walk included wine tasting stations

Before purchasing Shake Ridge she did vineyard management for Cuvaison, Clos Pegase, Swanson, Domain Chandon and others. She has consulted for some of the biggest names, such as Stagecoach and Shafer. She is a master at her craft and you really get a sense of her passion and commitment to grow the best grapes for the soil and the land that she cherishes.

Her Yorba wines are made by Ken Bernards of Ancien fame. From our walking tour we are sure that Ken Bernards loves making wine for Ann. The old adage “wine is made in the vineyards”could not be more true is this case. The wines are absolutely delicious, elegant, and nicely priced for the quality of the wines.

Additional Sutter Creek Information

Plymouth wine country

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Plymouth wine country

One of the first vineyards just outside of Plymouth

Plymouth wine country

Is Plymouth wine country the new Napa Valley? For sure it is not! It is a unique wine country with a character all its own. For the most part, Plymouth wine country has many small family-owned wineries. A few “big boys” have recently arrived like Turley and Andis, but this wine area is all about small and tucked-away wineries, beautiful rolling hills of vineyards and oak woodlands. The town of Plymouth is small and the downtown stretch is only one block long. Begin your trek there at the Amador Vintage Market. You can stock up on picnic goodies before you head out to the Plymouth wine country. We always call ahead and have the deli prepare our lunch in advance. We learned our lesson the hard way. A few years back (we’ve visited once year since 2002), a large wine tour van arrived just before us. The staff is meticulous at the Vintage Market and we waited almost an hour to get our lunches made. Directly across the street is the finest restaurant in the area, Taste. You may want to dine there for dinner on your wine country getaway. Your next stop is Shenandoah Road. Go back to Highway 49 and then across the road to Shenandoah Road. There are several wineries to visit, and we have divided the area into two distinct wine routes (see below). In Plymouth on Highway 49 there is a tasting room that features most of the local wines. It is Amador 360, a Wine Collective and Tasting Room. You may want to stop in there first to get your bearings. For lodging, we like to stay over in the Gold Country town of Sutter Creek. It is a throwback in time and looks much like it did in the old mining days. There are restaurants, boutique shopping and tasting rooms in Sutter Creek.

Additional Information on Plymouth Wine Country

Shenandoah Valley Wine Route
Shenandoah School Road Wine Route
Restaurants near Plymouth
Lodging near Plymouth

The new and improved Hanford House Inn

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image hanford house

Main entrance

Hanford House Inn

Once a year we make a trip to the wine country of Amador and El Dorado Counties. We have been doing this since 1999 without a miss. The first couple of years it was just the two of us. We realized quickly that our friends would also love Sutter Creek and the surrounding wine country. Now eleven of us make this annual trek.

We have stayed in different B&B’s in Sutter Creek during that time, but by far our favorite has been the Hanford House Inn. Six years ago Robert and Athena Gordon purchased the Inn and each year they have made improvements. This past year they took the inn to a new level, even in the midst of welcoming their first baby! This recent Valentine’s Day we enjoyed a two-night stay at the newly-remodeled and improved Hanford House Inn.

Our room at the Hanford House Inn

Our room at the Hanford House Inn

The Hanford House Inn has been completed revamped over the past 11 months. Additions have been made to the main building, and all existing rooms have had a complete makeover. The renovation of the building is sleek and clean with great attention to “green” use of materials. The art and furnishings are eclectic, comfortable, and pleasing. The high ceilings and light in rooms create a spacious atmosphere. A new kitchen has been added, providing guests with a wonderful and different gourmet breakfast each morning. The kitchen will also be the center of Elements, a restaurant set to open in about four weeks.

There had been a large conference room at the inn that was seldom used for seminars, and the Gordons saw it as an ideal area to establish a restaurant. The restaurant will open initially for breakfast and then later for lunch and dinner. The town of Sutter Creek is in dire need of an upscale restaurant, and we hope that Elements can fill that need.

There are many good things to like about the Hanford House Inn but the best and most important for us are Robert and Athena Gordon. They are the perfect hosts. They treat their guests like they are family members staying as guests at their home. They are caring, thoughtful and gracious.

Cutouts from the walls in former breakfast area

Cutouts from the walls in former breakfast area

One cool thing the Gordons did was preserve bits and pieces of the old Hanford House Inn. In the old breakfast room guests had been invited to write their thoughts on the wall with sharpies. The walls and ceiling were filled with memorable quotes. Rather than dump the walls in the remodel of the area, they saved random squares of the writings and have mounted them at various locations in the inn. A very nice touch! They also took the breakfast tables and refinished the wood to make a new set of dining tables.

Both mornings we had scones and coffee just outside our room. Breakfast was a delight with French Toast and sausage the first day followed by delicious Eggs Benedict with a lemon sauce on the second day.

image of eggs benedict

Eggs Benedict

We are wine country and wine tasting enthusiasts and the location of Sutter Creek and the Hanford House Inn provide a gateway for exploring wineries in nearby Shenandoah Valley and beyond in the Fair Play area of El Dorado County. The town of Sutter Creek is becoming a wine tasting room mecca. With names like Yorba, Scott Harvey, and Bella Grace at the forefront, we will more than likely see additional tasting rooms on Main Street. Currently there are nine tasting rooms open.

The Hanford House Inn has 12 rooms in the main building and a separate cottage that has four rooms available. Book early because the Hanford House Inn is becoming a very popular spot.

Our friend Mary summed up our experience best: “The new design is very forward thinking in my opinion, but still retains the warmth of the inn. But this warmth is mostly due to the hosts, Robert and Athena, and now their new family addition, Ravi. The colors on the walls are gorgeous and each room blends gracefully into the other. Our second floor room was simply furnished and very comfortable and inviting. Breakfast was outstanding. Not being an Eggs Benedict fan, I was totally surprised with the mellowness of the Meyer Lemon sauce. Delicious. We’ll be back!”

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