Placerville

I can't believe I didn't blog about this yet. Kristen and I went to the El Dorado wine region up near Placerville, CA recently and discovered some great wines for ourselves. I grew up in Northern California and every summer and winter our family would take the 50 freeway to Lake Tahoe for vacation. Obviously since I was a kid I wasn't aware of wine or anything like that, but it was still a small shock to find out that there is a great, hidden region up there. People know about it of course, but it hasn't been overrun with "wine tourists" yet the way Napa and Sonoma and Temecula have. It's a great region not yet spoiled.

Placerville is basically a small community split down the middle by the 50 freeway. And so is the El Dorado region which is in Amador County. The lower elevation soil is granite while the higher elevation is lava. These two different minerals give the wines from both parts a different character which was really fun to discover.

We stayed in Placerville which has a historic downtown area that was interesting to check out. There's lots of antiquing for the women to do while the men contemplate suicide. Just kidding. Anyway, if you happen to be heading over to Lake Tahoe for skiing or for any of the runs they put on there, think about stopping in this area and imbibing. You won't regret it.