Sutter Creek and Sierra Foothills Getaway

Valentine’s Weekend, February 15 to 17, 2003

We arrived around 12:30 on Saturday in Sutter Creek. The hills are a stunning deep green color and a few wildflowers are beginning to show. This is a busy place this weekend with “No Vacancy” signs the norm. In addition to Valentines’ Day weekend, the Charles Mitchell Winery in nearby El Dorado County is having a special event called “Bottle Your Own.” This brings in a lot of visitors to the area. It’s also Presidents’ Day on Monday, making it a three-day weekend for many.

Our first activity upon arriving on Saturday is lunch. This is our fourth trip to Sutter Creek and for the first time we try Susan’s Place, Wine Bar and Eatery. It’s on Eureka St. The menu has a good variety of hot dishes, cold and hot sandwiches, and salads. We rate Susan’s Place a 3 on our 5-point scale. If you go there for lunch, eat outside if the weather permits. Inside, it is a bit dark and gloomy. Our service was somewhat slow.

We take a 13-mile drive up Church St. in Sutter Creek to the tiny town of Volcano. This is a beautiful road that runs along the creek. The town of Volcano has two main attractions, The Hotel St. George and its restaurant, and a nearby theatre. Both are interesting attractions. There is also Daffodil Hill on an off road that is quite an attraction when thousands of daffodils are in bloom. We skip that because it is too early in the season for daffodils to bloom.

Dinner at Zinfandel’s: We always make sure we eat at Zinfandel’s when we visit Sutter Creek. We had a party of eight and they accommodated us nicely. All meals were excellent. Greg West, owner and chef was formerly a chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco. The menu offers a variety of dishes, including some vegetarian delights. The wine list has several local wines and the prices are surprisingly reasonable. We were disappointed that none of the Syrah wines on the list were from local wineries. There are some great Syrah wines made in the Sierra Foothills. We rate Zinfandel’s a 4.5 on our 5 point scale.

Our lodging selection is the Eureka Inn Bed & Breakfast. Normally, we stay at the Hanford House Inn. When we called for reservations they were booked. The Hanford House suggested the Eureka Inn. We were very pleased with our stay at the Eureka Inn. The rooms are decorated nicely and the price was reasonable. Our room rate was $130 per night. On Sunday they served us a very tasty egg casserole for breakfast. It was a hearty breakfast and that is good because we had a long day of wine tasting ahead of us.

Our Day Wine Tasting: We followed our Sierra Foothill Tour Route and visited five wineries from our list, four from Amador County and one from El Dorado County.

Our first stop is the Montevina Winery. They produced an amazing 19 varieties of wine here. Of the wines we tasted, we liked the Syrah, and the School House Red. One thing nice about traveling with friends is the opportunity to share buying a case of wine and receive the case discount.

The next winery is Domain de La Terra Rouge – This winery is a Rhone specialist. We very much liked the Cotes de l’Ouest Syrah for $15 and the Sierra Foothills Syrah for $24.

Our next winery is Karly Winery. This winery is a Zinfandel specialist. They make several vineyard-designated Zinfandels and the Warrior Fires Amador County Zinfandel is excellent. We also found their Sauvignon Blanc to be exceptionally good.

We stop for lunch at Deaver Vineyards. This the best spot for a picnic lunch in Amador County. You can buy some lunch goodies at the winery, but we were prepared in advance. We stopped earlier at the Pokerville Market in Plymouth. It is an excellent market with a good deli. They also have a very nice selection of local wines. Some of the wines sold at the market are less expensive than you would find at the wineries.

Our next stop is the highlight of the day. We phoned earlier in the day to make an appointment to visit the Cedarville Winery*. We arrive at the winery at 2:30 and are greeted by the husband-wife team of Jonathan Lachs and Susan Marks. They are the owners and winemakers. And, in fact, they do just about everything around the winery. Their production is geared for up to 3000 cases per year. Jonathan and Susan give us a history of the winery, and give us a tour of their unique barrel aging rooms. Unfortunately, they are sold out of their award-winning Syrah and the Cabernet. However, they do let us taste the 2001 Syrah that will be released in May of 2003. We can’t wait! Jonathan and Susan are two very special people and their wines reflect this in everyway.

That finishes up our day of wine tasting. We are tired and head back to the inn so we can rest and get ready for dinner.

Dinner: We drive into Jackson, which is about 2 miles away and eat at Theresa’s restaurant. The restaurant has been around since 1923 and serves tradition Italian family style faire. The food is okay but it is a happy place and our group of eight has a very fun time. We rate the restaurant a 3 on our 5-point scale.

On Monday, we go for an early morning walk and return to our inn for a delicious breakfast of French toast. We need to be back home early, so we pack and leave Sutter Creek. This is a great place to get away. It has been an enjoyable time that our group makes plans to return again this same time next year.