After a great day of wine tasting, 4 Vineyards today, lunch downtown in Amador City and then a run over to Jackson for the casino,  we finally make it to dinner and we’re going to get our Taste. Taste Restaurant is overwhelmingly the number one choice in Amador County. Every person at every winery tell us we have to go to Taste, and when we do,m we need to order the Mushroom Cigars. After taking a peak at the menu, Nancy is extremely excited about it, and drooling over the idea of finally getting her hands on some crispy-skinned Duck. (And this time when we called for reservations we also confirmed the Duck was in fact being served.)

We head on over to Taste and somehow, on a one lane highway in this small town, we get lost! I guess I was not paying attention and turned one little side street too soon. Cute little small town houses, reflecting the simplicity of life here in Plymouth, population 971. We come to a street that seems to have a couple of shops on it, so I make a right hand turn, go down a block or two and along what I can best describe as a cowboy boardwalk, we find Taste. Looking at the store fronts, I literally feel like I should tie up my horse. This is so reminiscent of what you would see in a country-western movie. We mosey on in and are greeted by the hostess with a huge smile on her face. (Everyone here is just so nice. I love it!) She tells us that the table will be ready in about 10 minutes or so, quite a crowd tonight being Thursday and all. I see a couple of spots at the bar, so we decide to “saddle up to the bar and we’ll let the barkeep get our fixins. (That’s what cowboys used to say back in the day)

Let’s face it, the bar is where the fun is, and in wine country, of course you’re going to have the chance to bump elbows with some interesting folk. We sit down and present our bottles to enjoy the evening with: the sparkly Nancy picked and my red blend, the Knucklehead, both from the Serafina visit earlier today. His first words were, “Oh…I love the Knucklehead,” and proceeds to open both, the sparkly to have now, the Knucklehead to air.

Nancy asked what are the favorites that people ordered to start with and he responds with the Mushroom Cigars. Phyllo dough wrapped minced mushroom goodness. We start with the champagne to toast the night and Daniel D’Agostini comes in and sits next to us and we begin chatting. He’s kind of a big thing in Shenandoah. His family has been working the lands here for decades, and if you want something to grow in the valley, you call Dan. He informs us that we have to try the the Mushroom Cigars. “You are absolutely going to love it. It’s their best menu item.” Everyone loves this starter. Gary returns with glasses for the sparkly wine and we order the entrées. Nancy asked about the Duck, if the skin is crispy? He responds yes, and she’s in heaven. I’m a little torn between steak and seafood tonight. I ask him how many scallops are in the order and he states four. Then Nancy states how much I love steak, but I can’t make a decision between the two. And then Nick said something that totally catches me off-guard, something I’ve never heard in a restaurant : “We can split that so you can have a surf-n-turf if you’d like? What? I have had restaurants offer to split an order entrée between the two of us, with scallops between the two of us, But I have never heard a restaurant splitting two separate entrées for one single person to make a new dish. Poof!…That was my mind being blown.

The Mushroom Cigars comes out and it’s a beautiful presentation, two stacks of mushrooms plated it with a mushroom-olive oil puree. One bite and wow! The phyllo dough has such a wonderful light crunch. The mushrooms breakout and play on your tongue with an savory earthly flavor. I can see why everybody in the county points to this place and this dish, and so does Sacramento Magazine, as they select the “Mushroom Cigars” at Taste as the Best Appetizer in the Sacramento region. I only regret is that we order a single order and split them. I have to take a smaller second bite so I can make this last three bites. Just yum!

Mushroom cigars with Knucklehead wine from Serafina, Amador City

Creekstone Farms Filet Mignon and Day Boat Sea Scallops

Grimaud Farms Duck Breast

Happy birthday from the staff at Taste!

The main dishes make their appearance in perfect timing. I still cannot get over the fact that they combined two entrées for a single diner! The steak was perfectly cooked, so tender and juicy, perfect char on it, accompanied by potato and sunchoke terrine and perfectly browned Scallops with that coconut-curry cream! Oh my God, I’m in heaven. I want more! Nancy‘s Duck is just beautiful in it’s presentation. A full boat of Duck sliced and laid out to display its juicy, tender breast, seared to perfection and accompanied by little Cannellini bean cakes and a dreamy mirepoix and blackberries. We have the Knucklehead with dinner and toast to one of the best birthday dinners we’ve ever had. The staff was so generous, and kindly present us with a happy birthday card signed by the staff. Thank you Gary, chef Mark Berkner and the rest of the kind and sweet staff at Taste! You lived up to your name.

Day 2 starts with breakfast and a beautiful view outside the window of our room. Last nights dinner was still in our minds. The steak was surprisingly good, the Gorgonzola cream sauce was delish! OK, well lets map the day out. How about we have wine in the vineyards, lets’ hit Helwig for their view, Cooper for their Barbera, and Andis to pick up some bottles for cousin Michael, and then back to Sutter for lunch? Perfect!

Andis Winery is our first stop, and again, we start the tasting all by ourselves. Lindsey is behind the counter today and gives us a nice rundown of Andis history. And in doing so, tells us how she has worked at a few of the wineries in the area, visits the others to learn more about wines and also has great connections about places to eat. We mentioned we need to eat at some point today, and she points us to Buffalo Chip in Sutter Creek for their great burgers. OK! Wine. Burgers. More wine. Sounds like it’s going to be a great day. And again, Andis has some wonderful wines, the Zins are great, but they work their magic on the Cooper supplied Barbera grapes. Great, Cooper is our next stop, so we’re in good company. We grab a Barbera for ourselves, grab two for cousin Michael and drop a couple of bucks in the donation jar to help the Santa Rosa fire effort. We say goodbye and head off to Cooper.

Cooper Vineyards lies at the end of a small private road that runs through Barbera vines and past the old Shenandoah School. This old school was originally built in 1879, almost 140 years ago! The school was built after the main gold rush ended in ‘55, but amazingly, it’s been in use ever since. Oh I’m sure it’s been renovated, added on, modernized and even more, but still pretty awesome to stand with some Gold Rush history.

Cooper Vineyards is one of the main suppliers of Barbera grapes in Amador County. Other vineyards may grow their other varietals on their lands, but for Barbera, everyone comes through Cooper or Ann Kraemer over in Sutter Creek. The scorching hot summers help the grape thin out and retain their sugar, but it’s the rolling hills in the county that allow the right amount of drainage so the vines don’t retain too much water during the wet seasons. At Sonoma wine competitions, Amador County rocks, snagging 11 out of 25 gold medals last year. The next closest appellation to score medals is in fact the next closest appellation, El Dorado County, 20 mins to the east, which garnered four medals.

Cooper is a simple tasting room. An example of what I figured a tasting room in this quiet town would be like. A simple open space for the tasting bar backed by barrels of Barbera and Zinfandel. We step up to the bar, say hi to the couple we met yesterday at Turley, and are greeted by Hank Cooper, son of the vineyard. He gives all kinds of great details of the wine, including the fact that they are actually out of Barbera for tasting. What! Of course they have the reserve Barbera for $20 a glass. Uh, I love Barbera, but this tasting is free and I have 2 more vineyards today, 4 or so tomorrow, so much easier to just buy another bottle and enjoy the Zinfandels and Syrahs on the menu.

Well now it’s lunch time and everyone keeps talking about Buffalo Chips, so we head over for lunch. It’s a 16 minute drive back to Sutter Creek, and on the way, we pass the coolest town name ever, Drytown! Yes, what a cool name. Just imagine the name comes from the fact that agents from the federal government ransacked the place during prohibition and seized and smashed all the alcohol. Awesome…but wrong 🙁 There’s a creek that ran through the town that runs dry in summer. Oh great!

Buffalo Chips is the local malt shop in town, the classic small town Americana that I grew up with. While we were there, the shop was being photographed by a local magazine. I wonder who’s photos came out best? Anyway, this burger was damn good with a gooey American cheese slice and thick cut bacon. The fries must have been cooked up in some Riesling fat or something because they were exceptionally tasty. And I do not little frittes, I’m more of a fat thick fries guy, but I couldn’t get enough of these. Probably should have order a second round, but with more wine on the way, I held off.

Lunch was great and we take a walk around town. It’s a small town so it’s an easy walk to cruise the two blocks of storefronts. Knick knacks, candy, ice cream shops make up the lanes. We decide we need to come back tomorrow for sure, but for now, it’s back to the Shenandoah wineries. OK, now we can hit Helwig, wait, what’s that big white building? The Methodist church at the end of the strip is a throw back to small town churches and leads us to walk another block or two. Cool little town, and since we’re here, and it’s getting late, let’s check out some of the tasting here. Sounds good to me!

Bella Grace Vineyards tasting room, conveniently enough, was located right next to where we parked the car. This little house in the middle of town sits below street level, and has been converted into a tasting room for wine and olive oils. Interesting, because as this is the main street, and its the only house in the situation, surrounded by the two-story mining town buildings. So walking down to the entrance of the house is just the first step of the journey, literally, the tasting room is located in I guess was previously the basement of the house. So a couple more steps down and you’re there. Bella Grace was the first of the wineries where we  had a hard time finding our palette.  The Barbera was too light, almost like a Pinot. The Reserve Zinfandel was a thick flavored, syrupy tasting concoction. The Primativo, another one of my favorites, tasted like it been sitting out just a little too long and started picking up vinegar. I don’t know what happened but things just were not sitting right until, by mistake, we came across the Reserve Petite Sirah.  This had a wonderful nose, great finish, luscious berries popping out all over the place. All right, give me a bottle! It was also the first time we started coming across the little wine pour figurines. Stag heads, roosters, coyotes, bears, all sorts of woodland creatures had been configured into little pewter figurines for use as pour spouts on the bottles. But it $25 a pop, just seem like an unnecessary gimmicky tourist trinkets not needed now.

Sera Fina Cellars is just down the street from Bella Grace, and next door to Scott Harvey. For the first time this trip, Scott Harvey was a tasting room that was full of people. Given it was getting later on Thursday, maybe more visitors were starting to show up in town. Sera Fina represented an interesting change in taste as they specialize in flavored ciders as well as wines. Their wines were a little sweet for my taste mostly plans from various vineyards in the valley, but there are ciders were unique. Nancy picked up a six pack of the pineapple cider she become attached to, to share with friends back at home. I grabbed a bottle of Pinot Grigio, and we stayed on drinking and chatting with another couple there, residents of Sutter Creek who moved here from Sacramento. I guess they were enjoying the small town life and things were going well for them. A younger couple, he’s in construction and she’s a teacher at the school. Perfect small town life.

It was getting late again, my how the day flies, and shops were closing up, so one of the ladies at tasting mentioned the magic word of “casino” and that got Nancy going. The casino was in Jackson, about 15 mins away, and she just had to go. I wanted to explore more, so we compromised and stopped in downtown Jackson to walk the main street there first. The first thing we notice was the National Hotel. A huge, white old cowboy two story saloon and room looking place and the end of the street. I begin to notice a theme here. the small town has a main street that always seems to end at a hotel. Same way in westerns too. Something about being able to keep an eye on things I guess. But it also makes you wonder, how did they build these places before Home Depot was around? Must have been neat getting all this building material out here. I guess thats why railroads were so important in the expansion of the country. We step inside and the decor is just amazing. The pressed tin roof of Stanley’s Steakhouse downstairs was incredible. The parlor on the first floor maintains its old west flair. It looks like something from a movie set. I was expecting to see gents walking around in Bowler hats and ladies in Petticoats and umbrellas.

We leave, head over to the casino for an hour or so. Nancy has a little luck, so we leave an extra money for the meter and head back to get ready for dinner. Tonight it’s dining at Taste. Everyone raves about the place so we are really looking forward to it. Nancy is hoping they have Duck tonight, since she missed out on it at the Imperial Hotel. We’ll see! We head back to the hotel with 6 bottles of wine, after 4 stops and we begin to question how are we going to get this home. Oh boy. Well, maybe we can drink one at dinner, one after dinner back in the room, and the another….oh boy. We’ll figure something out. Worse case, when we drive back to Elk Grove to visit cousin Michael, we’ll guzzle as much as we can there and leave the rest as gifts.