​We almost did not include Jeff Rundquist Wines on our wine tasting journey through the rolling hills of Amador County.  They were holding their wine club pick-up parties and were not open to outsiders.  Fortunately, one of our group decided to join their wine club and we proceeded to have a wonderful start to day three of our travels.  Lovely facility, nice wines, great people, and Touriga….
Ah, you say, what is Touriga?  Touriga is the Jeff Rundquist name for a wine made from the Portuguese grape Touriga Nacional.  While you probably have not heard of this grape, it is most likely that you have drunk wine made from it.  You see, true Port wines come from the region of Portugal around the city of Oporto (from which the name derives).  The most common grape used to make Port is Touriga Nacional.  Hence, if you have ever had wine that is legally labeled Port you have probably tasted Touriga Nacional.

​Jeff Rundquist and many others also use the grape to make a dry red wine.  This is particularly significant 1) because the resulting wine, as I learned on day three in Amador County, is quite good; and 2) because Touriga Nacional is one of four super-tannin grapes, joining the Greek grape Xinomavro, the Italian grape Sagrantino, and the French grape Tannat.  I have written about how highly I regard Tannat and Sagrantino, the latter so much so that we made it a point to visit the Sagrantino home in Montefalco, Italy, to taste the true Italian version.  Tannat has found a home in Uruguay, and wineries in Southern California are making some very nice wines from it and Sagrantino.   Xinomavro is a rarely grown grape, but wines made from this grape are compared favorably with Barolo.  I have not found Xinomavro in any wineries.  While I never put in plugs for restaurants, Yanni’s Bar and Grill, located on Scripps-Poway Parkway in San Diego, has an excellent vintage available.  Being the owner is a true wine lover, the wine is served at the proper temperature – and their food is exceptional.  (I should mention that Yanni is a former neighbor of ours, hence the plug).

​Getting back on track, we had a chance to taste the Touriga.  Excellent, just excellent!  They also offer a Tannat, but it was not available for tasting.  Given how well they handled the Touriga Nacional grape, we purchased a bottle of the Tannat – along with two of the Touriga.  Note however that both the Touriga Nacional and Tannat grapes are grown in Lodi, not Amador County.

​We visited two more wineries on this last day of our Amador adventure, Teneral Cellars first, then Cooper Vineyards.  New owners still working with former owners’ so-so wines, so not fair to review Teneral.  Cooper Vineyards, on the other hand, is well worth discussing.

​The winery was started by Dick Cooper in the 1970’s, and he is notable not only for making some very good wines but also for helping other wineries in the region get started.  Dick Cooper passed away a few years ago.  His four daughters have continued his legacy, though I understand that the winery has recently been put up for sale.

​The Cooper tasting menu is shown below.  The Barbera was very nice, though I preferred the Zinfandel.  In addition to their wine making, they are also a source of excellent grapes, with seventeen varieties available.  Overall, a perfect ending to our three-day wine tasting tour of Amador County.  By the way, we did ship back quite a few bottles of wine with two bottles hand carried.  The two bottles were both from Cooper….

​Day two of our journey to the remote vineyards of Amador County.  We began with an almost edible breakfast in our hotel then a stop at Helwig Winery for wine tasting and then lunch.  Probably should have done the lunch first – not good to drink wine on an empty stomach.

​We tasted a nice variety of wines.  I particularly liked their Davancy Barbera, which is saying a lot as I am not a Barbera fan. 

​There aren’t a lot of restaurants in Amador County, so we decided to eat at Helwig.  Well, we had advance notice from Doc Ed that this was a good place to eat, and he got that right.  Loved the apple onion grilled cheese….

​But the story of day two in Amador County is the Story, i.e., Story Winery.  This very old winery was purchased a few years ago by a family from Georgia.  Not the state of Georgia, but the country of Georgia, located on the eastern shore of the Black Sea.  While they make wine in the state of Georgia, much of is made from the Muscadine grape, a unique North American grape species from which some of the worst wine in the world is made.  The people of Asian Georgia have been making wine for around 10,000 years!  The picture below shows some of their vines – the vines in their Amador vineyard, that is – which are more than 100 years old.  These particular vines are of the Mission grape, the grape brought to California by the Spanish and grown in their missions to make wine for the church.  The facility, also shown below, is quite rustic.

​The Georgian method of making wines is quite different from the French and Italian, though it is likely that the Romans made some of their wines their way.  Known as Qvevri, after the grapes are crushed the must, sometimes including the stems, is put into very large clay vessels.  How large?  See pictures below.

​The vessels are buried in the ground to keep temperature and humidity relatively constant.  Note that the wine is both fermented and aged in these vessels, sometimes for very long periods of time.  The resulting taste profile is quite different from wines made the more modern way.  Story is both importing wines from Georgia as well as making wines using the Qvevri method.  We tasted one wine that was subjected to both Qvevri and oak aging.  While wines made using the Qvevri method do not appeal to me, I suggest that it is well worth trying them out yourself.  They might even give you a discount if you can pronounce Qvevri….
They have a small tasting room, so most of the seating is outside.  Their wine list is shown below, as well as a bottle of their imported wine.

​Our intrepid group, having avoided falling into a Qvevri, went on to our third and final winery of the day, Iron Hub Winery.  By the way, all three of the wineries we visited on day two are located in Plymouth.  Iron Hub is a family run winery fitting the norm for Amador County in offering very nice old vine Zinfandel and much newer vine Barbera, while purchasing some grapes from other areas to add wines such as Petite Syrah to their wine list.  Beautiful facility as well.