Sutter Creek is a picturesque little town in California’s Amador County along highway 49. This is the heart of California Gold Country, there’s still gold in them thar hills BUT the overwhelming interest in the area now is wine! Amador County is a favorite wine tasting destination of mine. We have extended family that lives just outside of Sutter Creek and they offered to host a pre-Christmas dinner for a small group of us couples that we commonly get together with.
Everybody in our group seemed to have a slightly different schedule, so my wife Nancy and I decided we’d get to town a little on the early side and do some sightseeing and Christmas shopping. Main Street was beautiful; the entire town was decorated for Christmas. Sutter Creek has many Boutique and Antique shops to browse, along with eateries and wine tasting rooms. If you’d like to stay, there’s several Bed & Breakfast Inns in town and the surrounding area to choose from.
The first thing we noticed upon arrival is that our cell phones didn’t have any service, a common malady with our service provider so we’d just have to wing-it as far as connecting with the rest of our group. It’s a small town we’re sure to run into each other sooner or later. We had browsed several Antique shops and purchased several items to add to our Christmas decorations and gifts. It was closing in on ‘Wine Time’ and about time we should be seeing some of our group. One last check on the phones – still no service, but I noticed one of the wineries had an open WiFi connection so I turned on WiFi Calling on my phone and we went inside. The Winery was Scott Harvey Wines, Scott is a bit of a legend in NorCal Wine Country, having made wines for Story, Santino and Renwood in Amador County and Folie a Deux in Napa. Many of you may be familiar with Folie a Deux’s Menage à Trois Wines. Scott now makes his own wines. We like our red wines and Scott never fails to impress, the tasting room pours his Amador County and Napa wines. We bought some of their Mountain Selection Barbera and InZINerator (a wonderful example of Amador County Zinfandels). While we were at Scott Harvey Wines I got a text message from our group and they met us there. We also appreciate that they sell individual glasses of wine. Several of us took advantage of that while we caught up.
After Scott Harvey Wines we all sort of split up to see whatever interested each of us before reassembling at our host’s house for dinner. Someone mentioned the Cheese Shop at the other end of town. Admittedly the other side of town was a short walk. The Sutter Creek Cheese Shoppe was OUTSTANDING! If you like cheese, this is a destination. We sampled cheeses from all over the world, from Cows, Sheep, Goat and I think a few others! I grew up in Upstate New York where I’ve had all kinds of good cheese, and this experience was an eye opener! We took home several types of cheese, the most memorable were the Truffel and the scallion cheddar.
It just so happened that the woman waiting on us at the Sutter Creek Cheese Shoppe was married to the wine maker at Miller Wine Works. She gave us cards for free tasting at the Miller Wine Works Tasting Room which was located in the middle of town. It was getting close to the time to meet for dinner but we had priorities! I was very impressed with Miller Wine Works 2007 Syrah and Teodoro Port so I bought some of each.
We finally met at our host’s for a wonderful delicious dinner (we have lots of good cooks in our family) we enjoyed visiting with each other in the spirit of Christmas. And I’m looking forward to the next time I visit Sutter Creek.