The scenery was breathtaking, filled with mountain peaks, mountain lakes, small hamlets and tall green forests. As we descended into the lower elevations, the landscaped changed to rolling hills with smaller trees of different types including numerous California live oaks. With a rude awakening we entered the outskirts of the big city with its bustling traffic. It certainly had been quiet and pleasant up in the mountains at Lake Tahoe. It made me realized that even back in the early 1900's those people who traveled to Lake Tahoe for escape from the city did it for the same reason we enjoy doing it now.
After settling in our campground in Sacramento California, the capital of California, at Cal Expo adjacent to the California State Fairgrounds, Dee gave us a short orientation meeting. Terry Selk, Director of Tourism for Sacramento and Nick Leonti told us about the many activities available in the Sacramento area as well as interesting facts about the different wine regions we would be visiting. They even brought samples for us from two nearby wineries. They are working on putting the Sacramento wine country on the map. Elevation dictates the the growing conditions for the grapes and the lower areas are better for reds. The foothills have more white wines. During our four day visit we will experience these changes. The elevation of Sacramento is 52 feet. At Truckee the elevation was 5840 feet, so we have come down quite a bit. The weather will be much different too. It's going to be in the 90's during the days.
Our car caravan headed east to Amador County and the town of Plymouth. Leaving the city we first passed flat open lands, then came to the foothills and more trees. One community was filled with horse ranches and equestrian areas. Our Sacramento area gourmet dinner was presented to us at the Taste Restaurant owned by Tracy Berkner and her husband Mel who is the chef. The restaurant is open five days a week and the waiting list is months long for a weekend reservation. See www.restauranttaste.com They opened especially for our group with a choice of two main dishes: Wild Mexican Prawns and Iowa Pork Loin, each prepared in a special manner. Our appetizer was fresh figs stuffed with a special bleu cheese and a small amount of balsamic vinegar. The three different kinds of fresh baked bread were outstanding (I had to sit on my hands to stop
eating it). An unusual salad of heirloom tomatoes and two kinds of fresh green beans followed. Dessert choices were chocolate decadence or vanilla bean gelato. Both were yummy!! The food, presentation and service were outstanding and the local wines were wonderful. A surprise glass of Black Muscat accompanied our dessert and coffee.Tracy is also the president of the County Tourism Bureau and gave us an insight into the wine making families and their businesses. The town grew during the gold rush due to the lumber mills that were needed to send to the mines. Now it is mostly an agricultural area where some of the premier grapes of Northern California are grown for the 40 wineries in the county in addition to sending grapes to Napa. The people are a close knit group and always helping each other.
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