Going up highway 49, at the northern edge of California's Amador County, you'll pass through the small city of Plymouth, population just a hair over a thousand. You'll get a small taste of the past as you drive by the local supermarket, Pokerville Market. Get a bigger taste by going inside to get a snack to go...Pokerville was one of the original names for the area.
During the Gold Rush, the Plymouth Consolidated Mines pulled much of the precious ore out of the ground. The main mine was located east of what is now highway 49 in an empty, wooded patch north of the market and south of Amador 360, a local wine shop and tasting room.
William Tecumseh Sherman...who would go on to make his scorched earth march to the sea in the Civil War...surveyed the area in 1848. Settlement started here around 1852 and there are still a few buildings from that era on Plymouth's Main Street.
In 1856, Adam Uhlinger, a Swiss immigrant, planted a vineyard about 10 miles east of town. Unlike a lot of history that only exists in books, this is living history. You can visit Mr. Uhlinger's vineyard and winery, which is still in operation today as the Sobon Estate Winery.
There is a little jostling as to which is the oldest winery in California. Most point to Buena Vista in Sonoma which was founded in 1857. This winery was not only founded a year earlier, but has been in continuous operation...even during the prohibition...ever since.
Wine tasting is available inside...we particularly recommend their Cougar Hill Zinfandel and their Zinfandel Port. Across the patio, there's a very interesting museum (admission free) where you can stand in the original aging room, dug into the hill like a cave.
In between Sobon and the town of Plymouth, a vast valley of vines and tasting rooms used to be California's largest and most productive wine area. It still is one of the top viticultural areas of the state but is overshadowed by the likes of Napa and Sonoma to the west.
Owing to reminding the settlers here of their native Virginia, it's call Shenandoah Valley and is home to over 40 wineries. Many offer sips of wine for a small fee that's refundable if you buy a bottle. Big bold reds are the specialty of this hot, dry climate. Zinfandels, Barberas, and Sangiovese are grown in abundance here.
Back in town, it's pretty quiet but the focus is on one of the state's highest rated restaurants, Taste. With an ever-changing menu of exquisitely produced dishes, it's the highlight of any trip here.
Plymouth is one of the nerve centers of Amador County's very full slate of warm weather events.
In addition to the county fair...which is hosted here at the end of each July...there are concerts at Helwig Winery's amphitheater. They also host a Friday evening party each week from May through September where the mostly local crowd can dance to local bands while sipping wine and noshing on the on-site restaurant's evening special.
Another very popular event here is the blink-and-you-miss-it farmers market that takes place each Thursday for a month and a half at the end of summer.
More of a local get together than farmers market, it's where the low country residents of the county get together to hang out, chat, enjoy a dish from Taste (which, although just across the street, sets up a table with a simple dish they sell for cheap), drink wine (of course, one of the main things to do in this county), and maybe even buy some produce from the one or two stands actually set up for that purpose.
Plymouth is also home to Amador County's older brewery, Amador Brewing Company, which is located just east of the traffic circle on the road to the Shenandoah Valley (a new brewery in Amador City, Break Even Brewing, just opened making it the 2nd one in the county).
Only open Friday through Sunday, they make great brews and always have a tasty food truck vendor on site.
Of course, the other big thing to do is wine tasting and we also like to take a picnic with us to enjoy some spectacular settings while sipping a nice red while eating our lunch. Some that we particularly recommend are Story Winery, C.G. Di Arie, Dobra Zimlja, Deaver, and Andis.
If you'd like to taste and buy a range of different wineries in one place, stop off at Amador 360 which acts as a tasting room to the many small wineries here that don't have their own tasting room. On the weekends, you'll also find Thomas Allan...Story's winemaker...pouring sips of his own Fate wines, one of the best micro wineries in the state.
Spending the night is no problem. Rest, nextdoor to and owned by Taste, has modern and tasteful rooms, including accessible rooms. The Shenandoah Inn, on the south end of town, has two accessible rooms with a king bed (rollaway available) with tubs, no roll in showers. The Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort, about 10 miles away has both types of accessible rooms available and at the lowest prices of all three. They also have full resort amenities such as pool, spa, casino, and onsite restaurants.
It's a great place to see Gold Rush history and to visit one of the best wine countries in the state before it really gets discovered by the wine drinkers of California.
Darryl Musick
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