Vittorio PortWinery& Bar

Wine& Port Tasting Wine& Port Tasting

diVittorio Winery is a boutique winery in the Sierra Foothills. We have used a traditional wine making process since the diVittorio Family emigrated to America about 1904. The commercial winery opened in 2001.

El Dorado County fruits are used to produce fine red wines, fruit wines and port wines. Enjoy table wines and spirits that reflect traditional taste and quality, enhanced by innovation and creative thought.

Winemakers: Albert & Sally diVittorio

Tasting Room is Open

Friday - Sunday, 11-5pm or by appointment

Camino Wine Plaza ~ 3500 Carson Rd, Camino, CA ~ divittoriowinery.com ~ 530.621.2166

El Dorado County Wine Country: Beginners Welcome!

by Jolene Tompkins

El Dorado County is a less commercialized region for wineries, with many often familyowned. Winemakers or Cellar Masters may personally pour your tastes or show you around. In the fall, if the annual crush is happening, you can sometimes meander outside to watch and talk to the crews, or maybe even the Vineyard Manager. These experiences are less likely in the larger Napa and Sonoma wineries.

Never visited a winery before? Well, wine snobbery can be a thing of the past! Get comfortable and ready for discovery as we cover some of the basics of wine-making and tasting.

Wine is an agricultural product. Premium French varietal wine grapes, such as Chardonnay and Cabernet, are grown on pest and disease resistant root stock. The grapes are harvested in the fall when they are at the perfect sugar level, and crushed the same day. The juice is then pumped into tanks and bins to ferment, converting the sugar into alcohol. Following the fermentation process, the wine is filtered and goes into barrels or tanks. It will stay in the tanks or barrels for a few months or a few years, depending on the desired outcome. When the fermentation process is complete, it is bottled and aged again.

Now our fun begins! Wineries generally offer anywhere from 3 to 8 wines.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

∙ Whether sampling white or red wines, they are poured in a specific order, from dry (not sweet) to bolder, sweeter wines. There are no rules about tasting except don’t go backwards. It has the same effect of drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth.

∙ Dessert wines may turn you into a wine lover.

∙ Talk with the hospitality staff, they are there to educate and guide you to what YOU LIKE.

∙ If a sample does not suit your taste, or you don’t want to finish your pour, just add it to the dump bucket, but never spit into the bucket.

∙ Remember the headache eraser –water. Drink as much water as you do wine.

Cheers!

For more information, visit the El Dorado County Winery Association at eldoradowines.org

Jolene Tompkins is the former founder & editor of the Sierra Foothill Vine Times and grew up in the Foothills while the wineries were establishing and quietly evolving.