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You can read about Day 1 in the Amador County wineries here. Day 2, Sunday, found us waking up at Lori's Mom's house to a light snow falling. Winter in the Sierra Foothills. Beautiful to watch the snow coming down, except to think that we're driving Lori's Toyota Prius, which may not actually be the best car in the snow. Hopefully though, since the wineries are at a lower elevation than the house, we'll be OK once we successfully get to the main road. We got a nice shot here of the road in front of the house, just after the neighbor drove off. 
Our first stop, once we got our act together, packed up, had something to eat (winetasting on an empty stomach is generally considered not a smart thing to do), was Villa Toscano Winery. As with the wineries visited the previous day, Villa Toscano is in the Shenandoah Valley area of Amador County. Villa Toscano is beautiful; the owners have put a lot into this, and it shows. Nicely landscaped, and the buildings are beautiful, inside (see the photo of the tasting room below) and out. Villa Toscana also has a bistro at the winery, serving cold sandwiches and drinks, and also hot foods, like their pizza of the day. The tasting room was busy for a Sunday in winter, but also well-staffed, so there wasn't a problem getting a taste. The gift selection in the tasting room was pretty good too; we bought a small painting for Lori's office. This day they also had a couple of barrels of wine in the tasting room, so we got a taste of some the the newer releases as well. They make 4 or 5 different Zinfandels (big surprise there); that they were good was truly the surprise. More berry/jammy flavor than for Zins of other areas in California, but also not tasting hot. Not my favorite Zin profile, but this was pretty good. Villa Toscano is not just another pretty-faced winery.
Next, and last winery for the day (we had to get home at some point) was Young's Vineyard, maybe half a mile south on the same road as Villa Toscano. Nice landscaping, big pond behind the winery/tasting room, and I'd enjoy living in either of the houses on the property. Unfortunately they don't rent them out. Oh well. The tasting room exterior (shown below) doesn't give much hint of what you'll find inside: burgundy painted walls with large scale paintings of the artwork on their wine labels. Very elegant, very comfortable inside. Nice polished dark wood bar. The usual reds for the area, and they were also pouring a white, a Roussanne, that was quite enjoyable.
From there we headed home, stopping after 10 minutes in the town of Plymouth for lunch. (This army of two travels on its stomach.) Incahoots had been recommended to us by a few people, so there we went. They do barbeque (Santa Maria style), pizza and grill foods. Not a tough call for me, as BBQ Tri Tip, Santa Maria style, is my favorite, and they did a great job on it. Hit the spot. It came with fries and their pequito beans, which were delicious. We also got a quarter chicken from the BBQ, and a small pizza. Great stuff, nice atmosphere, and enough food that we took some home for lunch the next day.
So much for a winter weekend in Amador County. Wine, food, weather, and more of each. As we went up there to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday, I might as well finish with a Happy Birthday wish to Pearl, and many more!
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