Well-deserved mentions of Cedarville and Skinner. The article is nice as a brief introduction to the area, but there’s certainly more going on in Fair Play that the article doesn’t discuss, including Baiocchi and La Clarine Farm (the article only mentions La Clarine’s Mourvèdre from Cedarville Vineyard but not their own estate vineyard) among others. I’ve been visiting and writing about this region for years - it was long overdue for a Jon Bonné article so good to see this one.
Just found a couple of related articles today. This one is a short intro to some of the wineries in El Dorado County: El Dorado: Wine prospectors strike gold
I’ve been to nearly all of the wineries listed in the first article, and though I’d add one or two other El Dorado wineries outside the Pleasant Valley and Apple Hill areas - notably David Girard Vineyards - it’s a very solid list. I don’t dine in the area as often as I visit wineries there, but a few friends (including Jonathan & Susan of Cedarville Vineyard) and I enjoyed a great dinner at Allez! in November - highly recommended.
Ken,
MarcoCappelli made some stunning wines during his tenure at Swanson, particularly with Syrah & Sangiovese.
Since he moved up to ElDorado, he’s sorta vanished from the face of the Earth. You ever run into him up there
and have any idea what he’s up to?? I thought he’d make a big splash up there in ElDorado…but doesn’t seem to
have happened.
Tom
I believe he’s still at Miraflores, not far from Sierra Vista and Holly’s Hill. I’ve visited there a couple of times but they were both sort of spur-of-the-moment drop-ins so I have not met Marco. Thought the wines there were good though I kept feeling they could be better. The main exceptions were the very good dessert wines - to be expected given Marco’s background.
