Cooper Winery

On Sunday I was free from having to watch football all day (amazing!) and Tyler and I decided to step away from the many games on TV and drive out to Amador County for some Sunday wine-tasting. Strangely enough the area is called Shenandoah Valley…and not of the Tennessee variety. It was about a 40 minute drive from our doorstep through beautiful countryside the entire time.

The first winery we stopped in was Brian Runquist’s and the wine were great, but the tasting room was right off the main road so the feeling of being in a vineyard was lost. This might have been because they do not actually grow the grapes, they only harvest them- another downside.

BUT they did recommend that we try out Cooper Winery, which backed up to their property. This one harvests all of their own grapes, and it is also a larger farm with tons of fruits and nuts growing throughout the property. Some dating back at least 50 years. The tasting room was situated right in the middle of the crops and was nicely decorated. We really liked the Syrah and loved the Zinfandel. After wrongly proclaiming that we were “Cabernet only” people, living in Zinfandel and Syrah country has us changing our minds! We will definitely be visiting this winery again on our next trip out.