El Dorado County Passport Weekend The event took place over the first two weekends in April with the tickets purchased for only one of the two weekends. The cost was $65 per person which covered a commemorative wine glass, all wine tastings and all food. The weekend was overcast to party cloudy, but it never really rained which was fortunate and actually turned out beautifully.  The twenty four wineries included in the event were from all four corners of the wine region and it required planning to ensure that we could get a taste for the differences each area had to offer.

The Association assigns a starting point to each attendee to ensure no one winery is overwhelmed at the start of the weekend as they hand out glasses and passports.  We were assigned to Holly’s Hill Vineyard in Pleasant Valley.  They handled the signup process admirably and we were eating great food and wine tasting almost immediately.  This drove our decision to do Pleasant Valley and the Fair Play AVA the first day; a tall order considering 14 of the 24 wineries were located in this region.  We decided we could only effectively visit a maximum of 7 wineries a day, and weren’t even sure we could do make that many and thoroughly experience the event.    

The wineries located in Pleasant Valley; Holly’s Hill, Narrow Gate and Sierra Vista all specialize in Rhone style wines.  We have been to Sierra Vista (the largest and oldest of the three) on a number of occasions and so moved next to Narrow Gate Vineyards .  Like Holly’s Hill they had a great selection of food offered in the wineries main room that was paired nicely with the food served.   At both places the winemaker was serving double duty in the tasting room and the crowds were small enough that you could actually speak to them about the wines and vintages; a great plus.  Continued ...