Gold Mountain Winery & Lodge

We command the entire hilltop with all its slope aspects: mainly north, south, west and just enough east slope to have carved an acre for our Pinot Noir. Yes, Pinot Noir which needs less heat units than most of our well-suited grapes and gets just what it needs from our east-facing slope which is in the shade by late afternoon on a summer’s eve. The hilltop not only serves to create different microclimates based on slope direction towards or away from the sun but its topographical relief. By that

Agriculture is all about what you do do and how well you understand and work with your soil on your farm. Healthy vines start with healthy soil.
Folks ask if we get less yields than other vineyards. Well the answer is that we do the best we can with the water we have available. Water is the determining factor for us and yield. In average or better rainfall years (40 inches) we produce all the yield we want. But in drought years our well pumping capacity is not endless enough to provide all that the rainfall may not have delivered but we try with drip irrigation. We're flavor farmers not tonnage farmers so quality is number one and quantity is always modest by design.

Fair Play AVA

Fair Play AVA epitomizes what an Appellation (AVA) can and should be – a wine region that shares more similarities than differences.
Fair Play AVA is a part of El Dorado AVA which is a part of the broader Sierra Foothill AVA which of course is a part of California, USA, North America, Planet Earth – you get the point.