Hello all you lovers of wine!! I know many of you have been to wineries in California and in asking around I found that several of my co-workers and friends have been to Murphys in Calaveras County. Well, I had not until now!! Murphys is in the Gold Country and is known as the Queen of Sierra.
I am excited to get to talk about Murphys but I must start at the beginning. My girlfriends and I left 
Sacramento on Saturday morning. We were in the car 10 minutes and made a stop at Lidos Bar & Grill in Carmichael. I told the girls we didn't get very far. in Lidos we planned our trip and within the hour we were on the road with The Sacramento Regional Wine Tasting Guide and Map and heading towards the Gold Country and the town of Murphys! One of my friends grew up near Murphys and she loves wine so I knew I was in good hands!
The drive at this time of year was absolutely beautiful; all the hillsides were green and they looked like green velvet blankets! We arrived in Murphy's in about 90 minutes. We drove down Main Street in Murphys where you see several wine tasting rooms, quaint shops and restaurants and Gold Country Hotels. We parked and began the day with our first winery, Twisted Oak. They served us some lovely wines. Most of the reds were of the Spanish varietal. We were told that the owner was talking about one of his wines and stated that it pairs with chicken. He said, "it's so good it would pair with a rubber chicken!" (We didn't actually have any rubber chickens to eat.)
Our next stop was Newsome-Harlow Wines. The first wine we tasted was their Sauvignon Blanc, one of my favorite varietals. It was lovely and several bottles were enjoyed at the tasting room and will be enjoyed at home. Newsome-Harlow has several other delicious wines. One red I really enjoyed was named Train Wreck, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah! There is a wonderful outside patio and we were told that on sunny warm days it is the place to be. We were also treated to their restaurant The Kitchen, it is adjacent to the tasting room and is open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays. The other days it is used for their wine club. All these wineries we are visiting are on Main Street in Murphys, so we are taking a nice stroll looking at the quaint shops, restaurants and the unique Gold Country hotels available for your enjoyment.
We noticed that most of the tasting rooms we visited in Murphys were dog friendly!! Hatcher had a lovely Barbera that was served up by the winemakers brother, Sewell. There is even a wine named after him in their tasting room. The last two wineries we visited were Lavender Ridge and Zucca. At Lavender Ridge we found a lovely dessert wine 2010 Vin Doux Dessert Wine. They paired their wines with lovely cheeses that they sold in their tasting room. Zucca had some lovely wines to offer too. Zucca is also located a few steps down from Main Street. Very small tasting room but they served up some lovely reds. I came home with their Tesoro. Here are the girls enjoying the last winery of the day.
Now we get to eat dinner. There are a lot of nice restaurants to choose from, we chose Mineral because my girlfriend is a 
vegetarian and she knew the chef. Here we are enjoying our dinner, I chose the Mineral Burger which was delicious. We brought in a Barbera that we purchased from Hatcher and had a lovely dinner with old and new friends
That is the end of Day One in Murphys. I hope you enjoyed reading about Main Street in Murphys, Queen of the Sierra. The next day we visit some of the Gold Country wineries that surround Murphys! You will see at the end of Day Two why I thought I was Queen of the Sierra!!
