terra d'oro winery

Terra d’Oro was one of our target wineries on the second day of a wine-tasting pilgrimage to Amador County. My wife and I both enjoy big jammy Zins, and other big reds, and so our approach was to go to a maximum of four wineries per day, space out the visits, sample only reds, and when drinking reds to skip those that were described as “light” bodied. Terra d’Oro was our third stop of the day. Since we have a bias towards smaller family-run wineries, when we saw the massive buildings at Terra d’Oro we wondered what the experience would be like. We were ultimately very happy that we stopped in, and had a lovely experience. As one might have expected, with a winery building that is very large comes a very large tasting room building. To our delight, when we entered, we were the only people in the tasting room. Tasting is complementary. There was only one person serving, and so one would guess that on a Monday in February, perhaps there aren’t very many tourists. Indeed we were the only ones in the tasting room for the entire time that we were there. Since my wife and I had lived in Italy for a while, we looked forward to trying the Italian varietals that were available (Aglianico, Barbera, etc.) in addition to Zin and Petite Sirah. The number of wines available for tasting was indeed a bit overwhelming, and we throttled the urge to taste all the reds. Our general consensus was that the wines we sampled were of uniformly high quality, and with price points below those of most of the other wineries that we had visited. Since the winery is quite large, and one can find Terra d’Oro wines in the San Francisco Bay area, we focused on the wines that were less likely to be available locally, and some of the varieties that were not on the website listings. We also enjoyed the opportunity to try some wines that were open, but not officially on the tasting menu for the day. We ultimately purchased a bottle of 2012 Teraldego ($18), and several bottles of the Zinfandel Port ($24). There is a large picnic area with tables behind the tasting room with views of the hills that we took advantage of after our tasting was complete. All in all, it was a very enjoyable experience. In contrast to many of the smaller wineries, which are closed two or three days of the week, the tasting room is open daily from 10-4:30 PM. I am glad that we stopped in, and we plan to visit again the next time we are up in Amador. The tasting room staff was knowledgeable and very friendly. Despite the size of the winery, you had a very nice experience and I am going to guess that would have been the case even if others had been there. We liked some of the wines here as much as those at some of the smaller wineries we visited, and with the wines very modestly priced, they represent a very good value. After the experience here, I will definitely look for their wines at local wine shops.

Not a lot to say here. It's ok. It was a last minute stop this last weekend. Nice place, ok wines. Not the best but not bad either. The staff is super friendly. That always makes the experience better.

We had a private tour here with industry connections and were treated royally. The tasting room staff were knowledgeable and most friendly. The best large winery visit ever. The wines shine compared to some more highly rated, smaller wineries in the area.

I recently visited Terra d'Oro Winery while vacationing in CA. It's a great winery, with a very friendly & helpful staff, and very delicious wines! The wine tasting was fun, and they have a nice little gift area. I'm from northern WI, and I found out that I can purchase some of the wines at one of our local liquor stores! That's a bonus!

A nice, well maintained winery and grounds. The staff were friendly. helpful and knowledgeable. The wines were of a very high standard and price.