Sierra Wines - Calaveras County Wineries

Calaveras County

Like the rest of the foothills, Calaveras County has a rich Gold Rush history. This is where the old west came, and in some cases, stayed. The county’s location at the crossroads of much of the traffic between the northern and southern gold fields made it a center of activity for the famous and the infamous. Clickn the links below to access the Winery pages and Interactive Winery Maps:

Wineries of Calveras County

Interactive Map to the Wineries

This was the home of Mark Twain and his still famous story of jumping frogs. That story, written from a conversation overheard in a saloon, was the inspiration for the creation of a true jumping frog competition that is still held every year in the town of San Andreas. The competition attracts tens of thousands of visitors and well over a thousand contestants yearly to the Calaveras County Fair and the Jumping Frog Jubilee.

During the Gold Rush, the quick access to the large towns of the central valley, the lust for gold and wildness of the area also attracted some of the most notorious bandits of the time; Black Bart, Joaquin Murietta and Three Finger Jack to name just a few. The crimes committed by two of these bandits, Three Finger Jack and Joaquin Murietta spurred the creation of the first law enforcement group with authority throughout California, the California Rangers, which later became the California State Police.
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