As we drove up from Southern California along the eastside of the Sierra on Friday July 3, we were surprised by the crowds along the Nevada shore of Lake Tahoe and the traffic that crawled through Kings Beach.

What’s better than enjoying a glass of wine in the mountains near a river or lake in the summer? Not much– guess I’m not the only one who thinks so!

I recently learned that a visit to Lake Tahoe is predicted to be the most popular lake this summer by far! According to Google search data analyzed in a new study by Lake.com, Lake Tahoe is America’s favorite lake and is expected to have the most visitor traffic. Using Google search volume data, Lake Tahoe has three times the visit-intent searches than the lake in second, Crater Lake in Oregon. Lake.com used Google search volume data for 28 popular lakes in North America by looking at visit-intent search terms such as “best time to visit [lake]”, “visit [lake]” and “when to visit [lake]” to determine that Lake Tahoe is by far the  most in-demand lake destination with July predicted to be the single busiest month of the year for lake tourism.

So as we made our way north to the Lake Tahoe Region, I decided I wanted to go wine tasting — and I knew just the place: Truckee River Winery. To be honest, it is easy to get away from the crowds — just go deeper into the mountains! While my son and spouse went mountain biking at Northstar (where in the summer you can ride a lift up the mountain and ride a bike down!), I visited nearby Truckee River Winery located in a residential neighbor near the river and up against a wooded hillside.

WAIT– how are they growing grapes and making wine at Lake Tahoe? I’ll get to that!

Only about 10 minutes from Northstar Resort and 10 minutes from the busy Interstate 80, Truckee River Winery — with its expanse of grass, its chicken coop, and the tasting room in the old carriage house — is peaceful and relaxing. A group of young women gathered at a large table under an umbrella in one corner with the occasional peal of laughter as they clearly enjoyed their afternoon.

I was met by co-owner and winemaker Katy Carroll Jones, daughter of Russ Jones who, along with his wife Joan de Ryk Jones, founded the winery in 1989. I’m not sure when I first heard of a winery located high in the Sierra, but I’m pretty sure I first tasted their wines at World of Pinot Noir at the Santa Barbara Bacarra Resort, and was intrigued by their father-daughter story, their high altitude winery, and their wines. I knew they were included in Slow Wine Guide, too, which further solidified my interest.

Katy told me both her mom Joan and her dad Russ  grew up in Truckee– and they were even high school sweethearts. Russ studied winemaking at UC Davis, located just down the hill about two hours from Truckee, but his career took him away from his skiing in the high Sierra.  He worked at several different wineries, including Sokol Blosser in Oregon where he became enamored by Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  As Katy says, “they loved it here” in Truckee, and Russ missed skiing in the Sierra so he gave up winemaking, and the family moved back to Truckee.

But Russ didn’t have to give up winemaking for long! In 1989, a friend offered him grapes and so he became a true “garagiste” making wine in their Truckee garage for family and friends.

By 1996, they expanded into the barn for a bigger winery, making them one of the highest elevation wineries in the country — and one that holds the distinction as the coldest! They actually have to heat up the winery sometimes in the winter. Keeping the barn cool during harvest is not as big an issue.

As they grew, they began buying more and more grapes from the Sierra foothills as well as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands Tondre organically farmed grape fields in Monterey County which is a 5 or 6 hour drive away. I tasted both the oaked Chardonnay from 2023 and the Pinot Noir; Katy makes the whites and rose wines, and her dad makes the reds including the Pinot Noir.

“I spent a lot of time researching Chardonnay,”Katy says. She settled on more of a French style with a very long time on the lees and battonage. The amount of ML depends on the year. The wine is very food friendly and accessible today but also built to lay down. Only 100 cases.

The Pinot Noir is their biggest seller and they produce 300 cases each year. “My dad’s a pinot-phile at heart,” says Katy. The 2023 Pinot Noir I tasted wine has lots of spice, structure, sarsaparilla, acidity. Yum!

The 2024 Sauvignon blanc from Cedar Ridge (100 cases) expresses place  through ripe melons fruit and ponderosa pine. I also found fennel seed and minerality.

“We’re all so small,” remarks Katy about the wineries of the Sierra foothills. At Truckee Family Winery, they currently produce about 2500 total cases with six varietals and styles from steel to skin contact to neutral oak to oaked wines.

Recently, they purchased property down the hill at Cedar Ridge near Grass Valley where they could plant their own vineyard. “For our estate vineyard, my dad and I did it entirely by ourselves with help from our spouses,” Katy says.  They should have their first “real” harvest with enough Malbec for a commercial vintage in 2026. Malbec is a rugged varietal with a thick skin that can handle heat and cold so it does well at altitude– just think about all that high altitude Argentinean Malbec! Their 2019 Malbec using purchased grapes from the Chalk Hills AVA has blue fruit, solid structure with plenty of tannins without being too “grippy,” and chalky minerals. While they use oak, it’s balanced.

“The harvest this fall will be one for the books,” says Katy with excitement. “Everything I’m hearing is it’s a great grape growing year.”

“I am taught by my father,” Katy says proudly. “I’ve been a winemaker for a long time.” She grew up in wine, and she’s been in winemaking “since I was 22.” When she decided she wanted to carry on the family winemaking tradition, she went to UC Davis just like her dad for formal training. Starting out almost 20 years ago, she was one of only a few women winemakers out there. Katy also has a degree in Art History from Gonzaga University, and she and her dad enjoy designing the labels: “That’s our creative side.”

After I finished wine tasting and they finished mountain biking at Northstar (where our son is working as a guide and instructor–hire him please!), we concluded our evening with dinner at Azzara’s, an Italian restaurant in Incline Village, Nevada, where we sat on their deck to enjoy the evening air and alpenglow. For wine, I chose a glass of Cecchi Chianti to pair with my meal of eggplant parmigiana, as I reflected on how just a few weeks before, I myself was in Tuscany, and on that day a year before I was visiting Cecchi’s vineyards in Tuscany!

Thinking about heading to Tahoe? If you’re a wine and foodie, keep this event on your radar: Tahoe Wine Feast! It’s August 21-22 at Northstar Resort!

Friday features seminars and a Pigs and Pinots dinner. Saturday is a grand tasting with over 300 wines. And a lot more! 

Here at Wine Predator, we are looking forward to these summertime online virtual wine events– and sharing some of these wines with you as well as more adventures and wines from my travels to Italy!

• 12 July:  International Cava Day #CavaDay
  Spanish sparkling!  Learn more here.
• 15 July: Old Vine Day #OldVineDay
  Weds! Wines older than 30 years tend to qualify. Read about old vine zin here and here; old vine carignane here; old vine Procanico here.
• 25 July: National Wine & Cheese Day #WineandCheeseDay
  What’s better? (Maybe a lake view?) Find a few past pairings here.
• 1 August: World Albariño Day  #AlbarinoDay #WorldAlbarinoDay
  Love this refreshing white wine — making a name for itself in Uruguay now too! Find previous posts here about Albarino. 
• 13 August: International Prosecco Day  #ProseccoDay
  We have some great Prosecco DOCG and stories lined up! Prosecco post here about tasting it blind folded!
• 18 August: International Pinot Noir Day #PinotNoirDay
  TBH, Pinot Noir (article here about Sonoma wines) is one of the red wines I drink the most at home since it goes so well with fish like salmon and seared ahi tuna as well as pork, but I don’t always write about it! Pinot noir from 5 central coast wineries here.
• 1 September: Cap Classique Day #CapClassiqueDay
  South African sparkling! Have we written about it before? 
• 3 September: International Cabernet Sauvignon Day  (celebrated on the first Thursday of September) #CabernetDay; #CabernetSauvignonDay
  We have celebrated Cab Sauv Day many times and many ways over the years! Here’s a vertical tasting of Clos des Amis cabs” Because you may be dead next year!”.  In 2026, we will plan to taste Cabs I’ve collected from some of the wineries that were in the Judgement of Paris. 
• 4 September: National Chianti Day (celebrated on the first Friday of September) #ChiantiDay
  This is a new one for me– and yes, we will be celebrating!
• 10 September: National Port Wine Day  #PortWineDay
  We love Port– but we’ve never done a Port Day post before!
• 18 September: International Grenache Day - Always held on the third Friday of September - #GrenacheDay
  Grenache is one of my favorite red grapes (here we wrote about Ambyth’s   and here we wrote about Staysail’s) and we usually write about it, and this year too!
  
• And then it’s FALL and we will wonder where did the summer go? 

Plus there’s plenty of local events going on all summer– no matter your locale! So go! Enjoy! Cheers!

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