For French cuisine just 15 minutes from downtown Placerville, check out a husband and wife eatery called Allez! Here you can order many things you cannot pronounce but will remember for a long time. They also have a wonderful dessert wine like port that tastes like chocolate.

Thanks to the owner and proprietor of Miraflores, we had a delicious meal to remember for decades and a few memorable comments about the region. One was about the famed Mourvedre grape, the M in a GSM Rhone style blend. On its own, Mourvedre has acquired a cult like following in recent circles. But the quotable assertion is that “Mourvedre is the grape that is going to define the region” because it is “the Pinot Noir of the Sierra Foothills.” As if the Sierra Foothills needed a Pinot Noir, cheers to that!

More from my appellation adventures in this region.