Although this winery has a modest location, their wines will seduce your pallet, featuring robust flavors and tantalizing aromas that culminate with a finish of refinement.

In today’s world of massed produced wines, it is ever challenging for micro wineries to effectively compete with the large corporations of the industry. However, a man named Rod Ruthel has carved out his own niche’ that yields “Ultra Premium Wines” that thankfully do not devastate your pocketbook in doing so.

Rod’s philosophy of wine making begins with the simple premise of giving the wine consumer a wide variety of ultra premium wines to choose from at his tasting room. Whether you sport a novice pallet or that of a professional, the wines of French Hill will greet you with tantalizing taste.

To make his philosophy statement plausible Rod has worked extremely hard on what it takes to bring out the intense flavor of the fruit that is produced when creating a “clean wine” that is prepared without high VA’s (Volatile Acidity) or sulfides. What this process does is simply remove the masking flavors left behind by VA’s or hydrogen sulfides, sometimes referred to in the industry as the rotten egg components.

Rod states, “It is very expensive to make really good wines. We buy only new French Oak barrels, we select only the best fruit and we work hard at handling the fruit as not to damage or disturb the natural quality of the fruit during crush.”

To insure quality of the product the decision process begins in the vineyard where factors such as color producing qualities, sugar content, overall quality, etc. are assessed. Although a grape may be purple and the seeds may be brown, it still may not be in the condition to pick. The whole process of making fine wine is that of selection, what yeast you use, how you ferment, how long you ferment, the conditions under which you ferment, how you control VA, how you control sulfides. These all become a big part in your success or failure in producing “Ultra Premium Wines”.

At French Hill, you will only find “Dry Wines”. Rod does not believe in the popular wine making technique of introducing some residual sugar back into the wine to make it more palatable. “We believe that if you make a good quality wine the fruit esters in the wine will fool your tongue into thinking it’s sweet and you’ll get a beautiful fruit flavor that comes across as sweetness even though the wine is totally dry.” Rod goes on to say “ultimately this is the best wine that you can drink, you’ll enjoy it more, you won’t have any negative aftertaste from the residual sugar, you will just really appreciate a wine of this caliber.”

Wide varieties of wines are offered inside the tasting room. Rod’s winery is customer service oriented to fulfill Rod’s desire to delight everyone. Cellar Masters, Denny Norman and Kyle Norman are eager to meet your every need. You will be served some wines that are new to the line-up like Alicante Bouschet, Grenache and Pinotage, a South African hybrid that is a dry wine with very intense fruit flavors. They also feature many familiar old standards.

Some of the wines available at the tasting room are 2001 Grand Reserve Chardonnay, picked from a select vineyard at the 2000-foot elevation offering an excellent varietal character with a hint of citrus. 2000 Sangiovese, A smooth and delicious wine that won Silver in the San Francisco Wine Competition. 2000 Zinfandel Select Bowman Vineyards, Nice oak flavor with good fruit. Bronze Medal Winner, LA County Fair. 2000 Premium Select Merlot, Big fruit flavor, smooth and drinkable. Gold Medal Winner, Indy International Wine Competition. 2000 California Merlot, Smooth, full-bodied with real terrior flavor. 2000 Old Vine Zinfandel, 100% Zin from three of Amador County’s oldest vineyards. Nice oak flavor. 2000 Cabernet Franc, 100% nice oak flavor with good fruit. 2000 Grand Reserve Syrah.Very rich, full bodied. Lush flavors and French Oak tannins. Gold Medal Winner. Splendid, Delicious white table wine. Perfect for picnics.

Last but certainly not least, we should talk about what put French Hill on the map - their fabulous Barbera. In 1999 French Hill produced a Barbera that was truly exceptional and was able to repeat that technique again in 2002. “It’s taken us that long to truly understand what we did and how it made an exceptional wine” says Ruthel. The current Grand Reserve Barbera is great but we have grand expectations from the 2004. Our Barbera’s are big, fruity, with a black cherry flavor and aged in new French Oak barrels. In 2004 this will certainly be on the must try list.

In addition to being, a qualified wine maker Rod is an artesian who features some of his paintings at the tasting room. Rod is also a partner in the Sutter Creek Wine Tasting establishment located in Sutter Creek. Here too, you can discover the artwork of this multi-faceted individual.

Rod’s knowledge of winemaking, coupled with his ability to control the factors, involved in the wine making process catapults this winery to the apex of the micro winery community.

So, grab your significant other, head for the tiny town of Mokelumne Hill, and discover the “Micro Winery with Mega Taste!”