About Drytown Cellars
Drytown Cellars is named for the historic Amador County settlement of Drytown — a Gold Rush mining camp established in 1849 by miners hoping to find placer gold in the seasonal creek. The creek was dry more than wet, giving the settlement its name, and the miners moved on after the alluvial gold was exhausted. But the land remained, and eventually wine discovered what gold never could: a reason to stay.
The Highway 49 estate produces Zinfandel, Barbera, Petite Sirah, and Grenache from Amador County estate and Shenandoah Valley vineyard sources with the Gold Rush country character that the historic settlement name implies. The same foothill terrain that disappointed gold seekers in 1849 turns out to be exceptional Zinfandel country — warm days, cool nights, volcanic and clay-rich soils, and vine age that the Gold Rush era's subsequent agricultural settlers planted.
The daily walk-in experience on the historic Highway 49 gold country route is dog-friendly, picnic-welcoming, and family-hospitable.