Once a year, wine connoisseurs descend on Young's Vineyard, near the Amador County hamlet of Plymouth. Throngs fill the tasting room. Buyers who can't get near the bar hand their credit cards through a window.
People line up at the back of the winery to pick up their orders.
Last year Young's sold out its 2,200-case release of 1999 wines in only six hours. Owner Steve Young expects visitors to polish off the last few cases this weekend. Then the winery will lock its gates, and quiet will settle over the vineyards for another year. Selling an entire year's vintage in a weekend or two isn't typical marketing for a winery with a tasting room. But it works for Young, who travels a lot as the head of international sales for Tri Tool Inc., a Rancho Cordova manufacturer of portable machining equipment.