I get that question often, especially this time of year, from people looking for wine recommendations for the holidays. There are many different reasons for asking. Sometimes people want to send one as a present. Sometimes they are visiting another region and want to take along a couple of wines that are representative of our region. Sometimes they just want to know what I like.

Truthfully, it has been a few years since I have taken a good look so I thought I would spend some time visiting our wine country. I knew from the last time I did this that I would likely end up with too many wines on my “recommended” list so from the start I decided to focus on new releases.

As far as wine, the most intriguing stop was at Coufos Cellars in Rough and Ready. They were having an Open House event where they were featuring several new releases. How perfect, I thought.

Curiously, they were releasing their 2009 Whites. Normally you might expect white wines from 2009 to be a little long in the tooth, but here the additional age worked wonders. The Roussanne, normally a light, tart, dry white had developed lush stone fruit and pear flavors with a rich, full mid palate; just the kind of flavors you would hope to find in a quality wine with several years of age.

The Marsanne was a delicious, exotic curve ball, with dramatic flavors and unexpected tastes. The Vigonier was spot-on, dry yet thick, with floral, apricot aromas. Fans of big, rich whites, but without oak, should scoop this one.

His 2011 Negromaro, of which there was a ridiculous 28 cases produced, was delicious. It was loaded with black cherry and spice flavors but still had a vein of earthiness running through it that kept it more Italianate in style than California fruit bomb. Two other releases, the 2010 Primitivo, and 2008 Sangiovese Estate demonstrated how deft Mark Henry is becoming while still continuing to use his traditional Tuscan production techniques.

Now that he is home full-time, he is like the kid in the candy store. He has lots of ideas and the drive to follow them up. He’s bringing the quality of his wines right along with him. The wines were well made, balanced, fruity, and pleasingly different from one another, and I loved the Bear River Wines program as well.

I can offer no better glimpse of behind the scenes winemaking than from my visit with Mark Foster at Nevada City Winery. Mark is a master blender and can do wonders with bits and pieces. It’s no secret that both 2010 and 2011 were challenging vintages with far to many unripe grapes in every batch.

Due to my association at Nevada City Winery, I had the opportunity to taste many of his wines in their early days. It was with astonishment then that I tasted the wines recently as finished products.

If ever there was the benevolent and guiding hand of the winemaker at work, it was with these wines. An old adage says anybody can make great wine in a great year but it takes real talent to make great wine in off years.

Solune Winegrowers in Peardale is another favorite stop for me. Jacques Mercier manages to extract as much flavor as possible from his grapes and the resulting wines are bold, full-bodied, and fruity without being too tannic. His 2007 Tempranillo is perfect right now, a dead ringer for a Spanish Rioja, I thought. His new releases of 2011 Zinfandel, Titan 15 and Fleur de Lune are all uniquely delicious in their own rights and well worth a spot on everyone’s table.

Finally, on my way home I stopped by Sierra Starr in downtown Grass Valley. Among the whites, my favorites were the 2011 Sauvignon Blanc and 2012 non-oaked Chardonnay. The 2009 Phil’s Zinfandel and the 2009 Cabernet Franc were both standout reds.

That’s not the half of all the places I went or even close to all the wines I tasted. There are many stories still to tell and fortunately, way too many good wines still to drink. Please see the side bar for my list of recommended wines for all the wineries I visited. Plan on stuffing your stockings, and your Holiday table, with plenty of all of them.