Findleton Estate Winery & Vineyard is a small, family owned boutique style winery.
Voted "Best Kept Secret in El Dorado County" Findleton Estate Winery strives to produce high quality wines at affordable prices.
You can taste the award winning wines of Tom Findleton & Carrie Golden, at their charming tasting room located at 3500 Carson Road, Camino CA. Taste a selection from over 18 varietals of wine while enjoying a "Fine Art Gallery" experience as the Tasting Room Showcases the work of Pamela Findleton. Findleton Estate Winery produces approximately 2,500 cases of wine per year. Located at 3000 foot elevation, in the Sierra Foothills of El Dorado County, Findleton has a unique vineyard site that provides a"micro-climate." Their Estate Pinot noir is grown creekside, with cool air flow from the mountains, and well drained, chalky soils. This site, previously referred to as "Pneumonia Gulch" by the early settlers, has proven to be ideal for growing Pinot noir and the wine has qualities similar to the Pinot noir's found in Burgandy, France.
Findleton states,"We believe that wine is a product of the terroir, climate, vintage, and winemaking." Aside from their Estate Pinot noir, Findleton purchases local fruit from viticulturists who share his philosophy, and maintain a high level of attention to detail. "Our focus is on producing small lots of wines of the highest quality possible, which reflect both the vineyard and the individuals behind the winemaking."
After thirty successful years as a commercial contractor, Tom Findleton, Owner of Findleton Estate Winery, made the leap to pursue his true passion as a full time vintner. Tom's wife and co-owner, Pamela Findleton, is a well-known local artist and (being a lover of wine) was delighted to create the original artwork for the labels. The fusion of Art and Wine captures the vision of this family winery.
Carrie grew up in the beautiful foothills of El Dorado County. A childhood rich with home winemaking, family picnics at local wineries, and always plenty of good wine at the dinner table, helped guide Carrie to pursue her career as a winemaker. She started interning at local wineries, worked alongside her father while transitioning their home winemaking operation into a commercial winery and planting their estate vineyard, while earning a M.S. in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis.
Carrie’s passion for great wine and love of travel and continued learning led her to intern at prestigious wineries in Burgundy, New Zealand, Oregon and Sonoma Coast, honing her skills before starting her 10 year career at Continuum Estate in Napa Valley, where she worked with Tim Mondavi, starting as Cellar Master and working her way to Winemaker.
What has continued to inspire Carrie most through her diverse experiences is the importance of the vineyards themselves and the resulting unique terrior driven wines, which results in no two ferments alike. Understanding and learning each vineyard or block and how to fine-tune the winemaking and viticulture decisions to gently coax each wine to its full potential and creating blends is what she takes most pride in.
Through the years, Carrie has remained devoted to Findleton Estate, working as a consultant and utilizing her blending skills to help achieve the best wines possible with an emphasis on balance. She is thrilled to have now made it full circle, and able to devote more time to her family winery and direct the winemaking operations and spend more time in the vineyards. This change has also allows her to spend more time with her family and young daughters who will often be seen tagging along in the vineyards and elbow deep in the wines.
Carrie Golden - Winemaker
Tom and Pamela keep up with all the demands of a small family winery with the help of their five children. Angela Findleton Cardinalli manages the Tasting Room and Wine club. Tommy Findleton inherited the artistic flair of his mother and you can find many of his artistic creations at the tasting room. Carrie Findleton, a UC Davis V&E Graduate, lends her expertise in winemaking and blending, Jeanetta Findleton uses her background in fashion and graphic design to produce the high quality labels that adorn the wine bottles, and Kevin Findleton, having worked multiple vintages overseas in New Zealand in addition to Findleton Estate, assists with the winemaking and vineyard management. Clayton lends his expertise in Marketing and the rest of the Findleton Family, many from El Dorado County, provide support in multiple areas and in invaluable ways.
Tom and Pam’s six grandchildren look forward each year to help harvest the grapes from their Estate Vineyard and Tom's eldest grandson, Clayton, has worked along side his grandfather the past three years, working through harvest and both in the vineyard and cellar. Family and community resonate in the fundamental values and vision of Findleton Estate Winery.
We invite you to be our guests at the tasting room in beautiful Apple Hill and experience the amazing quality and value that our El Dorado County Foothill wines offer. We hope that you will take this experience home and share it with your friends and family.
Cheers!