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Press Release:  AAUW Amador’s 37th Annual Home Tour – “Vineyards and Views”

Expansive views of vineyards, wildflowers and soft greens of spring enhance the Shenandoah Valley and Fiddletown settings of AAUW Amador County’s 37th Annual Home Tour – “Vineyards and Views.”  Held April 18, 2009 from 11AM to 4PM, the popular tour celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Amador Branch and features gracious estate homes, each designed by the owners to express their personal styles. A variety of luncheon venues and more than 30 wine tasting rooms are available.  Docent-led tours of the Gold Rush-era Chew Kee Store, complimentary tea and cookies and art show at a Mediterranean abode round out the day.

A honeymoon trip to the Greek Isles inspired the 1985 construction of the rammed earth home on the tour, sited on a hillside with views from the owners’ vineyards to Mt. Diablo.  Walls from one to two feet thick and passive solar features mean minimal energy usage in this home – environmentally conscious construction before its time.

The second home situated in a vineyard welcomes the visitor into the rotunda and beckons through the living room to an amazing bucolic view of oak foothills, ponds, and grazing animals beyond.  Competing with the exterior is the owners’ collection of family heirlooms.

A warm Tuscan villa with beautiful vineyard views boasts threshold, hearth, retaining and garden walls of native boulders.  Art is everywhere indoors, most created by one owner in acrylic, fabric and wool felting.  The light-filled great room and adjoining patios and earth-tone colors choices make this an irresistible retreat.

The builder of two other homes on the Tour has opened their home as well. They first built a guesthouse and installed a lap pool overlooking vineyards, then designed with themes of horses and whippets they once raised.  An elegant but casual home made for entertaining resulted, with outdoor kitchen, access to all areas from the pool, outdoor walls, arches and pillars of native stone.

The Chew Kee Store, a rammed earth building dating from 1855, is one of the two rare and unique buildings associated with Fiddletown’s Chinese community. They are part of the largest grouping of early Chinese buildings (1855-1865) remaining from a Gold Rush mining town.  Large grants from the California Heritage Fund and the California Cultural and Historical Endowment have made it possible to save and restore these treasures.  The Store still holds its historic merchandise of herbal medicines and wares for daily living, which docents will explain for Tour visitors, who may also view the entire restoration area.

Tickets are $22 and $25 on the day of the Tour.  They may be purchased by mail order through April 10:  AAUW Home Tour, 21210 Ostrom Rd., Fiddletown, CA 95629.  Starting March 13 tickets are available at Bubble Gum Books (Sutter Creek), Pine Cone Drugs (Pine Grove), Main Street Designs (Jackson), Curves (Ione) and Pokerville Drugs (in Pokerville Market, Plymouth). The Tour benefits area women and girls by providing college scholarships and math/science camp opportunities.  For more information about the Tour, contact Lani Chapman at 209-245-6052, chapman@volcano.net or consult the website: www.aauwamador.org.

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