Russell and Joan Irish moved to the tiny Sierra Foothills community of Vallecito in 1998, embracing a life long dream to settle in a quaint community where they could raise their three children and pursue their passion for wine.

"The science of wine has fascinated me ever since I started making wine in my mom and dad's garage in Turlock when I was 18," Russ said. Even after his marriage to Joan and move to Fresno, Russ continued developing his amateur winemaker abilities. "I took some enology classes at Fresno State, but mainly through UC Davis weekend courses ... I developed more control of my wine making skills.

After a stint in the poultry hatchery business, the Irish’s decided it was time to realize their dream and venture into the foothills.

"Our love of wine had become a passion, which eventually became a dream," Russ said. Soon after landing a job with a Calaveras poultry producer, Joan and Russ came across the historic Batten house and 8.3 acres. The 1867 farmhouse was in need of renovation, but the property was perfectly situated to make the Irish dream a reality.

"We worked on renovating the house the first year and planted the vineyard in our second year," Joan said. Six years after their move, the vineyard opened with 750 cases. Russ made wine at another facility so that Irish Family Vineyards would have product available when the doors were opened to the public in August of 2003.

"Since then, we’ve been selling 96 percent of our wines from our tasting room," Russ said.

In their four years of production, Irish has increased to 7,200 cases annually to meet demand. Presently, they are looking for distributors to serve their clients in Northern California and Nevada.

The Irish Family Vineyards style is to handcraft small lots of premium wine from carefully selected regional growers. "Our wines tend to be a bit higher in alcohol with just a touch of residual sugar," Russ said. "We pick grapes for our red wines between 25 and 26 brix so we get ripe robust flavors. "This is the main reason why we’ve been so successful. I truly believe that consumers buy more wine of this style," he said. "Our successful style is what most 'wine enthusiasts' say are not worthy enough to rate, but wine consumers disagree." For the wine enthusiasts Russ proudly offers the "driest" 100 percent Sierra Foothill Tempranillo. And just as important as producing good wine is growing wine consumers.

"One of our goals is to get people to drink more wine," Russ said. "We believe people become interested in wine by drinking slightly sweeter white wines. That’s the main reason we offer a variety of whites.

"We also believe that white wines have a very important place in the wine experience,"Joan added. "Whites go with a wide variety of foods and are very refreshing when served chilled in the warmer weather. We don’t oak any of our white wines, because we want to retain the wine’s wonderful fruit flavors with just a dash of residual sweetness."

Irish Vineyards offers an impressive array of rich, fruity white wines including Viognier and Chenin Blanc. The 2003 Chenin Blanc was named Best of Show for all white wines at the 2004 Calaveras Fair. For the red wine aficionado, Irish offers stylish, bold, highly approachable Petite Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Tempranillo.

Russ selects ripe mature fruit for his reds and ages the wines in a combination of Hungarian and American oak barrels. "I like American oak for our Zinfandel and Cab Franc; I put the Petite Syrah in Hungarian," he said. In addition to their distinctive varieties, Russ and Joan offer blend wines appropriately named Blarney Red (California State Fair Gold medal winner) and Kilkenny Red. Blarney Red is a blend of 80 percent Merlot and 20 percent Cab Franc. The Kilkenny is 40 percent Petite, 40 percent Cab Sauvignan and 20 percent Zinfandel blend. "We're really excited to bring to the table our newest wines: Tannat, Alicante, Nero d’ Aviola, Malbec and Graciano," Russ said.

The Irish dream continues with plans for al fresco weddings and concerts. They would also like to create an event that encompasses the California Foothills into the Sierra Range of Nevada, where chefs and wine makers are paired and introduced to the public. Current production of 7,200 cases will double in the future as Russ and Joan seek new opportunities to share the vision with their friends.

Setting Irish Family Vineyards apart is the time Russ and Joan spend with visitors, educating, answering questions and sharing stories. Eager to share their love of wine and the process of creating it, makes the wine tasting experience at Irish as multi-dimensional and unique as the wines they create. The green wine? "Slainte - n" or "Cheers" in Gaelic is a blended white wine that won "Best of Class" at the California State Fair two years consecutively. A touch of food coloring gives the wine a bright emerald hue.

Irish Family Vineyards is located between Angels Camp and Murphys just off Highway 4 at Parrots Ferry & Batten Road. They’re open Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 2 to 5 p.m.

Visit them on the Web at www.irishvineyard.com.