Grape stomping, winemaking demonstrations, tasting wine in the early stages of fermentation, helping to punch down bubbling wine in fermentation tanks were all part of the big weekend. Amador County boasts 2,700 acres of wine grapes - - a high percentage of which are farmed organically - - and more than 30 wineries. Amador County wineries are primarily small, family-owned operations whose proprietors make and sell their own wines, and greet visitors in their tasting rooms. Amador's production of robust, intensely flavored red wines is attributable to its high percentage of old vines: roughly 600 acres out of a total of 2,700 are 60 years or older, including several vineyards dating to the 19th century. These deeply rooted, head-trained vines, primarily zinfandel produce tiny crops of small-berried grapes which produce the heady zinfandels for which Amador County is renowned.