On a remote sunny parcel on the San Juan Ridge, Bob Hilsman and his wife, Virginia, grow grapes for their award-winning wine on land they've lived on since 1972.

For years, Bob won awards as an amateur winemaker and supplied wine grapes to Nevada City Winery before launching his own successful winery business, Double Oak, in 1997.

Double Oak represents one of a handful of older, more settled vineyards in the region and in recent years, an influx of newcomers have followed suit allured by the prospects of the Nevada County's great wine country potential.

The wine industry plays a significant role in local agriculture. According to Nevada County's 2009 crop report, wine grapes generated $1,405,400.

For those who always dreamed of owning their own vineyard or winery, foothill real estate is more affordable and less saturated than Napa, winemakers say.

Mountain water is plentiful and a range of micro-climates and soils offer ideal growing conditions for a diverse collection of wines.

Topping all that, Nevada County offers a quality of life and sense of community that's hard to beat plus two historic Gold Rush towns with plenty of artsy culture and good food for drawing in tourists.

“The Sierra Foothills is a real cool region. It's old-time California,” said local wine judge and writer Rod Byers.

Struggling through a recession, many locals who once bought wine by the case are now only taking home a couple of bottles. While winemakers are thankful for their loyal local fan base, many believe in order to grow they will have to look beyond local boundaries.

“We need to bring in more people from the outside world … It's our job to shine a light on ourselves,” said Bob Hilsman.

A changing landscape

The Hilsmans remember a time, when the number of Nevada County wineries and vineyards could be counted on one hand.

In the past decade, the number of local vintners has doubled, climbing to 18 and growing. In-town tasting rooms are also on the rise with a half a dozen in Grass Valley representing 11 wineries and another three located in downtown Nevada City.

By definition, many producers could be classified as “boutique” wineries, producing less than 5,000 cases each year compared to wine giants like Gallo and Mondavi that produce over 500,000 cases a year.

Some grow on less than 10 acres. Other family businesses like Naggiar, have gained a Bay Area reputation for stellar wines made from 12 different varieties of grapes grown on a 50-acre vineyard in the southern reaches of the county.

Winemakers and owners come from a variety of backgrounds. Some are established families with a long history in the area and depend solely on their craft to pay the bills.

Others are new arrivals with creative ideas and a day job to support their endeavors. Scott Brown of Bent Metal, established his “fun and funky” winery just a year and a half ago on McCourtney Road where he serves up a Late Harvest Zinfandel sorbet on a hot summer day.

Brown represents a class of winemakers who made home wine for years before honing his skill and going commercial. He still keeps his day job, inspecting crash sites, thus the origin of his winery name. Others have left successful careers to pursue their passion.

A new name

Even during a grim economy, Grass Valley and Nevada City are becoming breeding grounds for tasting rooms in brick and mortar store fronts, all offered within walking distance of each other and traditional tourist draws such as shopping, theater and restaurants.

“It seems to help draw people in,” said Phil Starr, whose Sierra Starr tasting room was the first in downtown Grass Valley.

Such exposure makes good business sense and is a critical piece of the puzzle for getting recognition from out-of-towners, said Byers.

Wine drinkers can choose between pedestrian friendly in-town tasting rooms or car touring the rolling countryside with its neat rows of grapes, a best-of-both worlds combination that is hard to find.

“It's amazing to me that it's so undiscovered,” said Stacey Divine of Sacramento-based Infuze Marketing.

A year ago, the local wine association pooled its annual dues together to hire Divine's firm to rebrand the area and get the word out.

“We're trying to get people to know they even exist,” said Divine.

Formerly known as Northern Sierra Wine Country, Nevada County's wine association changed its name to Sierra Vintners and has revamped its website (www.SierraVintners. com).

Divine is also helping local winemakers get up to speed on social media tools for communicating with younger, more wine savvy audiences through tools like Facebook and Twitter.

“It's becoming a hip thing,” said Byers, who said he has noticed more people in their 20s appreciating wine.

Part of the challenge before local winemakers is demystifying the area for people who think of El Dorado or Amador County when they think of the foothills or mistakenly believe Nevada County is located in the state of Nevada, said Divine.

“We're getting on the map but it's a long, long slow process,” said Starr.

“We don't have one big, really deep pocket winery that's well established. We don't have a big, big name. So we have all these small high quality wineries. If we had a million dollars we could make a great big splash,” Starr said.

Events like this last month's Taste of the Gold at the 25th Draft Horse Classic and the summer season's Nevada City Uncorked help generate revenue. Recently, 11 wineries from Nevada County were the sole vintners pouring wine at a grand opening of a new terminal at the Sacramento Airport.

One of the benefits of visiting small wineries, is the chance to meet winemakers and owners, the very people who are often the ones greeting visitors and pouring wine.

“People like to think we're all approachable,” said Brown, owner and winemaker of Bent Metal. He regularly pours his wines at a tasting co-op on Mill Street called Grass Valley Wine Company or shows people how he makes his wines and offers tastes of yet bottled varieties at his winery.

“This is intimate wine tasting; the way it's supposed to be,” Divine said.

Better wine

Each month, 60 members of the Sierra Grape Growers Association from Nevada, Yuba and Placer counties, meet to hone their skills and seriously critique each other, knowing the way to get recognized is to raise the bar and produce the finest quality regional wines.

“We match up with anyone in the country now,” said winemaker Mark Foster of Nevada City Winery.

He would know. For 20 years, Foster, who has a master's degree in enology from University of California, Davis, has played an important role in the evolution of Nevada County's wine growth, said Byers.

Considered the “godfathers,” Nevada City Winery was the first modern processing winery and the only local winery between 1980 and 1987.

Foster introduced clones that produce better local wines and patiently devoted a decade to improving a homegrown product. His knack for experimenting with different flavors has paid off. An entire wall at the winery is decorated with ribbons from state fair competitions.

At the California State Fair, Nevada County represents 5 percent of the wines and receives 7 percent of the medals, said Starr.

“By doing this year after year we really nailed down what was good here,” Foster said.

Laura Brown is a freelance writer who lives in Grass Valley. She can be reached at laurabrown323@comcast.net or (530) 401-4877.