Skinner Wines: Resurrecting a Family’s Wine-Making Legacy

Between Mike Skinner's obsession with his family's history and a series of coincidental events, Mike and Carey Skinner are the owners of Skinner Vineyards in El Dorado in the Sierra Foothills. Carey joined us in Los Angeles to share the story of her winery. Mike had a dream about a vineyard but it was just a dream. Then, one day their son Kevin and his wife were driving from Lake Tahoe using an old map and found "Skinner" on the map near the Sierra Foothills town of Placerville. Upon further discovery, Mike found that he is the great-great-great-grandson of James Skinner, a Scottish miner who in 1861 established one of the Sierra Foothills’ first wineries. After discovering gold in Coloma in 1861, James had the largest winery in the country, producing 15 thousand gallons of wine and whiskey per year.