Two acres of wine grapes slope steeply off the back of the house and barrel room at Lone Buffalo Vineyards near Newcastle, and at this end of summer, they can be hot and dusty.

Yet Phil and Jill Maddux, owners of the new winery, happily take visitors around. Phil had a couple of us with him a week ago as he explained that the wine gets made in a building near the top of the hill, then runs through a 300-foot hose down to the barrels to age.

"Gravity flow, that's so old school," said Angelina Brittain, who was walking next to Phil. "That's exciting. Can I come watch?"

This is not out of character for Brittain. She gets excited about loads of things involving wine, winemaking and especially vineyards.

Phil talked about drainage. Brittain nodded keenly. He said the red grapes get their color later up there. Brittain wanted details. You get the point. Wine fascinates her.

"I love places like this," Brittain said as we were leaving Lone Buffalo. "It's so personal. Once they find out you're interested, they take you out to the vineyards and talk nerdy to you.

"And I'd love to bring people here. Phil and Jill are really comfortable to learn from, plus it's easy for them to all walk right out into the vineyards."

Brittain, the wine concierge for Luxury Limousines of Sacramento, has a friendly air and a slightly round face that often gets the intense look of a person paying deep attention.

She was on an exploration of Placer County wineries – with me in tow – looking for new spots to take wine tours. That paying-attention look came up a lot.

At 31, Brittain is a bright example of the new face of American wine, and of wine in this region – young, enthused, comfortable teaching, thrilled to learn. She's a textbook case of how a new generation is falling in love with wine, and how it's changing wine, making its world so much less stiff .

There are few places in the United States where that is more true than in Sacramento and the wine regions around it. Clarksburg, Lodi and especially the foothills are booming with new wineries and new wine personalities, and they're bringing a fresh, unstuffy passion to wine, winemaking, or just wine tasting.

Although Brittain's been through some wine educator and sommelier training, she's going back to school this month, aiming for a degree in viticulture and enology from the University of California, Davis. Meanwhile, besides her duties for Luxx Limo, as the company calls itself, she keeps poking around at wineries, just trying to get her hands on things.

"I keep asking everyone, 'Can I help harvest? Can I help bottle? Can I just pour in your tasting room?' " she said.

Brittain volunteered to pour recently at Todd Taylor Wines in the Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg, because she likes Taylor's wines and their spirit.

Taylor, the owner and winemaker, is another of those new personalities, a passionate, very approachable guy who makes single-vineyard wines that require both care and a deft touch. He also agrees this region is a leader in that new, energetic wine wave.

"There's a vibrancy around here," he said. "It's what makes boutique wineries perform well, when you have winemakers with drive and who care so much about their product."

That made Brittain and Todd Taylor Wines a solid match.

"She's knowledgeable, she's eager and she cares about wine," Taylor said. "We're happy having her pour any time."

Brittain fell in love with wine the way a lot of people do. She stumbled on it. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in 2001, she did the post- college travel thing, and went through places ranging from Thailand and Costa Rica to Germany and Ireland.

Often she paid her way by bartending. Bartending led to wine knowledge. Knowledge led to wine love. In Brittain's case, traveling through France and Italy didn't hurt.

She came to California in September, looking for work in Napa. "I sent out 82 résumés to wineries there," she said. "Nothing."

She was bartending at Morton's in Sacramento in June when she met Bill Murray, an accountant who also owns Luxx Limo. They bonded over Jimmy Buffett. He hired her for her infectious enthusiasm about wine.

"She brings that freshness and excitement, and a woman's approach to wine tours," Murray said. "She even gets our chauffeurs involved, and she does it in a way that everybody's happy."

Brittain is even happier to start working on that viticulture and enology degree.

"I didn't know they even existed when I started learning everything I could about wine," she said, "I said, 'What are you telling me? You can actually go to school for this?' "

Call The Bee's Rick Kushman, (916) 321-1187. Listen to him Tuesdays at 8:40 a.m. on NewsTalk 1530 (KFBK).