Max, a sweet, hyperactive English setter, roamed the "tasting room" at Ophir Wines on a recent afternoon, even when he was dripping from a romp in the pond.

That wasn't really a problem, since the tasting room is just a tent on a small, pretty rise between that pond and some vineyards. Max couldn't decide whether to sit and get petted, or to splash back into the water and mingle with the geese that seemed to regard him as part of the gaggle.

So he mixed it up, sometimes hanging with the geese, sometimes hanging with the tasters, which meant at one point sitting on my foot. Also not a problem, because Ophir's classy, elegant wines are worth a damp shoe.

"To get your winery bond around here," said Paul Burns, one of the partners in Ophir, "you need to own a dog."

He's only partly joking. Seemingly every winery in Placer County's very casual, fairly rustic and slightly disorganized version of wine country has at least one friendly dog, adding to the countrified charm of the places.

Most of that wine country is near Interstate 80, and unexpectedly close to the cores of Sacramento – some wineries are 20 minutes from Roseville – yet the region is barely a blip on the wine- tasting radar.

Despite that, and despite growing pains and real concerns about planning, roads and marketing – oh, the romance of wine – Placer County's young wine industry is surprisingly adept. There's loads of good, and some exceptional, wine there.

Ophir, in the rolling, oak-covered hills west of New- castle, is at one end of the size spectrum. At the other end is Mt. Vernon Winery.

On a recent weekend, when Max often had Ophir's tasting tent to himself, Mt. Vernon's cheerful, airy room – a restored farm milk house that now looks like a country cottage – had a steady midafternoon flow of 10 to 12 people tasting at the polished wood bar.

Mt. Vernon, just west of Auburn, is Placer County's highest-profile winery. Its wines are recognized nationally; one label – created in collaboration with breast cancer stamp advocate Dr. Ernie Bodai – helps fund cancer research; and Mt. Vernon wines are served in places like Chez TJ, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Mountain View.

Jim and Lynda Taylor own the place, and son Ryan makes the wine. Yet for all the success, Jim Taylor says what every vintner in Placer County says: "Nobody knows we're here."

"If we ever really created a wine trail where people thought about us, everyone's business would boom," Taylor said.

Seeking an identity

The story of Placer County wine country is more than just accessible day trips and good wine, and it's more than its thoroughly unheralded nature. It's also about the way small wineries in an area – no matter how good their wine – depend on each other.

And it's a snapshot of the kinds of varying ambitions and diverse forces at work as America in general, and Northern California in particular, expands its wine industry.

The sizes of Placer County's 14 wineries runs from tiny to small, ranging from a couple 500-case-a-year operations to Mt. Vernon's 4,400 cases.

By comparison, nearby El Dorado County's count runs from about 2,500 to 25,000 cases a year; in Amador, the range is 2,500 to a few over 100,000 cases annually; in Napa or Sonoma, the "small," non-cult wineries make 5,000 to 10,000 cases, midsize is 30,000 to 50,000 cases, and the biggies go 100,000 to 1 million-plus.

Some of the Placer wineries want to stay small. Neal Baumbach, a neurologist and veteran winemaker, owns Baumbach Wines and likes his 500 cases a year.

"It's a manageable amount, to produce and to market," he said.

Taylor would love to get bigger.

"We've been at this 10 years and we're finally seeing a profit," he said. He's got the acreage to grow and a facility large enough that he makes wine for other wineries.

What they all agree on is the need for the region to create a distinct, marketable identity, for the wines – which don't have one grape that screams the region, the way zinfandel says Amador or cabernet sauvignon says Napa – and for the wineries.

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