Crystal Basin Cellars

This winery has a positive, amazing, wonderful, happy vibe-but most importantly, amazing wine, staff and the best events ever!!!
Never a dull moment we cherish The staff who are warm, friendly and soooooo knowledgeable!!!!
We belong to five wineries and we bring friends from all over the United States and the world and this is always their favorite one!
A must when you are in the Apple Hill Camino area any time of year there's always something fun going on

Very rarely do we stumble upon a place, forget about the wine, which is very good, and focus on the people who strike a chord. An appreciation of music and just fine friendly people. We bought the Groupon and did the barrel tasting early on a Saturday and were thoroughly entertained by Chris and KZ. Bought some futures and look forward to crossing paths with them soon. We took home a nice bottle of Zin, and strangely enough, a 1.5L for travel. Good times.

We spent a very enjoyable hour talking about and sampling a variety of wines. Chris was very helpful and did not steer or push us in any way.

We will be back!!

Very friendly staff, but I probably won't come back due to an unrequited rant about recalling Governor Newson by the owner.

We were not particular fond of the wine - I didn't finish my tasting. We got a white and red sampler. It was well priced for the sample, and they let you try six wines. I liked "Dozer" best, and the sparkling. Still, i found their wines a bit lighter than I like, and though lots of bright red fruit and acidity, not much complexity for the price point.

Also, we we treated to a long rant about how Covid efforts are arbitrary, no one wore a mask there, and lots if hatred spewed about Governor Newsom's "reign" of terror.

I'll take my wine free of political hatred and pandemic denial, thank you.

Found this place through Groupon and it was my best Groupon purchase ever!
Did a wine tasting and tour! Tried the wine from the barrels and learned so much about the wine process. I really like the bubbly, malbec, and dolce bottino.

This is by far the best winery I have ever been to and the wine was delicious! We got to go back into the barrel room for barrel tasting. Super educational, fun, different experience, personalized, relaxed, engaging and mind blowing. So FREAKING cool!!! The vibe here was super relaxed and fun! Delicious wines! Affordable tastings, bottles and cases. LOVED all the home decor and unique gifts! Super fun!!! Right off Hwy 50 AND delicious BBQ next door! Loved this place! We will be back for sure!

Beautiful Scenery, Delicious Wine, HiLARious Owner - "What Could Be Better For A Wine-Tasting Experience?", I Ask, RIGHT?!?
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/crystal-basin-cellars-camino?select=SZMTgFGXCdTpuqZ8N1dRFQ&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w

SITREP

I've had a couple of very fun opportunities to stop by Crystal Basin Cellars ("Crystal Basin") this Autumn season, and each time brought a greater, more indepth exposure to the wonderful vintages available here specifically, and they also gifted me with a more comprehensive understanding of wine-making in general here in the El Dorado County Zone.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/crystal-basin-cellars-camino?select=GEHjD5gQxZSD8Hx_G3LOHQ&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w

THE SETUP

The knowledge I've gained indicates it is naive to think that operating a winery is a like a "little block box" that can easily be *turned on* successfully. But nothing could be further from the truth and does not take into account the blood, sweat and tears people put into the wine-making effort.

As with Crystal Basin, so many factors come into play to ensure that a winery like Crystal Basin will succeed:

* The investment of continuous capital to ensure necessary equipment is obtained and that daily operating expenses are met;

* Ensuring that the vines are cultured, cared for meticulously and maintained by diligent staff and, of course, plenty of irrigation;

* Having a wine-master who dispassionately tastes many varietals, approves barrels are good and which are not, approves which mixing of varietals will make an excellent blend - or not - and then approves the final vintages, etc.;

* Cultivating customer satisfaction - and participation! - to develop that successful interface that will keep people coming back to tastings, to sign up for the wine club, to bring their friends, and to spread the word;

* And also knowing what other competitive wineries are doing with their inventory of wines, and how to meet them in the marketplace head-on.

Crystal Basin is firing on all pistons in this regard.

EDUCATION AND WINE CLONING

Huge kudos to Crystal Basin for not pushing away curious customers like me who are fascinated with the wine-making process such as they share with their wine-clones, and pressing ahead on different vintages of Zinfandel.T

During my first trip to Crystal Basin, they opened the back to their Cloning-facilities and it was a delighted to see the various mixing bins. What we participated in was the 2018 Vintage Zinfandel barrel tastings: this featured three (3) separate Zinfandel "clones" - these included:
(1) The Dupratt Clone
(2) The Deaver Clone; and the,
(3) Haywood Clone

I had very different reactions to each clone: A. The Dupratt Clone I found sweet, light and crisp; B. The Deaver Clone was definitely lightly tart for my tastebuds, but still tasty; and, C. The Haywood Clone resided in more familiar, full-bodied vintage.

From these 3, we were able to witness the "blending"-process firsthand as we got beakers with which to blend whatever percentages of each of the 3 clones we wanted. This was a LOT of fun getting to see the blending process that a wine-master does and then trying it for ourselves.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/crystal-basin-cellars-camino?select=0IquCz6HdAWawMObiPnfBQ&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w

I had a lot of fun crushing grapes as well, although it was a very strenuous work! [Think *bench-pressing!*]
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/crystal-basin-cellars-camino?select=xrjIyEQ_rMVg5QCodHFA2w&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w

OTHER WINE VARIETALS!

Although Crystal Basin goes "ballz-to-the-wall" on different varietals of excellent Zinfandels, their "Quijote" - a wondrous Tempranillo and Grenache blend - is out of this world.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/crystal-basin-cellars-camino?select=oJqXqJ8JI4VT20WB3a9T-Q&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w

And besides the Zinfandels and Quijote, I loved their "Bubbly" (their version of Champagne) - actually my elixir of delight since I favor sweeter wines, and it has been a dynamic addition to a couple of dinner parties in the interim (and at only around $20/bottle, an extremely reasonable acquisition).
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/crystal-basin-cellars-camino?select=Y44ooULhNXgD3XWmXwLKww&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w

THE LOWDOWN

Thanks to owner Mike Owen and his talented, warm staff for welcoming my friends and myself during our visits to Crystal Basin Cellars.

They are an outstanding example of a dynamic winery that deserves your notice and patronage - you owe it to yourselves to go visit Crystal Basin!

Crystal Basin recently threw open its cellar doors to welcome a group of enthusiastic Yelpers for a terrific midday tour. The event included some initial bubbly tasting, a few welcome remarks from the event hosts, then a stroll across Carson Road for some Zinfandel grape tasting straight from the vine. We then sampled some fine 2015 Zinfandel right there in the vineyard.

Upon returning to the main barn where the cellar and tasting room are located, we had the opportunity to taste 2018 Zins from three different blocks and then the really fun part commenced: we got to play mad wine scientists and make our blends!

The owner, Mike Owen, told us about the process of "punching down" to mix the macro bins of grapes, which hold a half ton of what is arguably the ~real~ magical fruit.

After the official event ended, we bellied up to their tasting room bar and tried all of their offerings. Ended up with a half case and new members of CBC's Ascendance Club.

Thanks, Crystal Basin Cellars!

Relaxing way to spend a Friday afternoon. Excellent selection and very friendly, knowledgeable staff. Love the Pomme! Thank you KZ, Shawna and Chris. We also love that your dog people! Looking forward to visiting again soon!

My babe and I were in Placerville doing some work, on our way back home (Reno) we decided to stop and had some wine tasting.

The Place:
It was a cute bar? I think there was an event going on at the cellar and we were just admitted at the bar. The bar has their wines, a great collection of all kind of souvenirs and goodies to bring home. We stood by the bad and asked to do wine tasting.

The Wine:
This is just my opinion (I do drink wine frequently and belong to a Wine Club in Calistoga) the wine was just OK, honestly I can't think of a sample I had that I could say it was great or delicious. I felt like waiting to see if the next one was going to be better or less worse.
We first started with "Sparkling wine" was just ok, a little too sweet.
Then the "Chardonnay" that one had no flavor, was like drinking old water.
Then we had others...nothing nice to say.
Finally we had the "Mystery Juice" and the Merlot I think that's the only ones I would consider buying.

Other than that, I think is cool they make wine in bags, so you can bring them to places like the park or the lake.

I heard they won an award on some wine at the State Fair but we didn't get to taste because we were not members. So maybe they do have good wine. We were just not lucky to try it.

The Service:
Service was ok, I understand a lot of locals go and drink there. So the guys giving us the wine didn't care to much to talk to us, instead he focused on his old customers. Later when everybody left he tried a bit harder to made conversation with us.

Overall: 3 Stars,
Cool place to hang out and drink. Wine wise, I was not impressed at all. I'm not a wine snob, I've had house wine from restaurants and never felt they were that terrible.