Crystal Basin Cellars

Crystal Basin Cellars is a total must! Be sure to come in on a Tuesday ask for Kim she is a beautiful person! She has a gift of gab that’s for sure, get it Kim! She’s also 420 friendly, whatever that means. The wine was amazing and there’s nothing we couldn’t drink! We love Kim! (:

I love crystal Basin cellars had the best time tasting and enjoying the wine with the beautiful Kim on a Tues afternoon …

My boyfriend and I love this place! The first time we went and wine tasted we tasted about 10 different wines. The people that work there are super nice and friendly as well! We had a tour and also got to taste wine out of the barrel. We joined the wine club its very fairly priced especially considering you can wine taste for free and bring people with you! The food at the bistro is excellent. Pretty much, we love this place and you will too!

OK, so the grounds are not pretty, the location is not the best, and there is no vineyard. It looks from the outside like you are at a convenience market with Andy Griffith in Mayberry. Let’s get all of that out of the way. But in this unpretentious building lies the best secret in El Dorado County.
So my wife and I arrive at Crystal Basin, and after arriving in the above described location, we enter the building, and our attention is immediately captured by a very tired yellow lab that sleeps with its various appendages going in seemingly impossible directions at the same time. Then the staff. They were so friendly. Not haughty, not stuffy, but friendly. They loved what they do and you could tell. And the wine. The wine was incredible. I’m not a white wine drinker, and my wife isn’t much either, but *every single red they had was off the hook good*. I’m not kidding. My wife and I do wine tasting in every country we go to, not to mention we are trying to get to know all the wineries in El Dorado and Amador Counties, and we had not had anything like this. Not even close.
Then the owner, a super friendly former accountant named Mike, took us around. One of his employees, Thea, let us drink straight from the barrels in the backroom. How cool is that? I asked Mike some questions about wine making and he took me off to another room and walked me through every step of the process, as if I was a potential investor. He was all to happy to teach me how it works. The guy was awesome. The whole staff was.
At the end, of course we bought our first winery membership ever, and we intentionally did not take our first 3 bottles home because we wanted an excuse to come back!
They’ve got a really cool concert schedule as well, and there is a pretty gourmet bistro they have next door that is pretty good with really reasonable prices and friendly staff. Also, they have barrel tasting events for members where you can buy futures. If you taste a wine you like, you can pay $ 200 now for a case from that barrel in the future. Pretty cool, huh?
On top of that, they called us by name and the person who was helping us (Tanya, a very sweet lady) told us what date to come back so she could serve us again.
Love this place, don’t miss it!!!

Kim and Jack made our trip to Crystal Basin Cellars memorable and fun. So much so that my friend became a wine club member. Kim was friendly and full of information! We will go back to Crystal Basin Cellars and Crystal Basin Bistro on our next trip to Tahoe!

This winery is whimsical and awesome. Chris took great care of us with 15+ tastings. I highly recommend this place. They do actually have 26 wines that «don’t suck».

I love this winery. I have been an Ascendance wine club member here for a long time. That is their reserve wines — 2 bottles 2 times/​year. However, they always let you «double down» and get two more bottles for an extra $ 50 and I always end up doing that. So I end up with 4 bottles 2 times/​year. Their wine is super delicious, the atmosphere is fun and laidback, and the room is full of fantastic signs to entertain you. Crystal Basin now has a Bistro next door where you can taste MORE wine and get food if you like. I have not tried any of the food yet, but I love the wine :)

First time wine tasting in El Dorado Hills AVA. This was our favorite stop. Interesting and fun wines made and poured by interesting and fun people. The winemaker /​proprietor Mike was too cool and accommodating and his wines were spot on across the board. If you are lucky enough to land there on a Tuesday (or a Wednesday when she’s covering) you may get Vivacious Kim as your pourer. She slings wit like Billy The Kid swings a 6-​shooter. Watch out! Or you might just have too much fun :)

I don’t think we’ve ever had this much fun at a wine tasting.
The wine folks were all hella funny and ready to pour! Not once ounce of snooty. not one person behind the bar had tude. everyone was happy and ready to make us laugh and… well.drunk.
Huge list for the tasting for $ 5, which happily gets waived with purchase. This was the 2^nd winery of the day and thinking back, it felt like the 4^th since I was pretty lit up upon leaving.
We left with a Port, Syrah (one of the best I’ve tried) and the Chardonnay. .
We joined the wine club, so we’ll be back damnit!

Melissa is just about the most perfect wine room diva you can find! She runs the show & knows the ropes! Gr8t place!

By far the best winery in apple hill area I have tried. This place sits behind two wineries from the street. The small shed tasting room shouldn’t deter one from trying.
First notice the full room. It’s like a party. Greeted promptly from the friendly staff to the party. The staff give simple description of the tasting and what it covers.
The tasting fee of 5 dollars goes to trying a good amount of the wines made by the winery. It also gets waived if purchases are made.
Tasting begins with the white and sparkling to red and dessert. The various staff member take over to pour, educate, and help the party moving. Staff was well versed on products and history of various wines. Descriptors on the menu are correctly on point. There was something for everyone. Light crisp to bold and distinct. A few award winners.
We had to call the tasting early as we had so much beverage volume before end. We enjoyed most pours.
Pricing on the most wines were on par with the other wineries in area. 20– 50. Unless you are a member of any one of their six clubs. The wine clubs are also some of the better deals. I would consider joining on next trip. This trip we purchased two bottles. Bill was settled quick.
Good: fun, attentive, friendly, delicious are some words to describe this place.
Bad: a pinch difficult to locate without getting recommendation from another local business.
A definite return.

Wine tasting with Kim absolutely fabulous. Was not a fan or willing to try red wine after drinking from a bad bottle. the staff talked me into trying their wine. The wine was so good I joined my first wine club and bought futures. Small intimate venue everybody fun atmosphere. MY friend and I went to the bistro for dinner afterwards the food was absolutely fantastic love it and would recommend it to anyone

Very warm and welcoming. Informative and great tastings. Definitely add this to your list.

Love their wines. Service is always a little sketchy. The staff always seems to be talking to a client, meaning the newer client doesn’t get great service when they come in.
I was pretty annoyed with the woman pouring this past Tuesday when I went in. She was un-​organized and flustered, which would have been fine, except that she kept making comments about my friend’s and my ages. We are both 22. I understand that people who are younger tend not to know what they are doing with wine, and most can’t hold their liquor but we intentionally shared pours so as to not get drunk. I had one sip off of a few of them and gave the rest to my friend so I could drive. The woman behind the counter tried to cut my friend off (she wasn’t drunk at all) unless we went to the Bistro and had lunch.
Considering both of our states (acting completely sober), this was irritating. We were going to try the bistro anyway but the pressure of «you can’t try the rest of the wines unless you go» when I’m a member just came off as a gimmick to get me to spend more money, rather than genuine concern.
This added to the rude client who was also carrying on about our age made for an unpleasant experience. I would encourage the staff to learn to cater to all clients, especially when the clients seem out of the norm. I walked away from my pickup where I was supposed to get 3 bottles with 10 bottles that day. She probably could have sold more if we hadn’t been ignored and then mocked.

Carson Road and Crystal Basin in particular is one of my favorite places to head during the summer to escape from the heat. Everyone at Crystal Basin is friendly and willing to educate you on the wines you are tasting. They host live music next door at the Bistro on the weekends. The food is delicious and the prices are not high. If you need a mini escape… pack your sunscreen, and plan for a fun day of music and great wine. A tip when you visit… the Ascendance wines are my all time favorites. Also, try a bag of Meau Faux it’s delicious and easy to travel with.

Crystal Basin Cellars was our first introduction to wine tasting and wine clubs and we’re quite happy with them.
We are by no means wine snobs, and that’s the reason we like Crystal Basin. They are very schooled in their wines but they aren’t snobs about it. I bought a Living Social deal that included a tour, a free bottle, and free food at the Bistro that sits just a few feet from the winery. The tour was amazing and interesting — and full of samples!
Of course the samples led to a $ 200 futures membership in addition to a quarterly membership, but that’s okay. It’s fun to take a few hours and drive up to pick up our wines every few months. They treat their wine club members well. Their 2012 Merlot is one of my favorite Merlots!

I have to go with, I’ve experienced better on this one.
There are a lot of wines to try. You get to try 16 tastings for $ 5(a fee which is waved if you buy a bottle). But the wine itself is mediocre. I was not impressed.
The staff is nice but the place is very busy and chaotic and they end up being all over the place.
The location is small and eclectic, there is stuff everywhere. Not a terrible experience overall, I just prefer my wine tasting experience to be more relaxed, with better wine in a nicer setting. But that’s just me.

I had a very negative experience during my most recent wine tasting tour.
I had called earlier this past week and made a reservation for a group of 12 for Saturday afternoon, this was to be our last stop on our tour of the El Dorado/​Placerville area. We arrived on time and when we walked in we were told that we had called and cancelled. This was definitely not true, perhaps they had my group mixed up with another one for another day or something, but instead of welcoming us in (they were not that busy) we were treated as an inconvenience. I’m sorry I just brought twelve people in to sample your fine wines and have a good time.
Instead of brushing off the mix up, we felt as if we were not welcome to the tasting area. They demanded the $ 5 tasting fee up front, paid little attention to our group and didn’t really follow up with us at all. Most of us felt so unwelcome we just decided to sit out front and relax.
I’m very glad that we did not make a reservation to eat at the Bistro either, knowing them they would have given away our tables anyways.
I would definitely NOT go back to this winery Our first two stops were MUCH more friendly, beautiful grounds, clean and welcoming. Crystal Basin was simply a warehouse with a small dark and dingy tasting area.

We went to the Crystal Basin Cellars but didn’t have a chance to stop by the bistro so this review will only be for the cellars.
Came here one busy Saturday during Apple Hill season so everything was super crowded, except this place was kind of light. Even though they were slow, they had their «wine club» members in a small tasting room/​gift shop area and the rest of us at a tasting area in the warehouse. I thought it was kind of weird since when we were tasting there was a forklift constantly driving around behind us… And if we stepped away from the bar area we were constantly dodging the forklift. Ok…
I didn’t end up tasting any of the wine because I don’t like wine enough to pay $ 5 for a few small pours, but the other two girls I was with did, and they thought it was only ok. The two older people behind the bar weren’t very friendly either or fond of conversation, so the whole experience was just weird and felt like we were a bother/​in the way.
I should have known to turn away when the tubs and tubs of fermenting grapes on the walk up to the tasting room made me want to retch. I just expected a little more when a good portion of their wine is $ 30+ a bottle.

This was our FAVORITE winery in the Camino area… in fact, in all of Amador and El Dorado area! The wines are all amazing, with smooth tanins, creative blends and amazing taste!
We arrived about ½ hour before they were officially opened, but the lady welcomed us with open arms and immediately began pouring/​sharing their wines with us. Her name, by the way, was Danielle, and she was an AMAZING hostess!
We started with their Featured Red Wines, and then moved on to their Asendance Wines (blends) and ended with their dessert wines. And yes, they got a club membership out of us (see attached 5 photos of their menus and wines that I posted on Unilocal)!
As we were wrapping up our wine tastings, we asked Danielle if she knew of some good restaurants in the area. Lo and behold, we learned that Crystal Basin has a new Bistro located adjacent to their winery! For info about their bistro, please check out the Crystal Basin Bistro review.
We loved this winery and not only was Danielle gracious, fun and informative, but the other staff members were as well! I highly recommend this winery in the Camino area!