Today, our “RVing Today TV” Quick Stop is Crystal Basin Cellars in Camino, California, our favorite kind of Harvest Host location: a winery. A modest parking area means they can accommodate two Harvest Host rigs at a time.

There’s no avoiding the traffic noise from nearby Highway 50, but a hard-side RV with its windows closed should shut out most of the sound.

Mike Owen: So, you’re at Crystal Basin Cellars today, and we’re in Camino, California, right off Highway 50, and we’ve been a Harvest Host host for over ten years now. And we first found this program at another Harvest Host called Twisted Oak Winery down in Murphys, and we thought it was such a great idea that we decided to adopt it ourselves being campers. And so, we really liked the aspect of hospitality, we really liked the aspect of safety that people can come and enjoy some wine.

Wine is an integral part of RV-ing, and that aspect is–then you can sleep here safely, go on to your next destination. And one of the things that we think Crystal Basin– www.crystalbasin.com, by the way– we think that we excel at hospitality, and we call our style of that legendary foothill hospitality. And if you come here, that’s what you’re gonna get along with some pretty good wine. We are the third custodian of this property, and we only buy grapes from El Dorado County. We’re landlocked, we don’t have grapes on this property, and I think that’s not– our highest and best use is to be grape growers, but what does El Dorado County have? A hundred different varietals of grapes. We happen to use about 20, and we make blends with that, and so our quality is extraordinarily high, and I think it matches the legendary hospitality that I’ve mentioned.

There’s a great selection of wine available for tasting and purchase, and the gift shop is likewise loaded with many regional items to tempt a shopper.

Harvest Host offers its members a broad variety of places to stay, and a winery is certainly right up there on our list of fun spots.