We were going to a van meetup in Temecula, CA. We thought it would be a good time to try a new winery through Harvest Host, a subscription based company that allows you to stay on-site at over 1000 wineries, breweries, and distilleries across the United States.
We contacted our new van life friends @SK_funvan to see if they wanted to join us in the Harvest Host adventure. We stayed at Sweet Oaks Ranch which is 1 out of 12 ( and growing) Harvest Host locations in Temecula. Sweet Oaks Winery is a beautiful location. Just a few miles off HWY 15 and right in the middle of wine country. It was also just 12 minutes away from (Ronald Reagan Sport Center) where we were going to meet up with many more van life people.
Our first tip would be to make sure you call ahead as not all the host have availability. I would say this location would be really busy during peak season. We called and made reservations about 2 weeks ahead of our trip. We spoke with Jacob, and recommended the wine tasting to insure our available camping spot. As a Harvest Host member you are asked to make a purchase from your camp host. In this case they ask that we book a tasting at the time of our booking the site. This was to secure our spot but also keeps people from requesting an overnight and then not showing up.
The day before we were to arrive, Sweet Oaks Winery contacted us to book us for a later wine tasting as we were staying on the property. They set up a 7pm wine tasting with the owners. Not only was it nice meeting the other people camping on the property but hearing the owners telling Sweet Oak’s history. They take a lot of pride in their wine and described how they harvest their grapes by hand, and how the different blends of wine are made.
On this occasion we were instructed how to hold the wine glasses properly and they showed us how to taste the wine a different way. The owner told us to take the wine in our mouth and breath out air over the wine while it is in your mouth then swish and swallow tasting all the elements of the wine. This process allows you to blow off the alcohol and this reveals more of the flavors in the wine.
After an evening of wine tasting we walked back to our van where we spent time around the fire reminiscing about the wine tasting and all the wineries we have visited. We woke up to a beautiful morning. The bathrooms were directly across from where we were camping making it easy to start our day. We explore the grounds of the winery including hiking up a hill to overlook Temecula. Once we finished our walk we got back into our vans and headed out to our full day of van life meetup with people from all over Southern California.
If you have any questions about (SoCal Adventure Vans) check out their Facebook page. If you are interested in Harvest Host and receiving a 15% discount on membership click here.
