Rucksack Cellars

It’s HOT and we’re tasting inside the Rucksack building!

This weekend is supposed to be hot!!! So we’re moving all the fun inside the Rucksack building.

Come out to Rucksack and while you taste, check out all of the new toys that I have been writing about over the last few weeks in this newsletter and see how I’m preparing for harvest this season.

Speaking of tasting, I’ve just changed up the menu with two things in mind, the weather and granting your wishes. This line-up has hot weather enjoyment written all over it, we are predominantly serving chilled white wines with our Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Moscato all on the list. Also…and for maybe the last time EVER, I am including our Portuguese blend Seco in the tasting flight.

Why is tasting the Seco so special? Well…there’s a number of reasons. First of all, it’s from 2017 and had a long time to become a well balanced, fruit forward expression with notes of blackberry and black cherry while maintaining a wonderfully rustic feel. Second, there’s not very much of it left and traditionally when we start running low on a wine, we reserve it for bottle sales only. Finally, once the 2017 Seco is gone, it is gone forever! A few years ago, for vineyard health reasons, we had to pull out the Portuguese variety vines, so this is unfortunately the last vintage we will ever have.

So come out to Rucksack, escape that hot weather and enjoy a tasting flight that may never happen again!

Weekly Menu Released

September is just around the corner and I can not wait!

Not only because the temperatures will start to cool off (even though the summer this year has been pretty glorious). Not only because of all the wonderful conversations had during Community Game Nights, which I truly miss during July and August. But I am beyond excited for the incredible food line-up that we have planned for this September.

All of these wonderful food options can be reserved for $20/person and by CLICKING RIGHT HERE!

September 3: Brazilian BBQ Chicken, Grilled Summer Vegetables and Cheesy Polenta. Gluten-Free options available and prepared by Little Cravings Catering.

September 10: Greek Meatballs with Tzatziki Sauce, Mediterranean Veggie Salad and Toasted Flatbread. Gluten-Free options available and prepared by Little Cravings Catering.

September 17: Grilled Kielbasa Sausage, Sweet and Tangy Apple Kraut with Polish Potato Salad. Gluten-Free options available and prepared by Little Cravings Catering.

September 24: Gluten-Free meal prepared by Flourless Patisserie, more details soon.

Make your reservations and come out to Community Game Nights this September at Rucksack Cellars and enjoy a beautiful evening with your community while playing some fun, family friendly games and let Rucksack, Little Cravings and Flourless Patisserie provide the picnic.

Rucksack Harvest Dinner Catered By Flourless

After our super early tease for this fabulous event in the newsletter, the ticket link is live so you can book it and mark it on your calendars so you don’t miss out.

As we work on finalizing the menu, start imagining four-courses of delectable foods cooked using Rucksack wines as ingredients, while also being paired with additional Rucksack wines.

On October 3 starting at 6pm, to usher in the beginning of Fall and celebrate the harvest season, Rucksack Cellars and Flourless Patisserie are joining together again to offer a seasonally themed four-course dinner and wine pairing. As always when these two local small businesses get together, you won’t believe the entire meal is gluten-free!

As I mentioned above, tickets for this fabulous dinner can be purchased by clicking right here! Once again, this dinner will take place on October 3, starting at 6pm, and will cost $90/person for Rucksack Club Members and $100/person for the general public.

Fun, Discounts And Special Merchandise

Coming up at the end of June, over two weekends, the Apple Hill Growers Association annually celebrates Lavender Blue Harvest Days. This year the summer kick off event will span the weekends of June 20-21 and June 27-28.

There will be a number of special festivities, events and offerings from participating Apple Hill farms, with the exact list of farms at AppleHill.com.

Here at Rucksack Cellars we will have a number of fun treats to celebrate Lavender Blue Harvest Days. For those who mention the special festivities when you come to visit, we will extend 2 for 1 tasting benefits. In addition to your tasting, we will also have some handmade lavender crafts, created by Mel (one of our resident floral geniuses), all organically farmed and sourced from right here on our Rucksack property.

As you can see from the photo attached to this post, we will be offering fresh lavender wreaths, sure to beautify and freshen your home for years to come. If you are more of a do-it-yourself crafty person, we will have both fresh and dried lavender bunches for sale.

Come up and help us celebrate the kick off to summer and Lavender Blue Harvest Days, all while enjoying 2 for 1 tastings and the special lavender treats we have to offer!

Thursday Evening Community Game Nights at Rucksack Cellars are back!!! Woo Hoo…I can’t wait!!!

This June our community nights return every Thursday from 5pm to 7:30pm…or really until the sun has set. We will have all our large format games out (Cornhole, Giant Jenga, Bean Bag Tic-Tac-Toe, and Ladder Golf) along with board games on the tables. If you have a favorite game, feel free to bring it along…the more the merrier!

A different food option is being offered for each Thursday Community Night and pre-orders can be made staying on this website, clicking the “STORE” tab across the top banner, followed by clicking on the “EVENTS AND MERCHANDISE” tab.  Our caterers need the pre-orders so that they know how much to prepare and as little as possible goes to waste, please pre-order, there will be food available for drop-ins but it will be limited.

The $20/person food offerings for June will be:

June 4: Two Tacos, either Smoked Pork or Roasted Veggies topped with Cotija Cheese, pickled onion and cilantro accompanied by Corn Salad. Salsa and Sour Cream on the side.

June 11: Thai Grilled Chicken or Grilled Veggie Skewers, served with steamed rice, Peanut Sauce and Sweet Chili Sauce.

June 18: Pulled Beef or Portabella sliders topped with cheese sauce and roasted peppers on Hawaiian rolls with a side of tangy coleslaw.

June 25: Gluten-Free snack box from Flourless Patisserie (Turkey, Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes sandwich with Mediterranean pasta salad and a brownie)

All Rucksack wines will be available for purchase by either the glass or the bottle.

This is a perfect way to spend a summer evening with neighbors, friends and family.

Mother’s Day Brunch at Rucksack Cellars

Grab all the Moms in your world and join us for a Mother’s Day Brunch with the famous Rucksack Spritzer. This brunch is all about sipping, laughing and celebrating all our beautiful Moms together!

Brunch will be provided and served by Lauren of Little Cravings Catering and will include a Spinach Mushroom and Emmental Frittata, Biscuit with Sausage Gravy, Crisp Bacon and a Fresh Fruit Salad.

All this and your Rucksack Spritzer is included in your ticket price of $45/person.

To reserve your tickets, simply click on the following link:  https://rucksackcellars.orderport.net/wines/events-and-merchandise

Now that you have your tickets for Mother’s Day Brunch at Rucksack Cellars…

Add a special Mother’s Day bouquet for an additional $35 created for Mom by Mel of Flowers by Mel.

Reserve your tickets and bouquet here https://rucksackcellars.orderport.net/wines/events-and-merchandise

and we will have it waiting for you upon your arrival to brunch!

Apple Hill Winery Event – March 21 and 22

The Apple Hill wineries are having an event to welcome Spring. A number of wineries will be participating in this event throughout the Apple Hill area and a number are offering special tastings and opportunities to those who visit and mention the “Spring Fling” event. You can see a list of participating farms by clicking here!

At Rucksack, we will be offering a special vertical flight of our Bordeaux style blend, The Cache. We will be opening our 2013, 2016 and 2018 vintages for you to experience the differences in a little more age, different weather conditions and slightly different blend percentages.

Come up to Rucksack and see for yourself which vintage is YOUR favorite!

The hope is to be open for normal business hours Saturday and Sunday of this week (February 21 and 22), even though we were forced to close Thursday and Friday due to weather. Now…this all depends on rate of snow melt, but I may go over and drive on the snow in my truck in order to encourage faster melting. Keep an eye on our social media pages before you head up, I will post in the morning if I believe we will be able to open.

As it seems to work out, every few years in Camino, we get a big cold storm through our little neck of the woods that doesn’t drop snow totals that are measured in inches, but are measured in feet.

As beautiful and fun as it is, unfortunately it forces us to keep our doors closed. These storms are often accompanied by dangerous road conditions, power outages and, as I mentioned above, deep snow that can often get cars stuck.

I really hope we can open Saturday and Sunday, there’s nothing better than a wine flight paired with our new lunchbox and a view of a snow covered vineyard!

We have a new food offering at Rucksack Cellars.

We are continuing our partnership with another local small business, Flourless Patisserie, to bring you the uniquely Rucksack picnic box. Each picnic box contains 4 quiche, a fresh baguette with two tapenades, and two desserts. For $25, this spread easily feeds 2-4 people will you enjoy your Rucksack wine tasting and to keep you coming back week after week, the flavors of quiche, bread, tapenade and dessert will change.

Come on in and give this new food offering a try, and as they say at Flourless…you won’t believe it’s Gluten-Free!

What do you do when you become the new owner and winemaker of the winery you have been working at for the last number of years?

Obviously you open for the new season as soon as you can because you miss all of your customers, club members and friends and you want to have the opportunity to celebrate with all of them.

We are hoping that 2026 will be a year of growth, education (for me at least) and a whole lot of celebration with our entire Rucksack community. So let’s get the party started!!! This weekend, January 24 and 25, we will be open as a “preview” opening. The official season opening will be next week on January 30 and toward the end of February/beginning of March, we are planning a “Grand” opening party.  Plus…we hope that you can join us on February 11th at 5pm for our first event of 2026…our “Rucksack Date Night” with flowers, appetizers and wine!  Tickets for this event can be purchased by clicking right here.  https://rucksackcellars.orderport.net/wines/events-and-merchandise

So I look forward to seeing you all very soon and answering all your questions about what is coming up for Rucksack Cellars. Hopefully I will see some of you as early as this Saturday and Sunday.

Cheers! to 2026.