Rucksack Cellars

Rucksack Open For The Holiday Weekend

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love being outside with friends, family and neighbors enjoying bbq’s, picnics and beautiful summer weather. In my younger days, I absolutely loved waiting until dark so that I could run around with sparklers in my hands and watch the firework displays put on by our communities.

What could be a more perfect way to spend the daylight hours of this holiday weekend, than coming up to Rucksack Cellars and enjoying a wine flight or bottle with one of our charcuterie boards or a picnic that you are always welcome to bring yourself.

We will have a number of our family friendly games available, such as corn hole, ladder golf, giant tumbling blocks and bean bag tic-tac-toe.

Bring your whole family by Rucksack Cellars for some wonderful outdoor holiday relaxation, open Thursday thru Sunday from 12pm to 5pm

New Release Just In Time For Summer Heat

Our 2024 Moscato has just been released at Rucksack Cellars and it is a wonderful wine for this time of year. Come by and pick some up, keep it chilled so you can enjoy it on those hot summer afternoons and evenings.

It is a beautiful golden color with notes of peach, apricot and honey, with a nose on this wine that is sweet and inviting.

I have added the 2024 Moscato to the tasting menu at Rucksack Cellars, so come by and try this wonderful summer wine for yourself.

One More Weekend – Don’t Miss The Discounts

Last weekend we had some really great crowds up here in the Apple Hill Area for the first weekend of the Lavender Blue Harvest Days. Well…if you missed it, there is one more weekend to come up and enjoy the incredible sights, smells and discounts available.

Saturday and Sunday, June 28 and 29, at Bluestone Meadows there will be an assortment of vendors and lavender crafts for you to enjoy. Plus, a number of local farms, vineyards and brewery’s will be offering some specials of their own…INCLUDING RUCKSACK! If you simply mention ‘lavender” when you stop in to Rucksack Cellars, you will receive a 2-for-1 tasting. We will also be selling our organic, sustainably farmed, Rucksack Lavender Sachet’s (pictured) grown right here on the Rucksack estate.

See you this weekend!!!

A Review Of Our Cheese Pairing Event

First off, thank you again to all those for coming!!!

Jamie Mayne and myself had a wonderful time conversing with friends new and old, exploring our palettes, and making new culinary and wine discoveries.

If you missed it, here is the menu of cheeses, small accompaniments and wines with which they were paired:

La Tur (Cow/Sheep/Goat) from Italy – paired with Gooseberry Jelly – Rucksack Chenin Blanc

Vacherousse d’Argental (Cow) from France – paired with honey roasted nuts – Rucksack Barbera Rosé

Kaasfort 30 Month Gouda (Cow) from Holland – paired with peach mostarda – Rucksack Zinfandel

Old Fritz (Cow) from Switzerland – paired with pickled fennel – Rucksack Cabernet Franc

We encourage you to go out and try these cheeses on your own and see what you think. Perhaps the most important message from the evening was experiment, experiment, experiment. We created the above list based on our knowledge and experience, however we definitely believe that these pairings should be tried in other orders. If the attendants of this event took nothing else away, we hope that they learned to listen to their own palettes, play and get out there and have some fun!

This inaugural cheese event at Rucksack was such a success, we will definitely be doing this again. Please stay tuned to our newsletter, in addition to our Facebook and Instagram pages, and of course this website for information about other exciting Rucksack events coming up throughout the year.

Saturday, June 21 at 6pm

Something completely NEW! (For us at least)

Everybody is familiar with pairing wine and cheeses, however we are adding an additional twist to this traditional event. Along with our Rucksack wines and cheeses (sourced from our local cheese shop in addition to some new ones), Jamie Mayne, a Fromager (cheese monger) who has worked across the country for over 20 years will be pairing these wines and cheeses with various condiments.

Jamie, originally from Tahoe and now resides in Copperopolis, has worked from San Francisco to New York City, we are incredibly excited to introduce you all to her and her fabulous creations.

Tickets for this event can be purchased by staying on this website, clicking on the “STORE” tab across the top banner, followed by clicking on the “EVENTS AND MERCHANDISE” tab. Tickets include the Rucksack wines, various cheeses, the small bite condiments and a SPECIAL GIFT for you to take home.

Don’t miss being a part of this inaugural fun event!

Our Food and Wine pairing event with two small local businesses, Flourless Patisserie and Rucksack Cellars.

Saturday, May 3 at 6pm at Rucksack Cellars, 3030 Carson Road in beautiful Camino, CA.

We will be pairing four Rucksack wines with four Gluten-Free courses from Flourless Patisserie.

Tickets are $50/person ($45/person for club members) and can be purchased by staying on this website, clicking the “STORE” tab across the top banner, followed by clicking on the “EVENTS AND MERCHANDISE” tab.

These are small dinner events that have been extremely popular in the past, only 25 tickets, and they have previously sold out quickly, so get your tickets now!

See you there and experience the deliciousness!

For the 2025 season at Rucksack Cellars, we are bring back our incredibly popular flower arranging classes. However, that is only half of the exciting news…Mel is also returning this season to guide us through the arranging and we are incredibly thrilled to welcome her back!!!

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of taking a class with Mel in the past, she is a local flower enthusiast who has been teaching classes for the last decade and has been a professional florist for almost 20 years.

Our first class this season with Mel, will be April 17, 2025 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at Rucksack Cellars. We are hosting a “Step Into Spring” flower class that highlights the prolific flowers in the foothills during this time of year. Come bask in the beauty with a Spring floral design class with Mel. The class will be using locally grown blooms provided by Frog Hollow Flower Farm and Treasures At The Barn.

This class has two price options. $55/person if you supply your own vase (vase openings should not exceed 4″) and $65/person if you would like us to supply you with a new vase. Tickets can be purchased by staying on this website and clicking on the “STORE” tab across the top banner, followed by clicking the “EVENTS AND MERCHANDISE” tab. Once there, simply choose the class option that you prefer.

Rucksack opens this Thursday…March 6.

Nobody is more excited than us here at Rucksack to welcome in our 2025 season. We can’t wait to see all of our wonderful Rucksack patrons and share our wines with you once again.

We have been working hard getting the grounds and building prepared to welcome you all. As it is March, the weather is unpredictable (we finally got a few flakes of snow…woo hoo) and it is still a bit chilly, so we will be tasting primarily in our Rucksack building. However…for you brave souls, the patio has been groomed and there will be a few tables outside as well.

The first tasting flight of the season is:

2023 – Chardonnay

2023 – Barbera Rosé

2017 – Barbera

2018 – The Cache

2022 – Zinfandel

Rucksack will be open for our normal business hours of Thursday thru Sunday, 12pm to 5pm.

We are so excited to see you all and kick off our 2025 season!

GSM Blending Event, March 29

We are planning our first event of 2025 at Rucksack Cellars, our GSM Blending Class.

Do you want to be a winemaker? Or maybe just find out what goes into blending a wine? Learn from Paul Bush, winemaker for Madroña Vineyards and Rucksack Cellars. Taste each wine in its 100% varietal form, and then begin to play! Bottle your own GSM at the end of the event for an additional $28.00 (limit 1 per participant).  

These are small classes, and a great way to learn – only 24 people per session. The first session is at 11am and the second begins at 2:30pm, both on March 29.   

Tickets are $45/person or $35/person for club members. Limit of 4 tickets per membership and can be purchased by staying on the website, clicking on the “STORE” tab across the top banner, followed by clicking on the “EVENTS AND MERCHANDISE” tab.

Tickets are selling fast so be sure to grab yours and we will see you on the 29th at Rucksack Cellars.

Happy New Year from Rucksack Cellars

First off, I want to start by saying Happy New Year from Rucksack Cellars. We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas Season and rang in the new year fabulously with all your friends and family held close. We wish you all health, happiness, prosperity and lots of Rucksack wine in 2025. (See what I did there?)

Well the time has come when Rucksack temporarily closes for a few winter months. However, when we close it gives us the opportunity to plan for 2025, but more importantly we can reflect on the previous year. Rucksack continues to grow with the support of its incredible community both near and far. We could not exist without you, your support, and for that we are incredibly thankful. We are the lucky ones, because you all have chosen to support us and we know there are lots of worthy choices.

Right now Rucksack is scheduled to re-open in March of 2025. However, as I have told many of you when you came in to visit before we closed for the season, stay tuned to this newsletter as well as our social media pages. At the end of January, beginning of February, if we are seeing a weekend or two of predictable nice weather, we will open so that you can come up for your Rucksack wine winter experience. Honestly…it’s just really hard for me to go two whole months without seeing you all, so this would really be more for me.

Thank you again for all your support in 2024, stay warm and cozy during these winter months, stay tuned to all the “happenings” at Rucksack and we very much look forward to seeing and serving you soon!