CRUSH SEASON AT CARRUTH CELLARS
CRUSH Season at Carruth Cellars has started. Carruth Cellars’ Solana Beach urban winery location transforms the tasting room into a full functioning wine cellar. This year Carruth Cellars is crushing 260 tons of grapes, which is over 100 tons more than any other year.
Carruth Cellars is allowing guests and volunteers the opportunity to help with the crush. Volunteers can experience what it is like to be a Winemaker during the crush by helping with the daily task of “punch downs”. The punch downs help push down what is known as the “cap” (skins and seeds) that float to the top during fermentation. The punch downs are important because they keep the cap wet so the skins don’t dry out. They also introduce oxygen and get the fermentation party started. The punch downs ensure an even fermentation throughout the bins and help to avoid “hot spots” as well.
We visited Carruth Cellars last night to join in the Crush and punch down experience. After a brief training from Winemaker Steve on how to do the punch downs, we were making the most of the opportunity to help with the Crush at Carruth Cellars. Typically during the Crush Season the punch downs are done three times per day for about a week. At the completion of the punch downs on the evening we were there, all the volunteers were offered free glasses of wine for helping with the punch downs. As the saying goes…will work for wine! It was a fun time for everyone.
Carruth Cellars specializes in California style wines. They source their grapes from premium Vineyards in Northern and Central California and make all of their wine at the Solana Beach location. Carruth Cellars Urban Winery has three wine tasting rooms located in Solana Beach, Carlsbad, and Little Italy. We have enjoyed visiting all of their wine tasting rooms and really like many of their wines. Some of our favorite Carruth Cellars wines include their Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and Unicorn Blend. You can check out some of our previous wine blog articles for more information on Carruth Cellars.
We had a fun time helping with the punch downs and look forward to helping again next year during the Crush Season at Carruth Cellars!
Cheers!