Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Adam Carruth. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Adam thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

Our award winning wine is made with LOVE & GRATITUDE for all who helped make it happen. From the vintners we’ve been sourcing fruit from for years, to the bottling crew and bar staff, we try to involve as many local, hard-working people as we can. We currently have two ways we are giving back: our “Pay it Forward” bottles and our “Corks for Cause” program.

Pay it Forward: A portion of proceeds are dedicated to a non-profit organization, cause, person in need, or to simply build a awareness. Currently, we have two bottles released in this program, our 2019 Pinot Noir Rose and our 2018 Unicorn Blend. Our Rose was released in May 2020; in light of the economic downturn from the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to our hardworking staff, as without them our company would not have survived! For our 2018 Unicorn, a portion of proceeds from every bottle sold is donated to the California Farmworker Foundation – one hundred percent of the donation will directly support CA farmworkers’ in the areas of Education, Health & Wellness, Immigration & Citizenship, Professional Development & Personal Development.

Corks for Cause: Each quarter we donate a portion of our sales to one local and one national organization through our Corks for Cause program. Donations are made in our Tasting Rooms by our customers. The choice is theirs! With each bottle purchase customers receive a token and choose the organization they would like to support. From January – March 2022, customers can choose between local organization Tri-City Hospital Foundation, or national organization Operation Underground Railroad.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Carruth Cellars is an urban winery, meaning we source grapes from the country and make wine by the beach. Sourcing the best grapes we can find is the first and most important step in our winemaking process; we focus our efforts on the fruit from Northern and Central California. As soon as the grapes are harvested, they are loaded into temperature controlled trucks and are immediately transported to San Diego. We do all wine production (destemming, crushing, fermenting, aging, and bottling) in our urban facility by the beach. We currently have three Tasting Rooms in San Diego County in Carlsbad, Solana Beach and Little Italy, and are in the process of opening a Tasting Room at our production facility in Oceanside and one in Liberty Station. Whether it’s through one of our Pay it Forward bottles and Corks for Cause program, of which a portion of proceeds are donated to a cause, or our Wine Club that feels like family, we strive to provide a place for community and a space for neighbors to get to know one another. After all, wine is better when shared with friends!

When you visit our urban winery in San Diego, CA, you’re supporting a local winery dedicated to providing you with the highest quality wines with delectable flavors. Whether you choose to join our wine club to buy unique wines regularly or spend time finding a new favorite in our wine tasting room, we offer the experience you want with convenient locations throughout the city. It doesn’t matter if you’re visiting southern California or you live here; we’re dedicated to bringing a local taste to our wines.

I’m a local of San Diego County, a graduate of Carlsbad High School, and have lived in North County for most of my life. I started brewing beer during college in 1991 as a hobby at U.C. Riverside. After graduating I moved to Sonoma County and studied viticulture at Santa Rosa Community College. Over time, my interest in grape growing inspired a new hobby, and soon I was making wine with friends and other wine enthusiasts. With much encouragement from friends, I continued to make wine after moving back to Carlsbad in 2001 by trucking grapes down from Northern California’s premier wine regions. In 2006, I transitioned into a professional operation, and Carruth Cellars was born.

Now I’ve been working in the wine industry for 22 years. Opening our two new Tasting Rooms in Oceanside and Liberty Station has been our primary focus this past year and I’m so excited to share those spaces with our community. These projects have taken a lot of passion, dedication and endless patience from our team and I am so grateful to all those who have offered their support and efforts along the way, helping to make these dreams a reality.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

One of the most important steps in our business is sourcing high-quality fruit. We’ve got long-standing contracts with small, family owned vineyards up in Sonoma & Napa that are essential to our business. By partnering with these vineyards, we are ensuring that we will receive high-quality, clean fruit every year. This provides our customers with a high-quality product that is locally made, but with some of the most sought-after fruit in the world. That, combined with our focus on community & giving back, has help us build our reputation within the market.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Our Wine Club Membership is our backbone. By signing up for our membership, our customers are joining a family and a community. We’ve created a space in all our Tasting Rooms for relationships to develop, whether that’s employee to member, member to member, or employee to employee. We try to partner with as many local organizations & businesses as we can, from local wood mills for our tables, to providing a space for food trucks and musicians to perform. We also try to give back to the community with our Pay it Forward and Corks for Cause programs. All of these combined foster brand loyalty.

For communications, we utilize newsletters, social media, collateral and incentivizing our staff to talk to customers about products or events.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://carruthcellars.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/carruthcellars
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarruthCellars/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/carruth-cellars-solana-beach-5

Image Credits
Kellie Williamson