Garagiste Wine Festival launches 2024 series with Solvang event
Paso Robles festival dates also announced
– The Garagiste Wine Festival is set to kick off its 2024 event series with the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Southern Exposure festival in the Santa Ynez Valley on Feb. 9 and 10. Over two days of wine discovery events, the festival will feature more than 30 micro-production wineries pouring over 150 wines, including a “Rare and Reserve” tasting. Participating for the first time this year are Alamati Wines, Bocce Ball Wine, Buckaloose Wines, Chris Caruso Wines, CrossHatch Winery, Entity of Delight, and Riding Monkey Wines.
The festival, hosted in Solvang will take place at the landmark Mission-style Veterans’ Memorial Hall on Solvang’s Mission Street. Tickets for the event are now available for purchase on the festival’s website: https://www.my805tix.com/e/garagiste-solvang-2024/tickets.
Following a record year of sold-out Garagiste Festivals in 2023, showcasing over 200 small-production wineries, the not-for-profit festival, which supports the next generation of winemakers through the Garagiste Festival Scholarship fund at CalPoly’s Wine and Viticulture Department, has also announced its 2024 lineup. The Garagiste Festival: Northern Exposure will be held in Sonoma on April 27; The Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure in Los Angeles on June 22, and the original Garagiste Festival in Paso Robles on Nov. 8 and 9.
“Solvang was the natural first expansion of the Garagiste wine festival after Paso Robles, given the richness of the winemaking and the diversity of terroir in the Santa Ynez/Sana Barbara areas, as well as the idyllic setting Solvang provides, so we could not be happier to be back in this charming town for the tenth time,” said Garagiste Festival Co-founder Doug Minnick. “And that romantic ambience, coupled with the opportunity to discover some of the most exciting micro-production wines California has to offer, makes it the perfect place to celebrate Valentine’s Day.”
Minnick highlighted the festival’s role in showcasing micro-production wines and announced the participation of Original Garagistes who exceeded festival case limits. Casa Dumetz, Kaena Wine Co, and Kessler-Haak Vineyards, among others, will return to celebrate the festival’s 10th anniversary.
The Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure launches on Friday, Feb. 9, with its signature “Rare & Reserve” tasting, showcasing extremely limited club only, library, and pre-release bottles and a traditional Santa Maria-style barbecue dinner buffet. On Saturday, Feb. 10, the Grand Tasting, in addition to showcasing 30 wineries, includes cheese and charcuterie and a silent auction filled with first-rate wine packages that benefit the Garagiste Festival Scholarship Fund at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Weekend pass holders have entry into both events, along with early access, lunch, and a special sweet surprise.
Sunday, Feb. 11 is the popular Garagiste Passport Day, during which several participating wineries – including some “Garagiste Graduate” wineries who have poured with Garagiste in the past but have grown larger in over the years – will be offering special treats and discounts for Garagiste Festival attendees.
The festival premiered in Paso Robles in 2011 and is the only wine festival that exclusively features high-quality wines from commercial California ‘garagiste’ winemakers. Unlike other festivals, the wines are poured by the winemakers/owners themselves, offering a rare opportunity to interact with the creative forces behind the wines, while making brand new wine discoveries. The festival expanded to the Santa Ynez Valley in 2013 to highlight the wines of Santa Barbara County and surrounding AVAs, as well as small production wineries from across California.
Garagiste (garage-east) is a term originally used in the Bordeaux region of France to denigrate renegade small-lot winemakers, sometimes working in their “garages” (anything considered not a chateau), who refused to follow the “rules,” and is now a full-fledged movement responsible for making some of the best wine in the world.
“Solvang was the natural first expansion of the Garagiste wine festival after Paso Robles, given the richness of the winemaking and the diversity of terroir in the Santa Ynez/Sana Barbara areas, as well as the idyllic setting Solvang provides, so we could not be happier to be back in this charming town for the tenth time,” said Garagiste Festival Co-founder Doug Minnick.
The 30+ winemakers scheduled to pour at the Garagiste Festival Southern Exposure include:
Absolution Cellars, Alamar Wines, Alamati Wine, Bocce Ball Wine, Boutz Cellars, Bucakloose Wines, Cairjn Wine Cellars, Chris Caruso Wines, Civilization Wine Co, Cordon Wine, CrossHatch Winery, Diablo Paso, Dusty Nabor Wines, Entity of Delight, Fuil Wines, Gagnon Cellars, Hayseed & Housdon, Kaleidos Winery, MCV Wines, Montagne Russe, Montemar Wines, Murder Ridge, Pine Mountain Vineyards, RF Fine Wines, Riding Monkey Wines, Stiekema Wine Co., Tercero Wines, Tomi Cellars, Wildflower Winery and ZANOLI Wines.
Friday only: Casa Dumetz, Hoi Polloi, Kaena Wine Co., and Kessler-Haak Vineyards.
For more information and full Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure schedule details, go to: http://www.garagistefestival.com/
Tickets are limited for Garagiste Festival Southern Exposure. Garagiste Festivals sell out in advance. To buy tickets, go to: https://www.my805tix.com/e/garagiste-solvang
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