Garagiste Wine Festival returns to Paso Robles Nov. 10-12
Garagiste co-founders Doug Minnick and Stewart McLennan.
Festival brings over sixty micro-wineries together under one roof
–The Garagiste Wine Festival returns to Paso Robles for the seventh year in a row Nov. 10 – 12. Celebrating the passion and spirit of the garagiste winemaker, the festival features over 60 of California’s best micro-wineries, pouring over 200 wines made from over 30 different grape varieties. Over a quarter of the winemakers are pouring for the very first time at the festival which was recently dubbed “tasting nirvana” by the LA Times. Tickets are on sale now at http://californiagaragistes.com/buy-tickets/.
“We are proud to continue to be the home of the exploding micro-winery movement in California and to bring more and more of these cutting-edge wineries from across California to Paso Robles,” said Garagiste Festival Co-founder, Doug Minnick. “Unlike other wine events that are geographically or varietal focused, The Garagiste Festival offers a wide variety of wines, styles, and regions. And because our winemakers aren’t concerned with getting their product onto supermarket shelves, they are free to explore their winemaking passions, which makes for an absolutely unparalleled and exciting range of cutting-edge wines.”
This year’s three-day festival includes its Rare and Reserve event; its Grand Tasting at the Paso Fairgrounds; the Keep It Rockin’After Party, with band High Voltage and local craft beers; and the return of the Garagiste Paso Passport day, which offers discounts and events to festival attendees at garagiste wineries throughout the area. The festival’s signature tasting seminars also return to explore the remarkable diversity of the Paso Robles area, this time focusing on locally grown and vinified Rhone and Bordeaux grape varieties. Moderated by Garagiste Festival co-founder, KRUSH radio host and Golden Triangle Wines winemaker, Stewart McLennan, the seminars are part of the festival’s VIP package and also feature Rendarrio Vineyards, Vinemark Cellars, Brecon Estate and Sans Lieg.
“No matter how much you know about wine already – a lot or a little – you will come away with new discoveries and expanded horizons. The festival is a fantastic place to learn, and it’s a Garagiste event, so we promise it will be fun. No snobs allowed, as always,” continued Minnick.
The nonprofit festival has raised over $100,00 for the education of future winemakers through The Garagiste Scholarship at Cal Poly and helped ignite the awareness, business and reputations of hundreds of artisan winemakers.
“At each table, a passionate winemaker (or two or three) is on hand pouring his/her wines, sharing the winery back story and wine insights,” said McLennan. “And, because the wines are handcrafted in such small quantities, The Garagiste Festival is probably your only chance to really taste and discover the essence – and the future – of this uniquely American brand of winemaking, which is helping drive innovation industrywide.”
Launched in 2011 in Paso Robles (which was named America’s Best Wine Country Town by Sunset Magazine), the Garagiste Festival was the first event to define, and shine a spotlight on, the American “garagiste*” wine movement, which has exploded over the past five years, and features commercial artisan winemakers who handcraft under 1,500 cases a year and pay close, hands-on attention to every wine they make. Recently featured in Wine Enthusiast Magazine, the festivals have introduced over 500 outstanding artisan winemakers to thousands of passionate wine consumers, members of the trade and media, raising the profiles of many of the winemakers nationally for the first time.
For full schedule details, go to http://californiagaragistes.com/2017-paso-fest/
Adelaide Inn, Allegretto Resort, Barrelhouse Brewing, Bidwell Insurance, Clearwater Tech, Digital Dogma, ETS Labs, Farm Credit West, Glenn Burdette, G3 Enterprises, Laffort USA, La Quinta, mWEBB Communications, Paso Oaks, PRWCA, TRPA, WiVi Central Coast Symposium and Trade Show
For sponsorship info, email info@garagistefestival.com.
*Garagistes (garage-east) is a term originally used in the Bordeaux region of France to denigrate renegade small-lot wine makers, 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. The Garagiste Festivals were the first to shine a light on the American garagiste winemaker in 2011.
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