Small California Wine Makers Pour Their Wares At Upcoming Garagiste Festival

Tasting Minor Varietals at Paso Robles California Wine Festival

There are plenty of Wine Festivals throughout the state of California but we prefer to visit two local ones. One is a classic home spun product of Paso Robles. The other started in Paso Robles and has expanded out into the state.

The Rotary Club of Paso Robles hosts the Wine Makers Cookoff. It hosts a collection of local wineries competing with each other for theme awards, wine awards, people’s choice and enthusiasm awards. It’s a distinctly local program held in August of each year at the Mid-State Fairgrounds.

The second event in Paso Robles is the Garagiste Festival celebrating up-and-coming winemakers creating small lots of production. Thusly, the Garagiste moniker (garage in French, it’s not a flattering name.) Their signature event is in Paso Robles in November while they also have events in Solvang, Sonoma & Los Angeles.

We recently attended the Paso event seeking non-traditional wine varietals along with small lot creators of wine. We were looking for grapes like Primitivo, Tannat, Tempranillo, Carignan, Granacha & Nebbiolo. Many of them are blending juice. But, some winemakers like to make single varietals of them.

Here’s what we tasted:

Carignan from Red Door Ranch & Saint K Wines (A red grape with a full-bodied profile, high acidity, and medium-to-high tannins, producing wines with flavors of dark and red fruits, spices, and sometimes herbal or savory notes.)

Garnacha from Diablo Paso (Wine with soft, low tannins, a deep ruby color, and a full body.)

GSM from Caelesta Vineyards (Blended Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre with a medium-full to full body, moderate to high tannins, medium acidity, and a medium-high alcohol content.)

Nebbiolo from Pelletiere Estate (A red wine characterized by high acidity, high tannins, and a pale color, making it capable of long aging.)

Palomino from Uncommon Earth (A white, neutral, low-acid profile, making it an ideal base for the complex flavors developed through wine making techniques like aging under flor yeast or through oxidative aging.)

Pinot Noir from Chateau Margene (A light to medium-bodied, dry red wine characterized by bright acidity and low tannins.)

Primitivo from RF Fine Wines (A full-bodied red wine characterized by its high alcohol content, rich dark fruit flavors.)

Tannat from Ulloa Wines (A full-bodied red wine characterized by its high levels of astringent tannins, bold flavors.)

You’ll be hard-pressed to taste this many minor varietal wines in a day much less a month of tasting. Festivals like this are the perfect place to explore varietals unfamiliar to you. They’re wines you need to taste.

The Garagiste Festival lands soon in Solvang this February, Sonoma next May and Los Angeles in June. There are multiple types of passes ranging in price from $219 to $79. There is a cheap Designated Driver pass also.

Since its inception in 2011, proceeds from the Garagiste Wine Festivals have supported the Garagiste Festival Scholarship fund of the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo Wine and Viticulture Department.

It’s a great place to find varietals and new winemakers. This is a journey well worth taking.

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Some notes on our wine ranking system.

Bill & Erin Hodge write about California Wine, the estates & winemakers producing them and educational information about Vino. Living in California Wine Country provides a front row seat to the places you want to visit the most here in the Golden State.

– -✰  means -What’s next on your list of wines
-✰  means -Not liking it too much
✰ means  -We’ll drink this wine, especially if it’s hosted!
✰+ means -You’ve got our attention and we might buy this wine.
✰+ + means -We’re hooked and we’re going to buy this wine.
When you see -✰/✰+  with a slash, it means we disagree.