Coming Full Circle: The Path from Enology Student to Living the Garagiste Dream

The Garagiste Festival was founded back in 2011 to bring attention to the many small, artisan wineries, who were making fantastic wines, but often working in obscurity, AND to support the education of future wine industry professionals thru charitable donations, now in the form of The Garagiste Scholarships at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

With over a decade of Festivals behind us, it is our great pleasure to showcase a panel consisting of Cal Poly SLO Wine & Viticulture graduates, who will not only share their wines, but their experiences - good and bad - from fledgling student to starting their own commercial winery. 

Learn what inspired them to become winemakers: how the reality differs from the classroom, what motivates their winemaking choices regarding grape varieties and methodologies, as well as their hopes and dreams for their up-and-coming wine labels — all while enjoying a taste of the fruits of their study and labour.

The Full Circle panel will not only celebrate the beneficiaries of The Garagiste Festival's charitable cause, but also allow attendees a window into what lies behind the wine study curtain on the road to becoming a Garagiste. 

Panelists: Jordan Crabtree (El Vinero Wines), Philip LaMontagne (IIXII Wines) and Janie Wilheim (Lumina / Dream Dweller)

ABOUT THE VIP SEMINAR TICKETS

VIP tickets must be purchased in advance and include the Saturday Seminar / tasting, a box lunch from Jeffrys BBQ, Early Access to the Grand Tasting with over 60 Garagiste winemakers & entry to the Rockin’ After Party. Ticket Price: $159 per person

Learn More About our Paso Panelists

ABOUT JORDAN CRABTREE / EL VINERO WINES

My journey with El Viñero started back in 2008 when I first started taking viticulture & enology classes and tending to the Vineyard at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria which is also where I was born and raised. After a couple of years of priceless hands-on learning and mentorship of Michael J. Walsh at Allan Hancock, I was accepted and transferred to Cal Poly SLO in 2010. After my first two quarters of attending classes, and working around the crops unit orchards and vineyards, I found myself assuming the role as the Cal Poly Trestle Vineyard Manager in the Spring of 2011. I managed the vineyard for the remainder of 2011 through the summer of 2012, where I got the opportunity to follow the fruit into the winery to be the Cal Poly Student Winemaker for the 2012 vintage at Orcutt Road Cellars with Christian Rougenaut and Rob Takigawa of Niven Family Wines. After graduating Cal Poly in Spring of 2013, I moved to Switzerland to start a 2-year Master's program in Viticulture & Enology at the University of Changins. In 2015 I returned to the Central Coast to begin my career Developing & Managing vineyards in our rapidly growing wine region. After working for a larger vineyard management company for 3 years, I made the decision to go out on my own and start a vineyard development & management business known as Vinifarm, Inc.  Shortly after, the idea of El Viñero started to come to fruition in the summer of 2018, when I did my first vintage. El Viñero's mission is to shine the spotlight on what we do in the vineyards that we source the fruit from, as well as the people that farm them, and the vineyard sites themselves. The wine is made in the vineyard... Having just released El Viñero in the spring of 2022, I am very excited to share the more recent vintages with everyone! 

ABOUT PHILIP LAMONTAGNE / IIXII WINES

A local to the Central Coast, Phil LaMontagne grew up running around the hills on the west side of Paso Robles. With a love for cooking and music he first embarked on a career in the service industry while moonlighting as a local musician. In 2011 he started working at Shale Oak Winery for some extra cash and discounted wine for his upcoming wedding. Working at a boutique winery unlocked access to winemakers, cellars, and vineyards across the Central Coast. From there a new passion, and ultimately a new career, was born. Phil spent any free time in vineyards and cellars, swept up in the excitement of the rapidly growing Paso Robles wine scene. By 2015, he was enrolled in the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture program while working over at Denner Vineyards and Terry Hoage Vineyards. In 2016 Phil became the first recipient of the Garagiste Festival Scholarship on his way to graduating Summa Cum Laude from the Wine and Viticulture program. Harvest of 2016, Phil was named Assistant Winemaker at Terry Hoage Vineyards. Just a year later, he was promoted to Lead Winemaker and was given the reins to the winemaking program. While running the wine program at Terry Hoage (TH Estates) the winery released its most heralded and critically acclaimed wines in its 20+ year history. In 2022 the Hoages made the decision to retire and close down the winery operations. Phil used the opportunity to strike out on his own project, teaming up with longtime coworker and friend, Cyril Pujadas. They cashed out their retirement plans and bought 10 tons of fruit from some of their favorite blocks to work with and IIWII Wines was born. IIWII wines is a small ultra premium winery focused on crafting wines that highlight how diverse and dynamic the Central Coast growing region is. “We took the same ethos for the production and guest experiences that we cultivated over years of working at TH and put them forth in a new passion project that we are excited to offer.” 

ABOUT JANIE WILHEIM / LUMINA & DREAM DWELLER

I grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from Cal Poly in 2015 after studying in the Wine & Viticulture program with a Wine Business concentration. I worked my first harvest at Daou Vineyards in 2014 and immediately fell in love with the hustle and bustle that comes along with the fall season in the wine industry. In 2016, I dabbled in the restaurant world including Manresa, a three Michelin star restaurant, where I worked alongside master sommeliers that introduced me to world class wines igniting my passion for Riesling. After working a harvest at a biodynamic vineyard called Krinklewood in Hunter Valley, I came back to Paso ready to make roots in this incredible wine community. I now work full time at Desparada where I have been making wines since 2019, starting off with a single barrel of Riesling just to experiment with. Currently I am bottling just under 300 cases a year. My goal is working to showcase stand alone expressions of varieties (like Valdiguie and Connouise) that come from vineyards focusing on organic, biodynamic or regenerative farming. My winemaking style is fermenting wines with natural yeasts, not fining or filtering any of the wines, and adding minimal sulfur in the process.