America’s Best Wine Festival Returns to Sonoma with 40+ Garagiste Winemakers April 30th

The Garagiste Wine Festival showcases handcrafted wines from micro-production winemakers from all over Northern California, including Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lodi, Sierra Foothills, Livermore and more.

PASO ROBLES, CALIF. (PRWEB) MARCH 17, 2022

America’s Best Wine Festival, The Garagiste Festival: Northern Exposure, returns to Sonoma on April 30th offering rare access to the region’s best, hard-to-find wines from over 40 micro-production, commercial wineries from Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lodi, Sierra Foothills and Livermore and more. The festival will once again be held at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Hall, walking distance from Sonoma’s historic downtown plaza. Tickets are on sale here.

Of this year’s 40+ wineries, 17 are brand new to the Garagiste Festival, including Accenti Wines, Amrita Cellars, Boete Winery, Box Wine Company, Brueskok Cellars, Cazadero Winery, Cormorant Cellars, Forgotten Union Wines, Guererro Fernandez Wines, Kobler Estate, Lussier Wine Co., Read Holland Wines, Rondure Wines, Stringer Cellars, Terre et Sang, The Grenachista Wine Co., and Wild Rising Wines.  

 “We are so excited to bring our Northern Exposure festival back to one of California’s most stunning wine regions, after a two year absence,” said Garagiste Festival Co-founder Doug Minnick.  “If it is anything like our recent Paso and Solvang festival returns, it will be a joyful reunion of some of the region’s best, most exciting winemakers with one of the most passionate, dedicated and fun-loving audiences the wine industry has to offer.’

The Garagiste Festival premiered in 2011 and is the nation’s first and only festival to showcase the wines of micro-production commercial ‘garagiste*’ winemakers.  It expanded to Sonoma in 2018 to highlight the wines of Sonoma County and surrounding AVAs, as well as other small production wineries from Northern California. Named ‘Best of Fests’ and the ‘Best Wine Festival in the USA,’ the festival showcases under-the-radar, innovative, commercial winemakers who handcraft 1500 cases or less of wine.

“Over 90% of Northern Exposure participants do not have a tasting room, and you will never find these wines in grocery stores or on wine country maps,” continued Minnick.  “The festival offers wine lovers  a singular chance to discover and meet the next great winemakers, taste their delicious and diverse wines and talk to them directly about their winemaking styles. And it is all offered under one roof in the festival’s signature ‘no snobs allowed’ atmosphere.”

The 4th annual Garagiste Festival: Northern Exposure will be held on Saturday, April 30, at the Sonoma Veterans Building and includes:

·       VIP Rare and Reserve Tasting (1-2pm), featuring library, club only or reserve wines, only being poured during this first hour

·       Grand Tasting (2pm-5pm) featuring over 150 wines and 25 different grape varieties, and includes complimentary cheese and charcuterie, along with delicious food samples from local artisan vendors and  a souvenir Stolzle crystal wine glass.

·       Silent Wine Auction with proceeds supporting the Garagiste Scholarship at Cal Poly SLO, to help fund the future of California winemaking.

Among the 40+ winemakers scheduled to pour are:

*Accenti Wiens, *Amrita Cellars, *Boete Winery, *Box Wine Company, *Brueskok Cellars,  Burning Bench, Calstar Cellars, *Cazadero Winery, *Cormorant Cellars, Crux Winery, Cutruzzola Vineyards, Dane Cellars, DeWitt Vineyard, Enriquez Wines, *Forgotten Union Wines, Gondak Cellars, *Guerrero Fernandez Wines, Kendric Vineyards, *Kobler Estate, *Lussier Wine Co, Merisi Wines, Montagne Russe, Murder Ridge, Passagio Wines, Perri Jaye Vineyards, Pine Mountain Vineyard, *Read Holland, Ricci Vineyards, Rock & Clay Wines, *Rondure Wines, Sosie Wines, St. Romedius Wines, *Stringer Cellars, T. Berkley Wines, *Terre et Sang, *The Grenachista Wine Co,  Topel Winery, Weatherborne Wine Co, *Wild Rising Wines.

*New to the festival

COVID-19 Prevention Measures/Requirements

Please note that we are closely monitoring the current situation to ensure the health and safety of all those attending the Sonoma Garagiste Festival. Because our events are being held indoors, as the event approaches, attendees will receive regular updates regarding current protocols and procedures that may be required to attend The Garagiste Wine Festival, including any changes to policies and procedures from Sonoma County. Updates will be shared on our Sonoma 2022 Event Page, through our social media channels, and direct to ticket holders via email.

For more information and full Garagiste Festival: Northern Exposure schedule details, go to: http://www.garagistefestival.com/

Tickets are limited for Garagiste Festival Northern Exposure.  Garagiste Festivals always sell out in advance. To buy tickets, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-annual-garagiste-wine-festival-northern-exposure-tickets-269198980397 

For breaking Garagiste Festival news and special discounts, sign-up for our free newsletter, The Dirt, at https://www.garagistefestival.com/garagiste-blog or follow us on Twitter (@GaragisteFest) or Facebook.

Sponsors include

G3 Enterprises, Bank of Marin, ETS, Laffort USA, Digital Dogma, Farm Credit West, mWEBB Communications, Glenn Burdette, Sonoma Valley Sun,  WIVI.

For sponsorship info, email info@garagistefestival.com.

 About The Garagiste Wine Festival

The Garagiste Wine Festival (http://www.garagistefestival.com), named “Best of the Fests” for 2019 by Fest Forums and the ‘Best Wine Festival in the US in 2018 in USA Today’s 10Best Readers Choice Awards, is the first and only wine festival dedicated to the undiscovered and under-recognized American artisan ‘garagiste’ micro-wineries who are making some of the best, most exciting, handcrafted small-lot production wines in the world. Founded by fellow garagistes Stewart McLennan and Douglas Minnick, the Garagiste Festivals are committed to discovering the best and most innovative limited-production winemakers and promoting and showcasing them to a broad audience of discerning wine consumers. In addition to its flagship annual festival in Paso Robles, CA, the Garagiste Festival line-up includes Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure, featuring Santa Ynez Valley garagistes; the Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure, in Los Angeles; the Garagiste Festival, Northern Exposure, in Sonoma; winemaker dinners, a newsletter, garagiste profiles and more. 

In addition to being named the US’ Best Wine Festival, the Garagiste Festival was named one of the ‘Top Nine Incredible Epicurean Vacations’ in the world by ABC News, “one of the premier wine events of the year,” by the LA Times and “Best Festival” by Sunset Magazine’s ‘Best of the West.’ The festivals are produced by Garagiste Events, a non-profit dedicated to furthering the education of future winemakers and those training for employment within the wine industry. Proceeds from the festivals support the Garagiste Festival Scholarship fund of the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo Wine and Viticulture Department. 

*Garagiste (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.

Media Contacts:
mWEBB Communications for The Garagiste Festivals
Melanie Webber, Melanie(at)mwebbcom(dot)com,949-307-1723

Elizabeth Johnson, Elizabeth(at)mwebbcom(dot)com, 213-713-4865