Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure showcases the most exciting micro-wineries from the Santa Barbara and Central Coast region on February 7th & 8th; line-up includes a Rare and Reserve Tasting and a Q&A and Pinot Noir tasting with the authors of “Sideways Uncorked”
December 18, 2024 (Paso Robles, CA) – America’s Best Wine Festival, The Garagiste Wine Festival, returns to Solvang on February 7th and 8th with over 30 of the Santa Barbara and Central Coast region’s most exciting micro-production winemakers. Marking its 11th year in one of America’s most charming small towns and most vibrant wine regions, The Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure’s line-up includes a Grand Tasting of over 150 ultra-premium wines, a ‘Rare and Reserve’ wine tasting, and a special Q&A with the authors of Sideways Uncorked. Among the wineries pouring at the festival for the first time this year are Beckerschild Wines, Exprimere Wine, Pars Fortuna, Sapien Wines, Tabalipa Wine Co., and Winespread Panic Wines.
The festival takes place at the beautiful landmark Mission-style Veterans’ Memorial Hall on Solvang’s Mission Street. Tickets are now on sale: https://www.my805tix.com/e/garagiste-solvang-2025
The Garagiste Festivals also announced the its full 2025 line-up: The Garagiste Festival: Northern Exposure in Sonoma on April 26th; The Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure in Los Angeles on June 21st, and the original Garagiste Festival in Paso Robles on November 7th and 8th.
“Santa Barbara county was the first wine region the Garagiste Festival expanded to in 2012 and is one of the most vibrant winemaking areas in the world. Over the years, we have showcased hundreds of its micro-production wineries who are at the heart and soul of the California wine world. Most of these wineries do not have tasting rooms and for many, the festival is their first time pouring for the public,” said Douglas Minnick, Garagiste Festival Co-Founder. “This year, as always, wine lovers will have the chance for a first look and taste of some of the extraordinary under-the-radar wineries and wines that will help define California wine in the years to come – and it is all available under one roof on one day.”
Minnick noted that it was especially fitting that, this year, the festival is featuring a tribute to the film Sideways which was filmed 20 years ago in the area, bringing worldwide attention to the richness and diversity of Santa Ynez Wine country.
The Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure kicks off on Friday, February 7th with its signature “Rare & Reserve” tasting, showcasing extremely limited Club Only, Library and Pre-Release bottles along with a Cajun-inspired buffet by local favorite Clean Slate Wine Bar, and sweet treats from Solvang Bakery.
The Grand Tasting, on Saturday, February 8th, features 30 winemakers pouring their latest releases, cheese and charcuterie from Cailloux Cheese Shop, a Silent Wine Auction, filled with first-rate wine packages, and a classic Garagiste Festival glass.
Weekend pass holders have access to a special pre-event Q&A, on the 8th, with Mira & Kurt Honeycutt, the authors of Sideways Uncorked in which theywill take attendees behind the scenes of the classic wine film and offer up a tasting of a local Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir. In addition to the Q&A, weekend pass holders have early access to the Grand Tasting, a wine country lunch from Panino, and a sweet treat from My Mama’s Macarons.
Dubbed “tasting nirvana,” “strange and wondrous,” and “one not to miss” by the LA Times, the Garagiste Festival showcases under-the-radar, innovative, commercial winemakers who handcraft 1500 cases or less of wine and is renowned for its diversity of wines, renegade spirit, passionate winemakers, handcrafted wines and rules-breaking, ‘no snobs allowed’ ethos. It is the only wine festival that exclusively features high quality wines from commercial California ‘garagiste**’ winemakers, and, 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 non-profit festivals support the next generation of winemakers through the Garagiste Festival Scholarship fund at CalPoly’s Wine and Viticulture Department.
The 30 winemakers scheduled to pour at the Garagiste Festival Southern Exposure include:
Absolution Cellars, *Beckerschild Wines, Bocce Ball Wine, Cote of Paint, Dana V. Wines, Decemil Estate Wines, Détente Wines, Diablo Paso, Dusty Nabor Wines, El Vinero, End of the Day Wines, Etnyre Wines, *Exprimere Wine, Final Girl Wines, Fuil Wines, Kaleidos Winery, Mastro Scheidt Family Cellars, MCV Wines, *Pars Fortuna, RF Fine Wines, *Sapien Wines, Stiekema Wine Co., Sycamore Ranch Vineyard and Winery, *Tabalipa Wine Co., Tomi Cellars, Trois Le Fou Winery, Vigo Cellars, *Winespread Panic Wines and ZANOLI Wines.
*New Wineries.
Garagiste Tasting Pass
Wine lovers can also celebrate Garagiste all year long with the new Garagiste Tasting Pass, offering a one-of-a-kind road map to California’s under-the-radar wineries with 2-for-one tasting at nearly 80 artisan wineries across California. Available now, the pass is less than the average cost of two winery tastings – and includes discounts to the festival’s four annual events.
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 always sell out in advance. To buy tickets, go to: https://www.my805tix.com/e/garagiste-solvang-2025/tickets
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:
Vinland Hotel & Lounge, AgWest Farm Credit, ETS Laboratories, Fortis Solutions Group, G3 Enterprises, Glenn Burdette, Laffort, MWWine School, New Times, Santa Ynez Valley,
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.
