Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure brings the best of
California's micro-winery movement
to LA: cutting-edge wines, wineries, wine styles, and grape
varieties from almost every AVA in the state
PASO
ROBLES, Calif., May 9, 2024
America's Best Wine Festival[1], The Garagiste Festival, returns to
Los Angeles for the ninth time on
Saturday, June 22nd, bringing 150+
extraordinary wines and 40+ of the best micro-production
'garagiste' wineries from all over California. Tickets are now on sale:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/garagiste-wine-festival-9th-annual-urban-exposure-tickets-871263461467
The Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure is
the only festival to provide Angelenos with the opportunity to be
first to discover so many under-the-radar wines, wineries, wine
styles, and grape varieties from almost every AVA in the
state
Renowned for its handcrafted wines from professional artisan
winemakers who make less than 1500 cases, its renegade spirit, and
rules-breaking 'no snobs allowed' ethos, The Garagiste Festival:
Urban Exposure is the only festival to provide Angelenos with the
opportunity to be first to discover so many under-the-radar wines,
wineries, wine styles, and grape varieties from almost every AVA in
the state, including Paso Robles,
Sonoma, Napa, Livermore, Mendocino, Santa
Barbara County, and, of course, Los Angeles.
"Once again, we are bringing the best of Wine Country to
Los Angeles with a scope of
wineries and grape varieties that would take months, or years, of
in-person research to find -- if you could find them at all," said
Garagiste Festival Co-founder Doug
Minnick. "At Garagiste, we have done the research for you.
With our long history as the home of the micro-winery movement,
these wineries now seek us out to get their wines to our audience.
Our winemakers love to personally pour their wines for you - not
only their artisan takes on fan-favorite wines like Cabernet
Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay - but also the widest array
of grapes varieties and styles you will find anywhere. And this is
exactly what continues to make the Garagiste Festival such a
popular and unique event."
Minnick noted that Garagiste Festival winemakers, in their
pursuit of passion, and without regard to the marketplace, produce
tiny lots of wines vinified from a wide range of less well-known
grapes, sometimes from extremely small plantings. For example,
grape varieties poured at the recent sold out Garagiste Festival in
Sonoma included Trousseau Gris,
Carignan, Cinsault, Mencia, Symphony, Xinomavro, Picpoul Blanc,
Gewurztraminer, Tannat, Fiano, Fruliano and many more, as well as
better known varieties such as Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Syrah,
Chardonnay, Merlot, Grenache Riesling, Malbec, and Mourvedre in a
wide range of styles.
This is one of the many reasons why the Garagiste Festival has
been described as "tasting nirvana," "strange and wondrous," and
"one not to miss" by the LA Times; why the Sonoma Sun says of the wine makers: "if
corporate mega-wineries are like the dinosaurs of rock music, these
are the garage bands," and The Press Democrat of the experience:
"If discovering a talented, under-the-radar winemaker elicits the
glee of unearthing a diamond in the rough, the Garagiste Wine
Festival is designed for you."
Along with festival favorites, this year's first-time wineries–
some pouring their very first vintage - include Above the Bay,
Adorato Wines, Ciento Cellars, Cote of Paint Wines, Perlegos Family
Wine Co., Polemonium Wines, Sequence Wines, Slouch Hat Wines,
Staysail Cellars, Sunland Vintage Wineries, and Wilson Family
Vineyard.
The one-day Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure kicks off on
Saturday June 22nd at 1:00 pm with an exclusive "Early Access: Rare and
Reserve" tasting (only 150 of these Early Access tickets are
available) where winemakers pour library, club-only or reserve
wines.
The main event, the Grand Tasting, is from 2-5pm. During the Grand Tasting, local wine bar
Vintage Wine + Eats will offer complimentary cheese &
charcuterie plates. In addition, samples from artisan vendors will
include: BoccaBella Farms Olive Oils and LA's own Letterpress
Chocolates. Other vendors include Chic Chill and EE Home Style.
Bottled water will be provided along with a keepsake crystal logo
glass from Stolzle.
All events take place at Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 North
Verdugo Road, Glendale, CA. There
is plenty of onsite parking and easy access from the 134 and 210
freeways.
Among the over 40 winemakers pouring at The Garagiste Festival:
Urban Exposure 2024 are:
*Above The Bay, *Adorato Wines, Alma Sol Winery, Bocce Ball
Wine, Buckaloose Wines, Caelesta Vineyards, CalStar Cellars, Cairjn
Wine Co, *Ciento Cellars, *Cote of Paint, DENO Wines, Dusty Nabor Wines, Etnyre Wines, Familia Hicks, Final Girl, Fuil Wines, Greyscale
Wines, Hoi Polloi, Kaleidos Winery,
Kendric Vineyards, Lunasa Wines, Marin's Vineyard, Monroy Wines, Omega Road Winery, Oxlee Graham
Wines, *Perlogos Family Wine Co., *Polemonium Wines, Rock &
Clay Wines, *Sequence Wines, Six
Clove Wines, *Slouch Hat Wines, *Staysail Cellars, Stiekema Wine
Co., Stilson Cellars, *Sunland Vintage Winery, Temperance Cellars,
Tercero Wines, Thomas T Thomas
Vineyards, Trois le Fou Winery, *Wilson Family Vineyard, and ZANOLI
Wines.
*pouring for the first time at the festival
Tickets are very limited for the Garagiste Festivals and always
sell out. Tickets are available:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/garagiste-wine-festival-9th-annual-urban-exposure-tickets-871263461467
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.
The Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure festival is the third
event of the 2024 Garagiste Festival season, preceded by the
sold-out Southern Exposure in Solvang in February and sold-out Northern
Exposure Festival in Sonoma in
April, and will be followed by the 'OG' Festival in Paso Robles (November
8-9).
Sponsors include:
AgWest Farm Credit, ETS Labs, Fortis Solutions Group,
Glenn Burdette, G3, Laffort
USA, and mWEBB Communications.
For sponsorship info, email info(at)garagistefestival.com.
The non-profit Garagiste Festivals benefit the Cal Poly SLO Wine
and Viticulture program.
For more information and full Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure
schedule details, go to:
https://www.garagistefestival.com/upcoming-events
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
[1] The Garagiste Wine Festival was named "Best of the Fests" by
Fest Forums and the 'Best Wine Festival in the US in 2018 in USA
Today's 10Best Readers Choice Awards.
Media Contact
Crystal Hartwell, mWEBB
Communications, 1 7149871016, crystal@mwebbcom.com,
www.mwebbcom.com
Elizabeth Johnson, mWEBB
Communications, 1 2137134865, elizabeth@mwebbcom.com,
www.mwebbcom.com
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SOURCE mWEBB Communications