Sonoma The Garagiste Wine Festival 2020 Lineup Announced

The Sonoma Garagiste Wine Festival 2020 announces lineup.  Named America’s Best Wine Festival by USA Today in 2018, dubbed “tasting nirvana”, ‘strange and wondrous’, ‘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,’ returns to Sonoma with 40 micro-production winemakers from California wine country on February 15, 2020.

What exactly is a 'garagiste,' you ask? The garagistes refers to a group of winemakers, who made wine in their small spaces, like garages, in the Bordeaux region, producing "vins de garage" aka "garage wine". A group emerged in the mid-1990s in reaction to the traditional style of red Bordeaux wine, which is highly tannic and requires long ageing in the bottle to become drinkable. The garagistes developed a style more consistent with perceived international wine tastes. The Garagiste Festival features small production commercial winemakers who are making under 1500 cases per year.

Cindy Cosco, of Passagio Wines is attending her first Garagiste Festival, right in her back yard. "I started this small production with 50 cases of Unoaked Chardonnay in 2007. I have always been a Garagiste at heart and am excited to be participating in the Sonoma Garagiste Wine Festival along side of some of the greatest winemakers in Sonoma. You will find some of the best wines around at this festival. This community of winemakers are the best there is and I am proud to be part of it. Making wines in small batches is what we love doing. I can't wait to pour at this festival. Especially since it's right on the Sonoma Square."

The 40+ winemakers scheduled to pour at the Sonoma Northern Exposure Festival are:

  
601 Cellars, Abbot’s Passage, Aesop Wines, Ampere/Pine Mountain Vineyards, Armitage Wines, Benevolent Neglect Wines, Boonville Road Wines, Brombeere Wines, Carboniste Modern Sparkling, Carpenter Wine, Crux Winery, Cutruzzola Vineyards, Dane Cellars, DeWitt Vineyard, Enriquez Estate Wines, Ferguson Family Wines, Fields Family Wines, Frostwatch Vineyard, Gravel Pit Wines, Greyscale Wines, Jardesca Aperitvo, March Wines, Mastro Scheidt, Montagne Russe Wines, Oceano Wines, Oceans Churning, Old County Cellars, Ondule Wines, Paskett Winery, Passaggio Wines, Perri Jaye Vineyards, Piezo Winery, Purple Dragon Cellars, Ricci Vineyards, Rock & Clay Wines, Sosie Wines, St. Romedius Wines, Sutro Wine Co., T. Berkley Wines, Tin Barn Vineyards, Topel Wines, Weatherborne Wine Corp. and Zo Wines

Founded by fellow Garagistes, Doug Minnick and Steve McLennan, the internationally renowned Garagiste Wine Festival showcases innovative winemakers who handcraft under 1,500 cases of wine and who, in most cases, don’t have tasting rooms, offering a one-of-a-kind opportunity to taste a range of cutting-edge wine discoveries, with limited attendees, all under one roof.

Garagiste Festival Team, seen in photo: Lisa Dinsmore, Doug Minnick, Melanie Webber, Stewart McLennan

“We know that wine lovers can tire of over-crowded, over-priced festivals that offer supermarket wines masquerading as ‘boutique’ offerings. This is why The Garagiste Festival is dedicated to bringing these fantastic, hard-to-find winemakers (and it is only the winemakers themselves who pour at Garagiste) to our audience in a setting where they can share their stories with attendees across the table. There’s really no other event like it,” said Garagiste Wine Festival Co-founder Minnick. “More than 90% of the wineries do not have tasting rooms, and can't be found on “wine country” maps, so this is a unique opportunity to discover hidden treasures. Quality, not quantity, is our mantra and we love the uncrowded interaction that our Sonoma event offers,” he continues.

Tickets are now available.

Select experiences from:

VIP Experience starting at 12 noon-5pm entitles attendees to:

All Access Experience includes Wine Country Boxed lunch by The Girl & the Fig, a glass of sparkling rose by Carboniste Modern Sparkling Wines and a sweet treat from Fleur Chocolates; PLUS an extra half hour access to enjoy over 30 Rare & Reserve Wines from 12:30pm-2:00pm; also includes a Stolzle wine glass and 3-hours access to the Grand Tasting with over 150 unique wines. 

or try a Rare & Reserve Experience:

Includes 1-Hour early access to the Grand Tasting with a limited number of other tasting guests PLUS tastes of Rare & Reserve wines ONLY being poured during the first hour. Includes complimentary cheese & charcuterie, artisan food samples and a commemorative Stolzle crystal glass.

Or try a $65 tasting from 2-5pm allowing unlimited tasting with over 40 small-lot wineries. Includes complimentary cheese & charcuterie, artisan food samples and a commemorative Stolzle crystal glass.

Patti Neumann is Founder of CITYPEEK.com & an award-winning 21 C website & blog. Based in Napa Valley & Baltimore, She is one of the region's top Social Media Publicists and Influencers on food, sips, hospitality & the good life. CITYPEEK.com has its finger on the pulse of what's hot in the world of food, cocktails & travel trends.

Come journey along with our CITYPEEK CEO, Patti Neumann, as she nibbles, sips and shares her taste buds as she travels

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