Inside Paso Robles

Pairings in Paso: Balsamic Steak Rolls and Eberle Zinfandel

By Jennifer Knoll

For some silly reason I was thinking that since the holidays are over life would slow down a bit. Boy was I wrong...so back to reality.  With life being so hectic I turned to another source for some dinner time inspiration, Pinterest. At first glance this dish grabbed me. The bright fresh vegetables playfully peering out of the tender rolled steak caught my eye; a bundle of goodness. And better yet this recipe ended up being quite simple, affordable and healthful which meant it was dinner success. 

The wine pairing was a simple choice, a Paso Robles classic, Zinfandel.  Since I was going the classic Paso route I had to go all the way, straight to the roots, to the pioneers themselves, Eberle Winery. This Zin is full of brambly boysenberry fruit, a soft touch of smoke with gentle tannins and white pepper that perfectly complimented the robust balsamic glaze and slightly charred veggies.  

I served mine over a bed of simply sautéed greens. Happy January to me!

Balsamic Steak Rolls

1 pound skirt steak
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

1 small zucchini
1 carrot
1 bell pepper, red or yellow
3 green onions

¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup beef broth
1 shallot, finely diced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons butter

Cut the steaks into 3 by 5 inch pieces and season with salt and pepper. Cut the zucchini, bell pepper, carrot and green onion into matchstick size pieces, a little longer than the steak width. To make the sauce: melt the butter in a small pan on medium heat. Add the shallot and sauté until soft. Add the balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and beef stock. Allow the sauce to come to a boil and reduce to almost half. Turn the heat off and transfer to a bowl.

In the same pan (no need to wash it) add a touch of olive oil, turn the  heat up to high and toss in the carrots, bell pepper and zucchini (there’s no need to cook the green onion) and stir fry the veggies until slightly charred, transfer to a bowl.  Take a strip of steak and lay it with the short side towards you. Place a few of the veggies in the middle and roll the beef up over the filling, securing it with toothpick along the length of the roll. Repeat until all the rolls are assembled.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add a touch of oil, swirling to coat bottom. When hot, add beef rolls, seam side down, and pan fry for 2-3 minutes. Turn rolls and cook it on all sides in the same way.  Remove the toothpick and serve with the balsamic glaze sauce spooned over the top of each roll.

Jennifer Knoll is a lifelong resident of Paso Robles. Growing up in the wine business and being surrounded by farmers, she developed her serious fetish for wine and food.  She is the Assistant Tasting Room Manager at Tablas Creek Vineyard. Please get permission before reproducing recipe.

 

 

 

ennifer Knoll is a lifelong resident of Paso Robles. Growing up in the wine business and being surrounded by farmers, she developed her serious fetish for wine and food.  She is the Assistant Tasting Room Manager at Tablas Creek Vineyard. Please get permission before reproducing recipe. - See more at: http://blog.travelpaso.com/foodie/#sthash.JsLqlPaS.dpuf

Adelaida's 2nd Annual Walnut and Wine Festival

by Melani Meister

During the 1940's, Paso Robles was one of the largest nut producing regions in the nation and this Saturday, December 7, Adelaida Cellars pays homage to this historic period at their 2^nd Annual Walnut and Wine Festival.

The festival will highlight Adelaida Cellars' 85-year-old estate grown, dry-farmed walnuts with delicious walnut-inspired bites paired with Adelaida wines, holiday music, olive oil tastings and more.

Discover these amazing local walnuts, just in time for holiday baking, from 10:00 to 5:00 pm on December 7th in the Barrel Room at Adelaida Cellars. Tickets are $10 and include small bites, eight wines, and the festivities. 

Hope to see you there! 

 

 

The Alluring Secrets of Paso: Now, Then and Always

By Melanie Webber 

I first discovered Paso Robles and the Central Coast nearly 20 years ago, when a close friend moved to the area from LA and, like all who first experience its joys, I felt it was my special secret. As someone who spent a good part of my youth in Georgia, I was enchanted by the California version of Spanish moss weeping from grand oaks that gnarled across Paso’s golden hills, and that stooped their branches over rocky creeks.   I had never seen it outside the South, but this was a kinder, gentler version, still mysterious, but plush and pale green, not the haunted dark wires that drip down in the South.

Back then, the wine industry was just getting going and Paso's oaken landscape was not as blanketed with vineyards as it is now. My very first wine tasting was at Adelaida Cellars, pioneers back then, and I was hooked.  I fell in love with Paso and the treasures that surrounded it, from the awe-inspiring views, to the sweet and winding cow-fringed country roads; from the mission in SLO to the hot springs of Sycamore, the guano ‘snow’-covered Morro Rock, the lost-in-time beach town of Cayucos and the British-tinged charm of Cambria.   I loved the fogs that rolled in across the hills from the west, woolly ghosts with ice on their breath, and the gold-parched, sun-drenched hills to the east. I loved having breakfast at the Paso Robles Inn with its bubbling artesian springs, hanging out in Paso’s elegant town square, devouring gravy-slathered biscuits at Hoover’s Beef Palace.  I loved Paso’s cow-town feel, the down to earth people, the freshness of its farm air, and the wine… 

Like so many before and after, I felt that Paso and its surrounds were MY secret. When I would tell people in LA (although I had been warned not to by my friend, who feared a stampede of tourists) that I had been to Paso Robles and the Central Coast, they would say “oh yeah, right Monterey, Big Sur, I been there” and I would think to myself no you haven’t, but didn’t correct.

While much has changed in the past 20 years – Paso has indeed been ‘discovered’ as a stunning travel destination and celebrated as one of the most important wine producers in the world, its once bare golden hills and meadows now boasting row after row of vineyards, the town offering up an array of culinary delights and artisan shops – there is still much to discover. 

So, when my Central Coast friend decided to start a wine festival dedicated to small lot, artisan winemakers, it took little persuading for me to jump in. My task? To share a Paso ‘secret’ with the world, this time its over 125 garagiste winemakers. 

What an irony…. the ones wanting to keep this amazing treasure of a place secret, now having a hand in letting its secrets out. But, lack of awareness was one of the key challenges facing the area’s small-lot winemakers. Anyone who has had anything to do with making wine (let alone distributing and marketing it) knows what an all-encompassing task it is (not to mention the labor involved for those with their own vineyards).  Who has time or resources for marketing? These operations are so small and focused more on quality and passion for the art, than on telling the world.

The secret of these garagiste winemakers was one that we felt privileged to hold, but for them to survive, of course, the world needed to know.  So, when festival co-founders Stewart McLennan and Doug Minnick decided, in 2011, to take that task on, and recruited Lisa Dinsmore and me to help make it happen, we threw our hearts and souls into it, not having a clue whether the festival that we put together in less than five months would attract the world --- or remain a secret.  

We had no problem getting garagiste winemakers on board (parameters – no more than 1200 cases); and some of the area’s most famous winemakers (Saxum’s Justin Smith, Four Vines/Cypher’s Christian Tietje, Lone Madrone/Tablas Creeks’ Neil Collins and Adelaida’s Terry Culton) were right there to help us with our opening seminars. But, when we pulled open the heavy wooden doors of Windfall Farms stallion barn that first crisp November morning, we wondered if there would there be anyone there except for our remarkably dedicated army of volunteers?

Well, indeed there was, and one of our proudest moments was hammering a sold out sign into a Windfall pasture, although we were sad to turn people away.

There is, in my opinion, no better way to experience the wonders of Paso Robles than at the annual Garagiste Festival (held November 7^th – 10^th this year), an event that keeps it intimate, enables wine lovers to interact directly with the winemakers, offers its attendees multiple new discoveries and is a true celebration of Paso’s quintessential local artisans, both wine and food, and set in some of its most stunning landscape. 

And so, this is the magic of Paso and the Central Coast: although today, there is more to love, more vineyards, more wineries, more garagistes, more restaurants, more festivals and events than ever before, it still feels like that privileged secret it was to me nearly 20 years ago.  Paso Robles, full of intimate charms, stunning natural beauty, diverse terroir, world-class wines and friendly people, continues to yield new discoveries for those that visit – all while remaining a place that each visitor feels is his/her own special secret. 

For tickets/information about the Garagiste Festival, held November 7th - 10th, go to www.garagistefestival.com

Garagiste 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 are donated to the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture Program.

As part of The Garagiste Festival team, Melanie Webber spearheads Public Relations. Her public relations agency, mWEBB Communications, Inc., won a 2011 American Business Award for PR/Communications Campaign of the Year. A lover of all things Central Coast, especially the wines, she recently received her WSET Level 3 certification.

Harvesting in Paso: Garagiste-style

by Terry Nozick

If you have ever wanted to work harvest at a vineyard, you just might find your opportunity among the many small wineries in the beautiful countryside in and surrounding Paso Robles. It’s here that many of the “garagiste” winemakers produce artisanal wines in small batches – technically no more than 1,200 cases – operating, in many instances, on budgets fueled mainly by love of “terroir” and a passion for the grape.

Harvest for a small winery can present many challenges. Unlike industrial-sized vineyards, most of which are machine harvested using large, trained harvest crews, most of the smaller vineyards are meticulously hand-picked. This can be back-breaking work, with long hours, continuing for several weeks as different varietals reach maturity.

In some cases, small owners rally their family, friends, wine club members, and just about any one who will volunteer to help bring in the harvest.

I spoke to some of the winemakers who will be pouring at this year’s Garagiste Festival about how they manage their harvests. Vines on the Marycrest owner and winemaker Victor Abascal, who has 13.5 acres under vine, can attest to the fact that there are challenges for small wineries as their crops reach maturity, noting that it’s getting harder and harder to find help during harvest.  For him, harvest is a no-frills, just-work situation.  “The goal is always to get fruit into the winery as fast as possible,” he says. Abascal usually does the picking himself, with help from a neighbor’s farm hand.

Abascal also purchases grapes from other vineyards, some days picking up two or three lots of grapes, which “is always an adventure,” he says.  “Just pulling or hauling the fruit back to the winery is one of my main challenges. My vehicle is under-powered to say the least. Some of the vineyards I purchase from are not easy to get in and out of, with 2000 pounds of grapes on a trailer.”

Guillaume Fabre of Clos Solène does things a little differently, but faces similar challenges, some of which are self-imposed, as he is very particular and meticulous. He rents a couple of rows of different varietals from a vineyard on the west side of Paso, amounting to three acres. He manages 100% of the growing, farming, and spraying himself. Come harvest, he hand-picks at night to keep the fruit nice and cool. Because of his meticulousness, Fabre works with the same small crew each harvest. “I’m really a farmer,” he explains, “and I love to grow vines as if they were human beings. A lot of steps need to be done and when you are small, you can push the limits.” Larger producers, he says, just can’t do this.

Hoyt Family Vineyards is a one of the larger garagistes in terms of acreage, with approximately 140 scattered throughout the Central Coast and Malibu. They have an all- inclusive approach to harvest, inviting friends and family – including their children and childrens’ friends, who take the day off school – and pretty much anyone who wants to come to help their small hired crew. They  turn harvest into a fun-filled, festive morning, followed by a taco party lunch, which apparently is a draw for the harvest workers in the area as they come back for it every year, says owner Carol Hoyt.

“We usually try to harvest on Saturday,” says Hoyts, but “grapes don’t always cooperate.” But, she adds, people love to come to her harvest, and she welcomes pretty much anyone who is interested.

So, there’s no shortage of need among the garagistes for ready, willing, and able workers at harvest time. Garagiste harvest is a whole other way to experience Paso Robles, and the opportunity rolls around only once a year, usually in October.  So, don’t be afraid to ask to participate. You won’t regret the experience, and you will have a new app
reciation for each glass of wine you drink. And to taste the fruits of garagiste harvests past, including Hoyt, Clos Solène, Vines on the Marycrest, and 63 other artisan winemakers, come to the Garagiste Festival, held November 7th – 10^th in Paso Robles. For more information, go to garagistefestival.com.

Terry Nozick writes a blog, www.truthnwine.blogspot.com, which is syndicated on
www.winewomenandchocolate.com. As a former high-technology writer and editor, she is happy to be pursuing her true passion, wine, particularly those from the small, artisan vineyards in California’s central coast. She received her WSET Level 3 certification in 2013 and is continuing her wine studies, both formally and informally.

We Want to Hold Your Hand

If you can’t attend Viticulture college, mentoring is a great way to go, and Paso’s Garagiste Festival is a great place to start...

It all seemed so impossible, so out of reach.

Driving past Paso’s beautiful vineyards those many years ago when I first started to explore wine country, I would dream of making wine. I had no idea how that was ever going to actually happen. I had no background in farming. Heck, I struggled to keep my houseplants alive. And let's not even discuss how I would ever afford that vineyard. 

That dream was filed away with a few other long-shots, like playing major league baseball and selling a million records (let's face it, I'm not exactly a pioneer when it comes to choosing dreams), but I kept coming back anyway. If I couldn't buy my own winery, at least I could hang out in somebody else's beautiful tasting room. That's one of the great things about the wine business - it's not quite that easy to visit the dugout at Dodger Stadium or backstage at Staples Center. So I hung out. In Paso. A lot. And I learned.

It seems obvious now, but it was a revelation when I first realized that I didn't have to own any land at all to make wine. Fruit was available for purchase! Excellent fruit, too! In fact, many of my favorite wines are made with sourced (i.e., not estate) fruit. It began to dawn on me:  maybe I could do it that way, too.

Yes, there was still much to learn, a garage to clean out, equipment to buy, stuff to move, and mistakes to make, but at least my winemaking pals and I had a way forward now, so we jumped in.

The past four years have taught us much, especially the fact that there is no end to learning. We've been extremely lucky to have excellent and generous mentors – Paso Robles is full of them - who have helped us in so many ways - including how to interpret chemistry numbers and how to react to those numbers to make the best possible wine. This kind of generosity is commonplace in Paso, by the way, and another reason why making wine in Paso Robles is the way to go, especially for we newbies.

Winemaking involves chemistry, there's no way around that. What each winemaker chooses to do with those numbers that come back from the lab is a big part of the creative process. How to protect the wine from spoilage, how to solve problems, how to intervene the least to get the most out of your fruit, these are the decisions a winemaker has to face each year. Grapes left to ferment without guidance end up as vinegar. The winemaker makes the choices that prevent that from happening, and in the best possible way.

The Garagiste Festival is about discovery, certainly the discovery of new wines and winemakers, but also discovery of the process of making wine. The more you know about what goes into making great wine, the more you can enjoy and understand that wine.

Whether you want to make your own wine or simply get a deeper understanding of the process, be sure to attend the Garagiste Festival’s Winemaking Symposium on Sunday, November 10 entitled. “Nothing’s Perfect - How to Manage and Influence Your Wines to Greatness.” 

We’ve arranged university-level instruction with Cal Poly professor and winemaker and Baker and Brain Wines, Matt Brain, along with renowned winemaker Adam LaZarre who will explore some of the common hurdles faced by winemakers and attendees will have the rare opportunity to taste the influences of various remedies commonly used to craft the best possible wine. All sponsored by the good folks at Laffort. Plus you will be introduced to some of the many supporting facilities in Paso that make it possible to turn the dream of winemaking into a reality.

So the choice is yours, if you’ve got the same impossible dream I had, or just want to explore the world of wine in more depth, you can enroll at Cal Poly… or come to our Sunday Seminar.

For tickets to the Garagiste Festival Winemaker Symposium and all festival events and for more info, go to http://www.garagistefestival.com.

Doug Minnick is the co-founder of The Garagiste Festival, coming up November 7– 10 in Paso, with an added tasting event scheduled for Happy Hour on Friday, November 8.. Doug can be found this time of year punching down and pressing Cab and Pinot Noir in a garage with his fellow winemaking stooges, Ted Behlendorf, Dan Andersen, and Scott Gruber.

“Taste of the Back Roads” Celebrates the end of Harvest 2013

  By Xochitl Maiman

Can’t believe how fast this year has flown by! Paso Robles is winding up its 2013 harvest and getting ready to celebrate! And celebrate it will this weekend during the Paso Robles Harvest Wine Weekend. And actually there’s more to celebrate than just the harvest. There are new restaurants, new wineries, new hotels and B&B’s – even a new cookie store! Paso continues to grow and yet seems to maintain its small town feel that is so much a part of what I love about the area.

Without question, some wonderful wines are being produced in Paso Robles, many by the small family owned and operated wineries that, I believe, are the heart and soul of the area. The rolling, oak studded hills, corduroyed with endless rows of vineyards on both sides of Highway 101, are home to small charming tasting rooms where visitors can enjoy an intimate wine tasting experience, often while visiting with the winemaker or owner. Sharing the landscape with the vineyards, olive orchards offer the sculptural beauty of the trees while providing the fruit for some of the state’s finest quality olive oil.

The Back Roads Wineries of Paso Robles, is a collective of over 20 such wineries along with olive oil producers and charming B & B’s located in the beautiful countryside east of Highway 101. Together these wineries produce an impressive and large variety of wines. Expect to find carefully handcrafted wines made from Rhone varietals such as Viognier, Rousanne, Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre.   Classic Bordeaux varietals include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. You’ll even find wines made from Italian varietals like Pinot Grigio, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Primitivo and Barbera. Of course, there’s plenty of Zinfandel and creative and innovative blends abound! A tour of the Back Roads wineries could take days, especially when it’s so easy to get lost in a long, relaxed conversation over a glass of wine while hanging out on a patio with a stunning vineyard view.

This year, visitors to the 2013 Paso Robles Harvest Wine Weekend, October 18-20, will have the opportunity to taste wines and olive oils from many of the “Back Roads” producers all under one roof at the “Taste of the Back Roads ”, Saturday, October 19. The event, to be held at the “Foaling Barn” at the picturesque Windfall Farms , will feature a VIP wine and food pairing before the Grand Tasting event. Guests will also enjoy hearty harvest cuisine prepared by Chef Jacob Lovejoy of Cass Catering and music by Mike Maguire. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Paso Robles Youth Arts Foundation.

Happy Harvest Paso Robles!

More info. Tickets are available at participating wineries and at Brown Paper Tickets.

Xochitl Maiman is a social media consultant with a passion for working with family run wineries and other small businesses. With a big soft spot for Paso Robles, she often writes about local events, wines and people at www.illdrinktothat.info.

 

Go local, and go Garagiste, in Paso and discover local food and wine treasures

by Melanie Webber

Paso Robles is an ascendant star in the wine firmament, and yet the area is filled with many treasures - both food and wine – that remain undiscovered, even to those who live here. Making under the radar artisan wine treasures ‘discovered’ is what The Garagiste Festival is all about and, this year, we have extended this ethos to our winemaker dinner, held November 7^th -- starting with our Chef, Charles Paladin Wayne.  Chef Charlie is considered a treasure by anyone who has tasted his food, and is sought after by those in-the-know, perhaps because he keeps the food in the forefront and (even though he has been an area chef for over 30 years) his profile almost undercover.  He was instrumental to the success of our Garagiste winemaker dinner last year, which was brilliantly chef’d by The Taste’s Ludo Levebvre who, it is safe to say, was dazzled by the local producers that Charlie introduced him to. Charlie is renowned both for his artistry when matching food with wine and for his insistence on sourcing his produce, meats and seafood locally … well before ‘go local’ was a trend.

“I used to think it was a crying shame that, right here on the Central Coast, we had remarkable fresh fish and produce – much of which went straight to the brokers. Little of it stayed here, because there was no place for it to go -- for years we got only some of it,” said Chef Charlie, who executed his first ever winemaker dinner at Eberle Winery in 1987 and put his culinary magic to work at Justin, Edna Valley and Summerwood wineries before starting his private catering company. 

“As Paso became a wine center, it created the opportunity for many of our local treasures to stay home, and the recent ‘local’ movement has reinforced that trend,” continued Paladin.  “Now, we take our food right from the ranch and farm!”

Lucky Paso Robles!  As an Angeleno, when I am told that I need to go local for my foods, I’m game…but where would that be? The Hollywood Hills? Venice Beach? LAX? Hardly.  But, if when (!) I live in Paso, I will know where to go: my backyard – for food tasting as if I had pulled the carrots out of the ground, milked the goats, and harvested the oysters with my own hands. Fortunately, the wealth of local artisan producers do the hard work instead and, by all accounts, love every minute of it. For example, this year’s dinner features vegetables and herbs from Paso-based Windrose Farm; hand-crafted, cow and sheep’s milk cheeses from Paso’s Central Coast Creamery, and quacking-fresh duck eggs from Paso’s Loo Loo Farms, all featured alongside Paso AVA garagiste winemakers Bodegas M, Caliza, Clos Solene, Cutruzzola, The Farm Winery, and Paix Sue Terre.

The Undiscovered Treasures of the Central Coast winemaker dinner offers a unique opportunity to experience all of this in one place - a true taste of Paso terroir, both on the plate and in the glass. Join us on November 7th, and then stay for the festival where more local food producers will be featured alongside 66 remarkable garagiste winemakers.  Click here for the menu– and go Paso local with us!

For the full 2013 Garagiste Festival schedule and ticket information, go to http://www.garagistefestival.com/.

Garagiste 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 are donated to the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture Program.

As part of The Garagiste Festival team, Melanie Webber spearheads Public Relations. Her public relations agency, mWEBB Communications, Inc., won a 2011 American Business Award for PR/Communications Campaign of the Year. A lover of all things Central Coast, especially the wines, she just received her WSET Level 3 certification.

2013 Harvest Wine Weekend- October 18-20th

by Krista Scarbrough

Harvest in Paso Robles Wine Country is as unique as each berry in a grape cluster. Out here, every swirl and sip tells a different tale with each story crafted by the personalities of wine country.

We invite you to create your own wine country story during the 2013 Harvest Wine Weekend, October 18 - 20! Experience first-hand the dynamic energy throughout the vineyards as grape growers, winemakers and cellar workers welcome the new vintage.

Weekend highlights include:

• Blending seminars
• Chocolate and wine pairings
• Wine scent profiling
• Wine and pie pairings
• Harvest games
• Sangria making lessons
• Lobster feed
• Folk dancing
• And much more!

Pasowine.com is the ultimate one-stop guide for planning your personalized harvest experience. Visit the links below to create your Paso Robles Wine Country story today! 

• Winery Activities: 

Search by Winery, Day or Activity to narrow your search for the perfect itinerary. Plus, be sure to download the Harvest Wine Weekend brochure to help guide your travels!

• Trip Itinerary Planner:

Plot your course into and throughout Wine Country.

• Where to stay:

From luxury to value, many different styles of lodging will suit your individual needs.

• Where to eat: 

Capture the flavor of Paso Robles Wine Country at one of our fabulous restaurants.

Cheers to the 2013 vintage during Harvest Wine Weekend, October 18 - 20!

Krista Scarbrough is the Consumer Engagement Manager for the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, a non-profit marketing association for area wineries and associated businesses. Follow @PasoRoblesWine on Facebook and Twitter for the latest Paso Robles Wine Country happenings.

Drinking PASO: The Old World Rules Do Not Apply

by Lisa Dinsmore

With over 200 wineries in the Paso Robles region, it's hard to believe I still have to explain to people where Paso Robles is. I’ve been drinking Paso wines for over a decade and know first hand that they are only getting better. Perhaps it’s the lack of focus that makes it hard for people to easily understand the region. No one grape to help pin it down. For me, it’s the plethora of options that keeps me coming back for more.

Zinfandel may have been king of the region in Paso’s early wine days, but with no governmental rules or varietal and climate restrictions, like in some Old World and other CA AVAs, active experimentation to see what grapes truly thrive here has literally changed the varietal landscape. It’s the Rhone grape clippings, brought over by Tablas Creek almost 30 years ago, that kick-started the expansion of Syrah, Grenache and Viognier into the region and that has, over the past decade, helped Paso gain national attention.

While many of our garagistes love their Rhones - that doesn’t mean they are always content to just make a GSM. Or a traditional Bordeaux blend, if that’s the way their passions flow. Mother nature provides more options in Paso than any other winemaking region. With virtually every varietal from around the world growing at their fingertips, Paso winemakers are free like nowhere else to experiment and create blends that pay off on the palate.  Rather than simply combining the grapes that happen to grow there, or being hemmed in by tight winemaking rules, they make the best wine they can, that vintage, from their plot of land. Who cares if you put some Syrah or Grenache in your Cabernet? Or a touch of Zinfandel in your GSM? Certainly no one making wine in Paso does. It’s about the passion they bring to the bottle, regardless of what grapes are in it. Old school notions be damned.

Festival attendees will be able to taste that spirit firsthand, with over 20 unique wines that could only be made in this region. To delve deeper into the topic, VIP guests will get the opportunity to taste and understand the whys behind blending off-book in our Saturday Seminar “Breaking the Old World Blending Rules” with panelists Christian Tietje from Cypher Winery and Jeff Strekas from ONX Wines. Both of these wineries are pushing the envelope when it comes to mixing grapes varieties. Whatever works to make the wine shine. Having had the pleasure of tasting their efforts, their imaginations are clearly unimpeded, much to the wine world’s benefit.

Being part of the Festival team allows me to explore the world of wine through the talents of a diverse group of devoted winemakers. I learn something new every year from every winemaker and have gained a deeper respect for all the hard work the wine “lifestyle” really is. There’s an experience at the Festival for every level of wine lover, from those who just want to taste and explore, to those who want to make the leap to the winemaking side. I hope to see you there.

2013 Schedule of Events

Thursday, November 7^th: “Undiscovered Treasures” Winemaker Dinner – 7pm

Friday, November 8^th: Happy Hour at “The Opening Round” – 4-7pm, followed by our Winemaker Mixer from 7:30-9:30pm.

Saturday, November 9^th: The Main Festival day includes (2) educational seminars - “What’s Wrong With This Picture? Educate Your Palate About the Most Common Wine Flaws” and “Garagiste Outlaws: Breaking the Old World Blending Rules” followed by the Grand Tasting and After Party - 11am-9pm.

Sunday, November 10^th:  “Nothing’s Perfect: How to Manage and Influence Your Wines to Greatness” Winemaking Symposium – 11am-1pm 

To purchase tickets or get more information about the 3^rd Annual Garagiste Festival, please visit their website at: http://garagistefestival.com/2013-paso-festival/

Lisa Dinsmore is the Event Director for the Garagiste Festival and has been a passionate Paso Robles wine lover for over a decade. She also has her own wine blog called Daily Wine Dispatch and has earned the Advanced Degree from the international WSET program.

The Renegades Return: 64 High-Quality, Small-Lot Winemakers to Pour at Third Annual Garagiste Festival

by Melanie Webber

Hard to believe it was just a little over two years ago that The Garagiste Festival was a mere gleam in the eyes of co-founders Stewart McLennan and Doug Minnick. Back then, few even knew what a garagiste was (a term originally used in Bordeaux to denigrate renegade small-lot winemakers, sometimes working in their “garages” - who refused to follow the “rules,” and then went on to be recognized as making some of the best wine in the world) -- let alone how to pronounce it (garag-east or gar-uh-zhē-stuh), nor that America had its own burgeoning population of stunning small lot producers also making some of the best wine in the world – nor that the heart of this renegade group was right here in Paso Robles.

And, while it may be an exaggeration to say that now the world knows -- Wikipedia certainly does - “Paso Robles represents the core of the garagiste movement,” - and so do thousands of passionate wine consumers from California and across the country, who trek to Paso and the Central Coast not just for its fair, its beautiful oaks or its larger wine producers, but also for its over 125 garagiste winemakers and the annual Garagiste Festival, which is on its way to becoming a Paso institution after only two years…but being garagistes, we keep it fresh, renegade and not anything like an institution – and this year during Garagiste Festival Week November 7 – 10th, there are 64 winemakers, all of whom handcraft under 1,200 cases of wine per year, set to help us stir it up and bring the ‘good stuff’ front and center!

In fact, demand has already inspired us to add a new Friday tasting event, The Opening Round, with 15 winemakers from around California. Even more intimate than our Grand Tasting, it offers attendees a more leisurely opportunity to get their wine juices going and leads right into our super-popular carry over from last year the “Shiners, Secrets and Samples” Winemaker Mixer… the world’s only public event where consumers can taste this much garagiste ‘secret stash’ all in one place! Our multi-winemaker dinner returns on Thursday night in Paso, as do our tasting seminars on Saturday at Windfall Farms, this year covering the Good, the Bad and the Ugly … well mostly the good, but they do start off with some bad and ugly with “What's Wrong With This Picture? Educate Your Palate About the Most Common Wine Flaws,” which teaches consumers how to identify (and understand the cause of) wine flaws such as TCA, Oxidization, Bret, and more. Moving on to what we consider the undisputed good is “Garagiste Outlaws: Breaking the Old World Blending Rules (in France they'll throw you in jail for these blends!)” which offers tastings from blending experts who will explain why many Old World blending rules are just made to be broken.

And, of course, there is the main event, the Grand Tasting on Saturday at Windfall Farms with 49 fabulous Central Coast garagistes, followed by our signature rock and roll after party where both winemakers and attendees drink a lot of beer while talking about making a lot of great wine -- and eating hand-tossed, grill-fired, artisan pizza from Paso locals Gypsy Flame. The festival winds down on Sunday with a symposium for serious aspiring and beginning winemakers, “The Chemistry of Wine: Practices and Pitfalls,” which we hope will encourage a whole new population of garagistes!  As the LA Times said, "this is one not to miss" and tickets sell out fast: For tickets and information go to www.garagistefestival.com.

Garagiste 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 are donated to the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture Program.

As part of The Garagiste Festival team, Melanie Webber spearheads Public Relations. Her public relations agency, mWEBB Communications, Inc., won a 2011 American Business Award for PR/Communications Campaign of the Year. A lover of all things Central Coast, especially the wines, she just received her WSET Level 3 certification.