Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/44136
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT Paso Garagiste Festival T he fi rst annual Paso Garagiste Festival: Celebrating the Artisan Winemaker will be held November 11–12 at the beautiful 724-acre Windfall Farms in the heart of California's Central Coast, one of the world's most exciting wine regions. Featuring high-quality, cutting-edge, small-production wineries that produce fewer than 1,200 cases a year, this fi rst-of-its-kind festival brings together many of the best and most innovative winemakers in California, pouring their hard-to-fi nd wines. "The mission of the Paso Garagiste Festival is to focus on the undiscov- ered artisan producers who are making some of the most thrilling wine on the planet right now," says PasoGaragiste.com co-founder Doug Minnick. "The Central Coast garagistes are among the best-kept secrets in the wine world and their excellent wines can be almost impossible to fi nd—unless you know the right people and places to go," added PasoGaragiste. com co-founder Stewart McLennan. "The Paso Garagiste Festival will have 40 of them, gathered in one place for the fi rst time ever. The festival is the place for passionate wine consumers to come face-to-face, wine glass- to-bottle, with the undiscovered future rock stars of the wine world." PasoGaragiste.com is the fi rst and only multi-media site dedicated to the community of emerging underground winemakers. www.pasogaragiste.com THE WINEMAKERS Artisan winemakers slated to showcase their wines at the festival include Aaron Wines, Alta Colina, Bodegas M Winery, Brochelle Vineyards, Caliza Winery, Cloak and Dagger Wines, J Dusi Wines, Giornata Wines, Grizzly Republic Winery, Hammersky Vineyards, Indigene Cellars, Jalama Wines, La Filice Winery, Nicora Wines, Per Cazo Cellars, Poalillo Vineyards, Ranchero Cellars, Red Zeppelin Winery, Rendarrio Vineyards, Stanger Vineyards, Symbiosis Wines, Kinero Cellars, Rangeland, Vin Alegre Winery and Vines on the Marycrest. Garagistes (gar-uh-zhee-stuh) is a term originally used in Bordeaux to denigrate renegade small-lot wine makers, sometimes working in their garages (or any place other than a château), who refused to follow the rules. It is now a full-fl edged movement responsible for making some of the best wine in the world. 14 / the tasting panel / october 201 1