Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure Adds Friday Night Pizza/Wine Pairing Event

A Friday Night Pizza and Wine Pairing Party has been added to the line-up for this month’s “Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure.” The party features 11 garagiste** winemakers, pouring their best pizza pairing wines alongside gourmet wood-fired pizzas, handmade pastas, cheese and antipasti by Chef David Ceccini at Cecco Ristorante. The event takes place on Friday March 28th from 6:30 – 9:00pm at Cecco Ristorante in Solvang.

The event kicks off the second annual Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure, which takes place on March 29th and 30th at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Solvang and features sixty of Santa Ynez Valley’s and Santa Barbara County’s high-quality, limited-production commercial garagiste winemakers. Each day of the Festival offers up a different group of these hard-to-find, high-quality small production commercial winemakers, as well as one of the Garagiste Festival’s signature tasting seminars.

Winemakers pouring at the Pizza/Wine pairing event are Archium Cellars, Calilove Wines, Kessler-Haak Winery, Larner Winery, Montemar Winery, Press Gang Cellars, Scott Cellars, Solminer, and Vinemark Cellars. Pouring on Friday ONLY are Sforzando Wines and De Su Propia Cosecha. Tickets are $39 + tax. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

The non-profit Garagiste Festivals showcase high-quality, cutting-edge, small-production commercial wineries that produce fewer than 1,500 cases a year, and have emerged as among the most unique and influential wine events in the US. Named one of the ‘Top Nine Incredible Epicurean Vacations’ in the world by ABC News and a ‘not to miss’ event by the LA Times, the festivals have introduced over 150 outstanding artisan winemakers to thousands of passionate wine consumers, members of the trade and media, raising the profiles of many of the winemakers nationally for the first time, and raising thousands of dollars for the education of future winemakers.

Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure Winemakers:

Saturday: Archium Cellars*, Ascension Cellars*, Carucci Wines*, Casa Dumetz, Cholame Vineyard, Cordon Wines, Crawford Family Wines*, Dubost Ranch*, DV8 Cellars*, Graef Wines*, Ground Effect Wines, Harrison Clarke Wines, Kaena Wine Company, Kessler-Haak Winery, Kita Wines*, Larner Winery, Liquid Farm, Luminesce, Moretti Wine Co.*, Pence Ranch, Press Gang Cellars, Roark Wine Co., Ryan Cochrane Wines, Seagrape Wine Company, Shai Cellars, Tercero Wines, Transcendence Wines, Turiya*, and Vinemark Cellars*.

Sunday: a-non-ah-mus, Alta Colina Winery, Baehner-Fournier, Bradley Family Winery*, Brophy Clark Cellars*, C. Nagy Wines, Calilove Winery*, Cloak & Dagger, Clos Des Amis*, Dascomb Cellars*, Desperada*, Dilecta Wines, Fontes & Phillips*, Frequency Wines, Gioia Wines*, Guyomar Wine Cellars*, J. Wilkes Wines, La Fenetre Wines, LaZarre Wines, Montemar Winery*, Nicora Wines, ONX Wines, Plan B Cellars*, Refugio Ranch, Scott Cellars*, Solminer Wine*, STANGER Vineyards, Toretti Family Vineyards*, Weatherborne Wine Co.*, and Zinke Wine Company*.

Tickets

Tickets are very limited and Garagiste Festivals always sell out. To buy tickets click here.

For the full festival line-up and more information on The Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure, go to http://garagistefestival.com. To be alerted to breaking news about Southern Exposure and additional Garagiste events, sign-up for The Dirt at http://garagistefestival.com/sign-up/, or follow us on Twitter (@GaragisteFest) or Facebook.

Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure Sponsors include:

California Winery Advisor, The Chumash Resort, Distinctive Glassware, Enartis Vinquiry, Farm Credit West, KCBX.fm, KSBY6, Laffort, mWEBB Communications, One West Insurance, Scott Laboratories, Stolzle, The Santa Ynez Valley Wine Club, Vinzy, VisitTheSantaYnezValley.com, Wandering Dog Wine Bar, and Wine Country Pack & Ship.

For sponsorship info, email info@garagistefestival.com.

* New to Garagiste / Italics pouring 1st Vintage

**Garagistes (gar-uh-zhe-stuh) 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.

About The Garagiste Festivals

The Garagiste Festivals (http://www.garagistefestival.com) are the first and only wine festivals dedicated to the undiscovered and under-recognized artisan ‘garagiste’ producers 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; garagiste mini-tastings presented from So Cal to Tahoe; winemaker dinners, a newsletter, garagiste profiles and more. Named one of the “Top Nine Incredible Epicurean Vacations” by ABC News, 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.