I recently returned from two days at the Paso Garagiste Festival. This is the event’s fourth year, and it has grown leaps and bounds since I wrote about the inaugural event in 2011. That year, 44 wineries participated in a one-day event; now it is a four day event. This year 60 wineries alone poured on Saturday, November 8 at the Grand Tasting; another 19 wineries participated in The Opening Round on Friday night. In all told, 79 wineries pouring over 150 wines. The garagiste movement is strong.
Attendance that first year was nearly 700 people; this year more than 1,000 consumers attended. The event also moved from a quaint horse stable at Windfall Farms to the larger Paso Robles Fairgrounds. Perhaps not as elegant, but winemaker and lighting designer Bill Powell (who was also pouring his wines at Powell Mountain Wines) did a nice job of transforming a cavernous room into something cool.