Wining by Proxy...JD's account of the Barrel Seminar at Garagiste Southern Exposure...

As the Goddess of Wine was pouring Shai Cellars wines at the Garagiste Southern Exposure event in February, First Acolyte JD attended what was to be a seminar on the science of barrels in winemaking. It turned out to be a bit different from planned...

We started off with an easy and fortunately uneventful drive to Solvang on a beautiful, dry, bright Saturday morning. Let’s spend it inside learning about barrels, their effect on wine and taste some wine!

Ryan Render of the cooperage company Tonnelerie Saint Martin was sick, so unable to make it.

The original wine samples from McPrice-Myers were put into a reverse-layout side-by-side refrigerator/freezer the previous night. This situation was not discovered until the morning of the seminar. Alas, the wine was frozen. A quick scramble was done at Larner Vineyards and Michael Larner brought in a nice cross section of his in-process wine for the seminar.

Wining with the Garagistes...

Having attended last year's Garagiste Festival debut at the gorgeous Windfall Farms outside of Paso Robles, I was looking forward to the 2nd Annual Garagiste Festival with great anticipation. As with the sophomore year of any project, some things were great and some not so much.

Organizers/Founders Stewart McLennan, Doug Minnick, Lisa Dinsmore, and Melanie Webber expanded the fest over 4 days, including winemaker dinners and other special events. JD and I chose to avoid the dinners (about which we heard nothing but praise), and bought the VIP package in order to attend the seminars on Saturday and Sunday.