Garagiste North Wine Festival rocks
The 5th Annual Garagiste North Small Producers Wine Festival at Sperling Vineyards last Sunday August 18th was a smashing success. With 22 superstar small wineries pouring around 80 different small lot wines to a crowd of 300 on a sunny Okanagan afternoon, there was pure wine country magic in the air.
The festival is produced by my friend Terry-Meyer-Stone and I and the spirit of this festival is very unique. The festival celebrates the artisan winemaker, making under 2,000 cases. This genre of winery offers an interesting aspect to the B.C. wine industry.
These small producers are not only filled to the brim with enthusiasm, passion and excitement for their craft, they are a community of likeminded people who are following their dream. The result is a beautiful symphony of spirit and of amazing winemaking. Every drop in every bottle is a result of intensive craftsmanship, hope and love from vine to bottle.
The list of wineries this year:
Anarchist Mountain, Anthony Buchanan Wines, BC Wine Studio, Black Market Wine Co., Burnt Timber Estate Winery, Dames Wine, Four Shadows Vineyard & Winery, Giant Head Estate Winery, Lariana Cellars, Lightning Rock Winery, Marionette Winery, MOCOJO Winery, Nagging Doubt Wines, Origin Wines, Red Bird Estate Winery, Ricco Bambino, Rigour & Whimsy, Schell Wines, Scorched Earth Winery, Tall Tale Wines, Winemakers CUT and Truck59 Ciderhouse.
Kelowna’s rockstar food truck, CrAsian was on site and brand new cheesemongers Perseval & Young offered cheese pairings to Sperling’s beautiful natural wines (Perseval & Young have now opened their wine shop at 1046 Richter Street.) Guests were gifted a beautiful Riedel Crystal tasting glass to properly be able to taste these excellent wines on offer and pop up wine shop Fairview Liquor was on site to load up on these hard to find beauties at the end of the show.
We would like to thank our sponsors iNwine, iNFOnews, Bell Media, Uncorked Wine Tours, TasteAdvisor, Riedel Crystal, Wineglass Writer, Terroir Consulting and to our amazing hosts at Sperling Vineyards. Thanks to our awesome volunteer crew.
Mark your calendars for around the same date at the same place next year. Vive les Garagiste!
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