A few weeks ago, when I reported on the upcoming [November 12, 2011] Paso Garagiste Festival (www.pasogaragiste.com), I promised an update. Well, I had the opportunity recently to sit down at The Cellar with festival founder Doug Minnick and fellow festival organizer Lisa Dinsmore (follow her on Twitter @DailyWine) to get the latest scoop on the festival.

The schedule on November 12th is as follows:

10:00 – 11:00 AM – SEMINAR 1 — “The Road from the Garage – How I Became a Winemaker”
(Doug is working on getting some superstar speakers for this event.]

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM – SEMINAR 2 — Sponsored by Cypher Winery “The Ultimate Barrel Tasting – Oak Flavors Tasted and Explained”
(I’ve participated in the Barrel Tasting Experience at the Cypher Winery tasting room, and assuming this is similar, it is a lot of fun and a great educational experience.)

12:00 – 1:45 PM MEDIA & TRADE TASTING

2:00 – 5:00 PM CONSUMER TASTING
(Taste wines from all the producers listed below.)

6:00 – 9:00 PM WINEMAKER AFTER PARTY
(Hang out with the winemakers, drink more wine, or beer from Firestone, eat, and enjoy the music of Australian country singer Stephen Rowe.)

The biggest news is that tickets are now on sale. And, there are various ticket levels, which makes the festival appeal to people who want to participate in the entire festival, or just selected parts of it.

Tickets for those who wish to attend the Consumer Tasting only are just $45 [$55 after October 10th]. For the after party only, tickets are $20 [$25 after October 10th]. To attend both seminars, consumer tasting and after party, there are VIP tickets available for $85 [$100 after October 10th].

Doug pointed out that tickets will be limited to 400, so when they are gone, they’re gone.

Other big news is that the festival will also include some wineries from Santa Barbara County, in addition to the ones from Paso Robles. The current list of participating wineries is:

Doug reminded me that, since the festival is limited to wineries with annual production of less than 1200 cases, very few of them have tasting rooms that are open to the public. The festival provides a unique opportunity to taste these hard-to-find wines from all of these wineries in one place, as well as order them directly from the winery.

Finally, Doug is working on scheduling pre-events in Southern California, designed to whet your appetites and palates for what is to come. I’ll keep you posted on developments.

The Paso Garagiste Festival (www.pasogaragiste.com) is scheduled for November 12, 2011 at Windfall Farms in Paso Robles. Sign up for their newsletter to stay abreast of new developments and insider info, as well as “liking” them on Facebeook.
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Michael Perlis provides outsourced controller services to businesses that do not need a full-time controller. He balances this with his interest in wine: reading and writing about it and, of course, drinking it. He is still trying to figure out how to combine these two pursuits. Feel free to contact him about either at mcpfinancial@aol.com or michaelthezinfan@aol.com.