Wine Business Monthly - The American Garagiste Movement

WINE BUSINESS MONTHLY
July 2014 • $5.95
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winemaking
The American
Garagiste Movement
Garagiste festivals give exposure to
“garage wineries”—bonded wineries
that like to experiment and hand craft
less than 1,500 cases a year
Paul Franson
Paul Franson of Napa, California writes on wine and business. He recently published
the NapaLife Insider’s Guide to Napa Valley and Spinning the Bottle Again.
French—like so many used in winemaking—the
“garagiste” movement has found a ready home in California. Many wineries
truly start in garages, but wherever their home, the term has been adopted by
many small, innovative winemakers who don’t follow convention.
The term “garagiste” actually originated in Bordeaux and was first derisively applied to winemakers who weren’t making wine the traditional way
in chateaux.
Reportedly, “legitimate” vintners highlighted the movement when they
warned wine critic Robert Parker not to taste garagiste wines, a sure way
to interest a curious reporter. Needless to say, he loved some, which were
made in more of a California style with riper fruit and greater extraction
than traditional Bordeaux wines.
THOUGH THE TERM IS
Stewart McLennan and Douglas Minnick
32 July 2014 WBM
Of course, many small wineries here in America have always made wine
their own way, some ironically in a more “European” style, but the movement
started receiving greater attention with the founding of the Garagiste Wine
Festival in 2011 by Stewart McLennan and Douglas Minnick, who both
made wine in their garages themselves—but not commercially.
Since then, their festivals—first in Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo
County then Solvang in Santa Barbara County—have drawn hordes of
wine lovers looking for interesting wines. “People want to find the new
thing,” explained McLennan.
It should be noted that Solvang was already home to the famed “wine
ghetto,” itself a warren of winemakers that fit the same mold.
The most recent festival, dubbed the Southern Exposure Festival
since Solvang is south of Paso Robles, attracted hundreds of attendees
to taste wines from more than 60 Santa Ynez Valley wineries in Santa
Barbara County.
The fourth annual Paso Robles Garagiste Festival will be held November
6 to 9 in Paso Robles. This year’s festival will be at the Paso Robles Fairgrounds as it outgrew the former site, the Windfall Farms equestrian event
center east of Paso Robles.
The founding partners also are preparing for their first Urban Exposure
festival in Los Angeles at Union Station on July 12, 2014 with more
than 40 winemakers pouring over 100 wines.
Next year’s Southern Exposure festival will be held March 28 and 29,
2015, again at Veteran’s Hall in Solvang, in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa
Barbara County.
The American Garagiste Movement
Amy Butler, owner and winemaker of Ranchero Cellars
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34 July 2014 WBM
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What is a Garagiste?
McLennan and Minnick define garagiste, for the purposes of their festivals,
as bonded wineries that hand craft less than 1,500 cases a year and pay close,
hands-on attention to every wine they make. They’re almost universally
owner-winemakers, an analogy to the popular singer-songwriter movement.
Most of them don’t have their own winery but operate out of another
space, custom-crush facility or a warehouse, industrial park or garage. They
represent smaller, artisan producers who are making some exciting wines in
California, a movement popularized in Jon Bonné’s popular new book, The
New California Wine.
“They do a lot of experimenting and use a lot of varieties,” McLennan added.
Needless to say, marketing is a problem for many of these garagistes. “Most
of these wineries don’t have tasting rooms,” noted McLennan. “These festivals help them get exposure.”
He said that the original idea for the group was to create a website to
promote the garagistes, but Minnick suggested a festival instead. The idea
clearly hit a chord. McLennan claims that the term “garagiste” wasn’t used in
California before, but the festivals have helped popularize it. “Now a lot of
people are calling themselves garagistes!”
He added that a retail wine company in Seattle uses the term, too.
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Terry Culton of Culton Wines
Entertaining Backgrounds
Both co-founders— McLennan and Minnick—came from the entertainment industry. McLennan, a native of Australia, was a professional actor and
also produced and hosted The Wine Stewart, an everyman’s video guide to
wine. He helped form Brothers of the Barrel in 1991. The group of home
winemakers from different backgrounds and professions came together to
learn about winemaking. For the past three years, he has been involved in
wine marketing, from the tasting room to national distributorship, including
working for Four Vines Winery.
Twenty years ago, McLennan bought a ranch west of Paso Robles, near York
Mountain, and grows grapes there. He only recently went commercial as a
winemaker, and his wines will probably debut next year. “I don’t have a lot
of pressure to bottle it. We don’t want to be caught in that 18-month cycle so
many wineries adopt.”
He also hosts a weekly program on wine on a Paso Robles radio station.
Minnick is an entrepreneur who worked his way up from the mail room
at A&M Records into a successful career as a music business executive in the
’80s before forming an independent management and rep firm. Minnick also
makes wine (in a garage) with three partners.
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Terry Culton of Culton Wines is a typical garagiste in some ways, making
only 350 cases per year of Rhône varietal wines, including a rare White
Grenache, but he’s also atypical as he was a professional winemaker at Wild
Horse, Edmeades and Calera before joining Adelaida Cellars nearby.
Colton started his own venture in 2011 using fruit bought from Glen Rose
Vineyards in the Paso Robles region and makes the wine at Dubost Cellars,
another member of the garagiste clan.
He sells his Rosé for $25, and blends of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre
for $45. All the wines are sold direct-to-consumer. He’ll be adding Pinot Noir
from the Santa Lucia Highlands and Chalone in adjacent Monterey County
this year. Dubost Cellars concentrates on a wide variety of reds, including
Syrah, Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Mourvedre, Petit Verdot, Malbec and
Grenache—but noticeably no Cabernet or Merlot. He grows Petit Verdot,
Malbec and Syrah on the ranch’s 12 acres but buys other grapes. This year he
is adding Negrette from San Benito County.
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WBM July 2014 35
The American Garagiste Movement
Maggie Tillman of Alta Colina pours at the Paso Robles Garagiste Festival last year.
36 July 2014 WBM
Winemaker Zack Raines, whose mother Kate Dubost
owns the ranch, formerly worked under Culton at Adelaida
and at Wild Horse, starting there even before he was 21.
He took over winemaking when his brother died in a farm
accident.
Raines ages the wines for unusually long times—36
months—and the current release is the 2010, though his
Rosé and Viognier are younger: 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Amy Butler, owner and winemaker of Ranchero Cellars,
is a graduate of the wine program at UC Davis and worked
at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Schramsberg in Napa
Valley before she opted for the less-expensive real estate of
the Paso Robles area. “I wanted to improve my life. Here I
could own my own home, even if it’s a modest 900-squarefeet. I couldn’t do that in Napa.”
She also specializes in Rhône varieties, including Carignane, Negrette and Grenache Blanc. “The Grenache Blanc
does well here. It keeps its acidity in the heat.” She formerly
bought her Carignane, which is intense from low-yielding
old vines, in Mendocino but persuaded a local grower to
plant some.
Unlike Dubost, she emphasizes her white and Rosé wines,
which are elegant. The reds are rustic, with as little as 13.5
percent alcohol and some touches of Brett, like those in
Priorat. She makes 750 cases per year, selling the wines for
$28 to $40, much like Dubost.
McLennan claims that the term
“garagiste” wasn’t used in California
before, but the festivals have helped
popularize it. “Now a lot of people are
calling themselves garagistes!”
Bob Tillman of Alta Colina is another garagiste, though he’s grown to
2,000 cases this year. His first vintage was in 2007 and produced 1,000 cases.
Tillman retired from high-tech powerhouse Hewlett-Packard Company
in 1996 after 35 years then acquired a smaller company, which he sold to
generate cash to buy and plant a vineyard. He started with 135 acres at
1,800 feet just west of Paso Robles then planted eight Rhône varieties, four
red and four white—80 percent oh which are red. He still sells most of his
fruit but expects to eventually use all of it for his own wines.
He presently rents space for a tasting room and makes wine at another
winery, Villicana Winery, but has broken ground for his own facility. Tillman
started making wines with a consultant, Scott Hawley, but is now doing
much of the work with an assistant.
He sells 45 percent of the wine through a wine club and 45 percent through
the tasting room, the rest through distribution and a broker, mostly to
restaurants.
His daughter Maggie works at the winery in sales and marketing, and he’s
hoping she’ll eventually want to take over the operation. She already lives on
the property.
Tillman exemplifies a problem for the garagiste group: He’s been so
successful that he’s grown past the arbitrary production limit. McLennan said
they’re thinking of an alumni category or event to deal with this problem.
Expanding the Garagiste Movement
McLennan and Minnick sense that they’ve tapped into something that
could grow into a bigger franchise. The nonprofit Garagiste Events group
also holds winemaker dinners, publishes a newsletter and garagiste profiles,
supports a website and blog, and more. It donates proceeds from the festivals to the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture Program, a suggestion from Jerry
Lohr of J. Lohr Winery.
An obvious question is whether they will expand the concept to other
locations, and McLennan acknowledges looking at Northern California. “We
need to find the right location.” Some Northern California wineries have
appeared at Central Coast festivals, in fact.
He doesn’t discount expanding to other wine regions as well. WBM
For more information, visit californiagaragistes.com.
WBM July 2014 37